Thursday, 20 October 2022

Three PRide Award Wins

Our partnership with NI Science Festival dates back to 2018, during which time we have had the privilege of working alongside some of the foremost science communicators working in the STEM sector today, from Northern Ireland and beyond, including the most famous astronaut of the 21st century, Col. Chris Hadfield, a former commander of the International Space Station.

Theoretical physicist Jim Al-Khalili, anthropologist Alice Roberts, wildlife cameraman Doug Allan. These are just a few of the brightest minds we refer to above, not excluding the remarkable NI Science Festival team, whose passion for igniting interest in STEM has led to the festival rising to become of the of largest celebrations of its kind in Europe.

In the past five years, we’ve also added a further string to the bow. Where before we talked of STEM, we now approach the festival and sector holistically, as one driven by STEAM, integrating the arts alongside science, technology, engineering and mathematics.

It’s this focus on the arts as a mechanism for communicating and engaging audiences in the wonders of STEM that formed the basis for two gold (Au) CIPR Northern Ireland PRide Awards in the Best Use of Media Relations and Education Campaign categories.

After several years of proven and consistent results that achieved real impact, strengthened relationships with a cross-section of stakeholders and media throughout the island of Ireland, and a carefully refined strategy to delivering a comprehensive PR campaign for a festival of this scale, we knew 2022 was the year to throw our hat into the ring.

Commenting on our media relations strategy, the judges said: “JComms took a strategic approach to rolling out media relations for the festival targeting senior editorial staff to maximise efficiency and impact. A raft of different media opportunities were delivered with great results and quality coverage, particularly across broadcast media. Evaluation was strong and it was good to see the use of analytics to link spikes in web traffic and ticket sales directly to PR activity.”

We not only won, but retained the award for best education campaign for the second year running, building upon our work in 2021 with Ulster Wildlife for the ‘Learn More Outdoors’ campaign. The judges said, succinctly, that education was a “worthwhile purpose” of the NI Science Festival campaign, which was “well run and achieved great results”.

In the business and corporate category, we took home silver (Ag) for our work for Norbook following a campaign to support its recruitment drive in the first half of 2022 which included a wide mix of tactics, from media relations and partnerships to digital marketing, video content, photography and brand development.

We were pleased to join in celebration alongside our industry colleagues at the recent CIPR Northern Ireland PRide Awards viewing party. To view the full list of winners, click here.