East Midlands Development Agency (emda) has been shortlisted for
a communications award from the Chartered Institute of Public
Relations (CIPR) for a campaign it ran last year to provide
businesses with advice and support to help get them through the
recession.
The 'Survive and Thrive - supporting businesses through tough
times' campaign is up for the Best Integrated Communications
Campaign award at the CIPR's PRide awards, which are being held in
Birmingham on 20th November.
The Survive and Thrive initiative was launched in autumn 2008,
as the first signs of the recession were becoming visible. The
events, which were held at five venues across the region, were
designed to provide businesses with critical information from
experts on subjects such as negotiating with banks, managing
cashflow and the legal implications of downsizing.
In total, over 2,000 business people from the East Midlands
attended the five events, and a further 19,000 signed up to receive
the regular newsletter, which provided them with details about the
latest initiatives and the support services available.
Caroline Shutter, emda's Director of Communications, said: "From
a communications viewpoint, Survive and Thrive presented us with a
number of challenges. We needed to not only organise five high
quality events across the region in a very short timescale, but we
also had to ensure that we made as many businesses as possible
aware of the events and why they needed to attend. This involved
having to use a range of communications techniques including PR,
direct mail and online and offline advertising.
"All of the events were full to capacity and from the feedback
that we received, we know that business people found them extremely
useful. Many have either acted on the advice from the day, or have
accessed further support through the Business Link service, which
is exactly the result that we were hoping to achieve."
Another Agency initiative, the iFestival (innovation festival)
which was promoted by Lava PR of Lincoln on behalf of emda, is also
being shortlisted to receive a PRide award at the event.