Pictured above: (l-r) Hannah Johnson, Jane Ainsworth, Amy
O'Toole from WPR and Daniel Kennedy from Video News Agency
Leading Midlands PR agency, Willoughby PR stole the show at the
Fresh Awards 2011, winning a fantastic four gongs including the
honour of the night, the Grand Prix. The awards, which
recognise the best in creativity and innovation in Public Relations
took place in Manchester on 3 March 2010.
Willoughby's award winning campaign to sell 'Christmas at the
Castle' for Warwick Castle beat off stiff competition to win;
Silver in the External Communication category and two Gold awards
in the Digital Campaign and Stunt or Event categories. Out of
200 entries, the campaign also scooped the much coveted Grand Prix
award for best overall entry.
The campaign centred around selling the chance to spend
Christmas day at Warwick Castle on eBay and, when the story
launched, it set twitter alight with over 150 retweets and 62
@messages in seven days, as well as international coverage from the
USA, Russia, India and Japan.
It then became the lead story on home pages for Yahoo, Sky News
and Classic FM whilst in the UK, the stunt was picked up by 44
regional daily newspapers from Scotland to Somerset and was talked
about (repeatedly) on both TV and Radio - BBC Midlands Today, ITV
Central, BRMB, Heart, Touch FM, Radio WM, BBC Coventry and
Warwickshire, BBC Stoke and BBC Herefordshire and
Worcestershire.
Jane Ainsworth, managing director said; "We are all absolutely
thrilled with these wins and I am immensely proud of the team at
WPR, whose hard work and dedication are undoubtedly the secret to
the success we are enjoying at the moment."
David Gallagher, chair of the judges added; "It was an
extraordinary campaign which was both interesting and highly
innovative and it clearly captured the attention and imagination of
the media. This was a real flag bearer of a campaign and the sort
of standard that the industry should aspire to."
For more information about Willoughby PR, please visit their
website here: www.willoughby-pr.co.uk