Red Agency wins CommsCon Awards Grand Prix for ‘Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented’ campaign
PR and marketing communications agency Red Agency won the Grand Prix and picked up fou other awards at the second annual CommsCon Awards which were held in Sydney last night.
‘The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented’ campaign won the awards for best social media/digital campaign and best pro bono campaign while the agency’s managing director James Wright also picked up the gong for PR leader of the year
The campaign, created by Red Agency, Finch, Reactive and Havas Worldwide, highlighted the impact of the rare and fatal muscle degenerative disease Duchenne muscular dystrophy and asked people to help lobby the government for more government funding.
Other winners form the night included Klick Communications, which was midsize agency of the year, Click PR, which won small agency, while Mango picked up two awards, best PR employer and best issues management.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=afR-7F31Tco
The work was judged over a two-stage process by a panel of around 30 jurors from PR agencies, internal communications leaders and independent consultants.
The CommsCon Awards, hosted by Joe Hildebrand, followed the CommsCon conference, which was attended by around 250 people across the day.
Hildebrand also made his speech at the awards into a column for The Daily Telegraph, which you can read here.
The full list of winners:
Large PR agency of the year
- Winner: Red Agency
- Highly commended: Edelman Public Relations
Midsize PR agency of the year
- Winner: Klick Communications
Boutique or small PR agency of the year
- Winner: Click PR
Best PR employer
- Winner: Mango Australia
- Highly commended: Klick Communications
PR leader of the year
- Winner: James Wright Red Agency
- Highly commended: Claire Salvetti Mango Sydney
PR professional of the year – agency
- Winner: Will Collie Edelman
- Highly commended: Matt Buchanan One Green Bean
- Highly commended: Ella Tacchi Mango
PR professional of the year – inhouse
- Winner: Elise Davidson Vodafone Australia
- Highly commended: Nichola Patterson Clemenger BBDO Melbourne
Emerging PR professional of the year
- Winner: Mark Yeow Text100
Publicist of the year
- Winner: Irene Saunders Barnardos Australia
- Highly commended: Jael Napper Freelance
Social media community manager of the year
- Winner: Toby Clark Porter Novelli
Best B2B campaign
- Winner: Launch Management Group For: ingogo
- Highly commended: Text100 and IBM external relations team For: IBM: The Era of Smart
Best B2C campaign
- Winner: Res Publica For: Paddle Pop: 60th Birthday
Best campaign by small team or agency
- Winner: Barnardos Australia and Beebox MGMT For: #BeyGood for Barnardos
- Highly commended: Launch Management Group For: TEDxSydney 2013
Best social media / digital campaign
- Winner: Red Agency, Finch, Reactive & Havas Worldwide For: The Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented, Save Our Sons
- Highly commended: The Hallway For: The Whitsundays: A Movie That’s Waiting to be Written
Event/ activation of the year
- Winner: PPR For: Petbarn: Pet dating
- Highly commended: Ikon Communications and Subnine For: Bookworld
- Highly commended: Progressive PR and Publicity For: King Kong Activation at Eureka Skydeck
Launch campaign of the year
- Winner: Agency North For: Museum of Brisbane relaunch
- Highly commended: Ogilvy PR Health For: Fitness First relaunch
Best internal communications / change management
- Winner: Better Happy For: NRMA Group
- Highly commended: PWC vision, values and strategy
Best issues management
- Winner: Mango Sydney, DDB, Tribal Worldwide, PPR, OMD Fuse, OMD Word, OMD For: McDonald’s: Our Food, Your Questions
Best government relations campaign
- Winner: Essential Media Communications For: Commit to community radio
- Highly commended: Red Agency For: UN Foundation: Changing the conversation on climate change
Best government sponsored campaign
- Winner: NSW Health For: Popup HIV testing
Best investor or community relations campaign
- Winner: Impact Communications For: Bulletproof IPO
Corporate social responsibility award
- Winner: Liquid Ideas & R U OK For : R U OK? Day
Pro bono campaign of the year
- Winner: Red Agency, Finch, Reactive and Havas Worldwide For: Save Our Sons: Most Powerful Arm Ever Invented
Best use of research / insights
- Winner: Howorth For: Kronos, Hidden workforce