Bluestorm PR scoops prestigious PR award
November 25, 2009
The Bluestorm PR team are celebrating after picking up a top public relations award at a glitzy ceremony in Leeds. Bluestorm fought off stiff competition from the likes of Cadbury’s and Sherbert Fountains, to scoop the gold award for the Best Use of Media Relations at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Yorkshire and Lincolnshire PRide awards.
The winning campaign was conducted by Bluestorm for Lancashire pie icon, Holland’s Pies. Holland’s had been receiving negative feedback for their products and were looking for a way in which to re-engage their traditional North West heartland with their brand. Bluestorm rose to the challenge with the idea to audition and recruit a ‘Pie Panel’ of amateur tasters to help test and develop the Holland’s range, thus harnessing the passion people felt for Holland’s.
The campaign was an instant success and within hours Bluestorm and Holland’s had received hundreds of applicants from across the country and even as far afield as New York, Oslo and Islamabad.
The award judges noted that:
“Bluestorm’s ‘Blue Pie’ thinking captured international interest, using a simple idea to generate swathes of top quality PR for the Holland’s Pies brand. Regionalising markets of the ‘pie panel’ was a great success in terms of regional coverage generation. This was something that stood out, catching the eye of the national media, achieving its objectives and bringing direct business benefits.”
The award comes just a week after Bluestorm appeared at 18th in a list of the top 40 marketing and PR agencies in Yorkshire, the only East Yorkshire agency to feature.
Julie Leydon, PR Director at Bluestorm said:
“This award provides industry recognition for what we already felt was a fantastic campaign which, most importantly, provided real benefits to our client, Holland’s Pies. The real proof of this is that, over a year on, the campaign is still generating ongoing media interest, which is something I have never experienced in over 20 years of working in public relations.”
“Bluestorm has continued to expand throughout the past year and, despite the recession, we have continued to attract new clients.”
“This is the first year we’ve entered the PRide awards – I think next year we’ll go for a few more!”
Carol Arthur, Chair of CIPR Yorkshire & Lincolnshire, said:
“A CIPR PRide Award is a hallmark of professionalism and success – it identifies, recognises and rewards the outstanding achievements of those working in the PR industry outside of London. To win a CIPR PRide Award is a tremendous achievement and I congratulate Bluestorm on their success.”
