Member Article

Aberfield is named Consultancy of the Year

Aberfield Communications has scooped five awards and been named Outstanding Consultancy of the Year at the 2016 Yorkshire and Lincolnshire CIPR PRide Awards.

More than 200 practitioners gathered at The Queens hotel in Leeds for the region’s annual celebration of outstanding PR practice on 17th November.

Aberfield swept the board, receiving four Gold awards, including Outstanding Consultancy and Outstanding Small Consultancy – the first time both accolades have been awarded to one consultancy.

In naming Aberfield the best agency in Yorkshire and Lincolnshire, the judges commented: “Aberfield Communications is a relatively young company that has embedded good habits into its DNA, including a commitment to CPD, robust measurement and excellent client servicing.”

They also highlighted the agency’s “strong client retention and drive to use PR to change attitudes and behaviours.”

On the night Aberfield won:

Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy (Gold)

Outstanding Small Public Relations Consultancy (Gold)

Best Business and Corporate Communications Campaign (Gold) – influencing conference and event bookers for QHotels

Best Arts, Culture or Sport Campaign (Gold) – World Triathlon Series Leeds

Best Integrated Campaign (Silver) – Magical Leeds

Two of the awards recognised campaigns working alongside Leeds City Council. Together with LeedsBID and Visit Leeds, the Magical Leeds integrated tourism project boosted the city’s visitor economy across winter 2015, with an innovative geotargeted advertising, PR and social media campaign. It also saw the development of the ‘Reindeer Cam’ video, a unique view of the city from the perspective of Rudolph.

The judges also commended the impressive results generated from Aberfield’s World Triathlon Series Leeds project for British Triathlon, Leeds City Council and UK Sport. They praised the multi-level engagement and how the agency got the city involved, resulting in Grandstand tickets selling out in less than a week, all race spaces being filled and over 80,000 spectators lining the route over the race weekend.

Phil Reed, managing director of Aberfield Communications, said: “Four years ago we set out to build an agency focused on audience insight to deliver better PR and marketing communications. We were tired of big ideas that were small on delivering real-world results and just happy to generate coverage.

“One of the goals we set ourselves was to win ‘Best Agency’ within five years, so it’s remarkable that we have achieved that six months ahead of the target.

“It’s also the first time an agency has won both PRide Consultancy of the Year accolades in the same year, and to be recognised for three individual client campaigns too makes it a very special achievement. It’s down to the hard work of our team, who continue to spread the Positive Influence message across all our work.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Aberfield Communications .