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It was very exciting to find out recently that GolinHarris was named Large Agency of the Year by both PRWeek (US) and The Holmes Report. To receive this on the back the PRWeek "Editor's Choice" award created much jubilation around the network. It was truly remarkable to be recognised at this international level for our global PR efforts.
The PRWeek judges praised GolinHarris' strategy for looking forward, not back on its 50-year anniversary. The reality is that our industry is constantly evolving, and the lines between PR and other marketing disciplines are becoming increasingly blurred. I believe our GolinHarris teams on a global scale have captured the idea that PR is about using communications to build trust and loyalty with stakeholders, and in doing so, turning those stakeholders into champions for our clients. We make use of a wide variety of communication tools and channels to get our clients' messages across.
In this edition of breakthrough, for instance, we showcase a great campaign that we developed in Hong Kong for Levitra, the erectile dysfunction drug from Bayer. This campaign was also recently recognised as a finalist in the Bronze SABRE Awards "Issues Advertising" category.
Clearly this is a sensitive area when it comes to communications—even more so when you consider the marketing restrictions placed on pharmaceutical products in certain markets. Our answer was a campaign that involved humor and "Dramics." The team developed a series of graphic stories about how Levitra helps improve the lives of various characters—it's a long way from what might be considered "traditional" PR!
These outside-of-the-box, non-traditional PR ideas are also being recognised at an international level. As well as being named a Bronze SABRE finalist for its work with Levitra, our Hong Kong office actually won the "Photography/Calendar/
Poster" category for the Evolutions 2007 Fashion Calendar they conceptualised and developed for Cotton Council International. Our Taipei and China teams were also named finalists in the Bronze and Gold SABRE categories. (See the first story in Asia Pacific News for more information.)
Furthermore, the digital revolution is causing major changes in the way we operate PR campaigns. Nowadays, online "social media" sources such as blogs and forums are becoming as influential—if not more so—as traditional print or broadcast media. As PR professionals, we now have to achieve similar familiarity and relationships with online "citizen journalists" as we have had for many years with traditional journalists.
By combining this forward thinking together with this recent winning streak, GolinHarris is set to continue achieving communications-based solutions that deliver meaningful results for our clients.
Andrew Pirie
Regional Managing Director, Asia Pacific
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