PR awards prove small is beautiful

The first annual awards ceremony to celebrate Scotland's public relations industry was held in Glasgow last week providing a field day for some of the country's smaller operators. The Scottish PR Awards, held in association with the Institute of Public Relations Scotland and The Drum magazine, was designed as a platform to highlight the positive impacts made by the sector to the Scottish economy.

The public relations industry has ironically suffered from a wave of bad publicity in recent years.
At the awards ceremony, rumours circulated that some of the larger PR consultancies felt they had been overlooked in favour of attempts to embrace smaller and independent outfits.

Atlantic PR, which was formed in May 2000 following a management buyout from David Murray's Murray International Holdings, won the top prize for best consultancy. Malcolm Brown, Atlantic's managing director, said: "This is a true measure of the quality of our public relations work and to be recognised in this way is heartening for everyone attached to our business.

MEA Public Relations won first prize for its campaign to support the HCI International Medical Centre, which also won best consumer campaign and best public affairs campaign. MEA managing director Mervyn Edgecombe said: "People must wonder where on earth we've appeared from, coming along and stealing these prestigious awards from under their very noses. We're absolutely over the moon."

Other winners include the Royal Air Force, which won the award for best crisis management campaign and Scot PR, as best independent practitioner.

The Scottish PR industry contributes around £30m annually to the national economy. Nora Farrell, head of the Scottish Public Relations Consultancy Association and boss of Weber Shandwick's Scottish operations, said she was looking forward to next year's awards. "It was a very successful first year event which can only develop in terms of its scope, looking forward."

The judging panel included: Martin Raymond, director of communications for HEBS; Alex Pagett, Hilton Hotel Group's director of corporate communications and Dorothy Fenwick, Railtrack's head of corporate affairs.