PR & Communications News South Africa

Winners of PRISA PRISM Awards announced

Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Municipality has won the PRISA PRISM Gold Award for excellence for its PR campaign "Business is Red Hot in Ekurhuleni" Business Week. The winner of this year's Silver Award is Marcus Brewster Publicity for the "Emerald Spring Derby" campaign, undertaken on behalf of Emerald Casino Resort.

Magna Carta took the Bronze Award for its campaign for "Makaya Moola: Rands You Can Trust" campaign, implemented on behalf of the South African Reserve Bank.

Winners were announced at the annual awards ceremony which took place at The Forum, Didata Campus in Bryanston last night, 16 March 2006. The awards, run by the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA), are geared to recognise excellence in the public relations field. Awards and special mentions were made in 12 categories, as listed below:

CATEGORYCONSULTANCY NAMEAWARDCAMPAIGN
Crisis ManagementMartina Nicholson AssociatesSpecial mentionBuyis Ekhaya - Bring Our People Home Tsunami Rescue Mission
Advocacy and LobbyingMagna CartaCategory winnerMakoya Moola: Rands You Can Trust
Special EventsMarcus Brewster PublicityCategory winnerEmerald Spring Derby
Internal CommunicationsCycad CommunicationsSpecial mentionClover Creating a World of Buzz
Consumer MarketingAtmosphere CommunicationsCategory winnerLaunch of MWeb Home's 1 Gigabyte ADSL Offering
Social Responsibility (award sponsored by CIMA)Felicity Howden Public RelationsCategory sponsorNedbank Mercury School Entrepreneurs Competition
Traditional MediaMalachite Marketing & MediaCategory winnerAfrica's Giant Eye pens for Business: Official Inauguration of South Africa's Large Telescope (SALT) campaign
Public SectorEkurhuleni Metropolitan MunicipalityCategory winnerBusiness is Red Hot in Ekurhuleni (Ekurhuleni Business Week)
Public Relations n ShoestringCycad CommunicationsSpecial mentionTaking Public Relations Out the Box
Sponsorship (award sponsored by Morula Casino and Hotel)Magna CartaCategory winnerStandard Bank PRO20 Series Cricket
Marketing Communications (award sponsored by Inzalo Communications)Citigate South Africa (Pty) LtdCategory winnerEasy Pay Strategic Communications Programme
EvaluationTouchline Media - Public Relations DivisionSpecial mentionMen's Health Look 2005

The Gold Award winning entry will be submitted to the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) Golden World Awards. The case study will also be published in Tony Koenderman's AdReview, published in association with FinWeek.

Sponsors of this years' PRISA PRISM Awards included: Appletiser, CIMA, Bizcommunity.com, Conference Communications, DataPro & Vox Telecom, Durbanville Hills, Global Access, HarpGigs, Inzalo Computers, Jenna Clifford, Leanne Manas, Meropa Communications, Moondance Entertainment, Group 2, Morula Hotel and Casino, Natalia Molebatsi (Poet), Party Pix, PEBO Productions, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Red Bull, Services SETA, Simeka TWS, The Forum (venue), Tinga Private Game Lodge and Toyota.

Judges this year included: international judge, Francis Ingham, head of Public Affairs at the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (United Kingdom); Bizcommunity.com's editor, Louise Marsland; Unitech CEO, Caleb Maqubela; communications analyst, Anthea Johnston; Victor Nosi; and C. Victor Sibeko.

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