Campaign Asia-Pacific bestows 2011 PR Awards

Hosted by actress and Fox International television personality Lisa S., the awards covered 25 categories. The complete list of winners is available at www.prawardsasia.com, and details on the winners appear in the April issue of Campaign Asia-Pacific (subscribe). In addition, stay tuned to www.campaignasia.com for a photo gallery from the awards.

Highlights included:

• Campaign of the Year went to Westpac Media Relations for Westpac New Zealand. The campaign, 'Richie McCaw chopper challenge', an annual appeal to raise funds for helicopter rescue services, generated the most media coverage in the sponsorship's 25-year history and raised a record amount of funds.
• Young PR Professional of the Year went to Perrine Bouhana of Edelman Hong Kong, who has received three promotions in as many years since joining the agency’s corporate practice in Shanghai in 2008. She has driven reputation-building exercises for clients such as Unilever, CLP and Starbucks, and has earned accolades for her thought leadership in corporate sustainability.
• The Ford WPP X Team took home the Corporate Communicator of the Year award for combining the resources of multiple agencies to provide best-in-class communications to power the brand's growth across Asia-Pacific and Africa.
• Bob Pickard of Burson-Marsteller Asia Pacific won PR Agency Head of the Year for re-establishing the agency through a focus on digital capabilities, grow­ing a robust portfolio of Asian multinational clients, and expanding the network through aggressive marketing of the firm’s thought leader­ship. 
• Mid-sized Network of the Year went to Waggener Edstrom Worldwide, which repeated from 2010 by launching new offices, diversifying service offerings and new digital tools, taking on new staff, and producing more cam­paigns for new and existing clients.
• PR Consultancy of the Year went to GolinHarris Hong Kong. The agency took a proactive approach with its ‘think Big, deliver Bigger’ mindset, which led to 56 per cent growth in revenue and nearly 200 per cent growth in profits.
• MSLGROUP Asia won Asia-Pacific Network of the Year thanks to enormous growth in the scale of its operations, financial performance, client relationships, talent development and reputation.
• Ogilvy agencies made the most trips to the stage, winning in four categories and picking up three honourable mentions and three certificates of excellence.