We’re up for two PRCA Awards thanks to our #CrossingDivides BBC campaign

The team at Darren Northeast PR are celebrating this week after being named as finalists in two categories in the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) DARE Awards 2020.

It’s been a bumpy ride over the last few months for sure, but the DNPR team has a lot to celebrate as we pass the midpoint of the year. In the past week or so we have achieved some great PR wins for our clients, welcomed new clients on board – and we have been named as finalists in two categories of a prestigious national public relations award!

DNPR has been shortlisted for the Media Relations Award and the Digital and Social Media Campaign of the Year award in the South West region of the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) DARE Awards 2020. In both cases it is in recognition of our campaign #CrossingDivides: Overcoming Age Difference at Work. Part of the #CrossingDivides BBC series, it helped shape national BBC news output for a week, achieving millions of views across the UK and internationally

The PRCA, the world’s largest professional PR body, represents more than 35,000 PR professionals across 70 countries with offices in London, Singapore, Dubai, and Buenos Aires. Their annual DARE awards, which recognise the very best PR and communications professionals in the UK across seven regions, are open to PR consultancies, in-house communications teams, digital agencies, marketing teams and media owners across the country, and judged by a panel of industry experts – in short, they are a really big deal!

Our small PR agency has once again been punching well above its weight, alongside in-house teams for major brands and far larger PR companies also competing in these awards.

We’re hopeful our entry will continue to impress. It focuses on a campaign which used TV, radio, digital and social media to convey a powerful message about age-prejudice at both ends of the spectrum and to generate positive exposure for DNPR.

We worked closely with a BBC journalist on a story about intergenerational working, looking at young people in the modern workplace being given responsibilities and managing teams that include colleagues older than them.

Theo Meddelton and Charlie Rose, our Operations Manager and PR Account Manager respectively, provided an apt case study, sharing how they overcome the challenges and reap the benefits of this unusual working relationship.

When it hit at the end of February, the story appeared across BBC online, both as a video interview and written piece, featured across three different BBC radio stations and was televised on the BBC News Channel, BBC World Service and local BBC news.

The engagement level and response to our news feature was truly breathtaking and more than we could ever hope for. The interactions truly speak for themselves with the social media figures attesting to how our BBC news feature resonated with such a large audience. The story drew 180,000 views, 3,000 likes and 189 comments on BBC’s LinkedIn and was featured in the Editors news highlights. There were 300,000 views, 1,000 reactions and 272 comments on Facebook, 600,000 views and 650 comments on Instagram and 35,000 views, 87 likes, 35 retweets and 26 comments on the BBC Twitter account. The coverage doesn’t stop there too with our news feature being covered in an article on both CIPR Influence Magazine and Dorsetbiznews.co.uk.

With such a hugely successful PR campaign, we’re feeling confident about taking home an award! The award winners will be announced in September – wish us luck!