So far this year we have been shortlisted for three awards for our work, with Umpf PR, for LeedsBID’s Made Up Leeds event - a free two-day, all inclusive event going beyond beauty, covering make-up in all its forms for all people. We booked and looked after the talent, organised and managed the activation in seven city spaces including a Harvey Nichols pop-up at Leeds Station and a John Lewis hair and beauty salon in The Beauty Space, a converted shipping container on Briggate, the city’s main shipping street.
Georgia ‘Toff’ Toffolo takes a selfie with Made Up Leeds attendees.
We didn’t win any but we were against fantastic peers and to be fair losing to Ikea for the international 2019 Sabre Awards EMEA in the Consumer Services, Retail category is something we can cope with.
And it’s now made us hungry for more plus reflect on why we haven’t been so eager in past years. It’s been time - we are so busy advising and assisting our clients on their award entries (for which we have a great track record), that we neglect ourselves. But it’s also that the criteria for many awards is based primarily on financial success and that’s not how we measure success.
Yes, we like to make a healthy profit - but we don’t worship at the alter of money. As a dynamic team we seek interesting projects, and those where we can really make an impact. Working with clients on projects that haven’t been done before is always exciting as it’s a bit of venture into the unknown. And we are always looking at how we can deliver campaigns in a more creative, clever way to gain maximum exposure.
Managing Director, Sharon Brigden and Account Executive, Laurel Nicholls at the PR Moment Awards Ceremony
Most of our clients trust us with an enormous amount of creative freedom and this keeps the team motivated, enthusiastic and fresh - delivering the results required and on budget. This is success to us - a happy team, bubbling with ideas and suggestions which they are able to implement and see through to fruition. Clients who come back for more - some have been with us for well over a decade - and attracting new clients who have seen and love the work we do.
And so moving forward we have decided to focus on the awards that recognise the campaign work that we do - not how many noughts are on our P&L (obviously until we are turning over a few million and then we can shout about it!).