Surrey-based Livewire PR wins Gold at the prestigious CIPR PRide Awards! » Education » 24dash.com

Surrey-based education and technology specialist Livewire PR, (www.livewirepr.com), has won Gold in the Chartered Institute of Public Relations’ (CIPR) PRide Awards for its outstanding PR campaign ‘Biometrics – changing the face of student registration in UK Colleges’. The CIPR PRide Awards recognise excellence in PR and communications across the UK. Over the past four years, Livewire has now won five CIPR PRide Awards including Best Charity or Not-for-Profit Campaign, Best Low Budget Campaign and Best Trade or Technical Campaign on two occasions.
Working for its client Aurora Computer Services, the UK’s leader in face recognition technology, Livewire was tasked with launching ‘faceREGISTER’, a powerful biometric registration system for sixth forms and colleges which analyses facial structure for verification and identification purposes. Generating positive media coverage on a technology often dogged by alarmist ‘big brother’ headlines was crucial to the campaign. Another important objective was to drive traffic to Aurora’s stand at BETT, the world’s largest educational technology event attended by over 30,000 educationalists.

Developing a carefully engineered advocate programme to demonstrate the benefits of the technology, Livewire secured a series of one-to-one interviews with high-level education correspondents identified as reporting responsibly or in a truly balanced manner on biometrics. Media highlights included features on Channel 4’s 7 O’clock News, bbc.co.uk, Teachers TV, The Guardian, The Metro and The Times Educational Supplement (TES).

Over 80 high-level visitors and decision-makers visited the stand including nine Local Authorities, every UK cashless catering vendor (interested in alternatives to magnetic stripe card technology) and major players such as Serco and Capita for whom they are now, as a result of the meeting at BETT, a SIMs SQL Capita Partner.

Substantial sales enquiries generated as a result of coverage included immediate post-show sales from schools totalling over £45,000 and further interest and leads from other important vertical markets including the health sector (as a direct result of Channel 4 News coverage and London Metro feature).

Commenting on Livewire’s work, Tim Spencer, Business Development Manager, Aurora Computer Services, said: “The return on investment from Livewire’s PR campaign was outstanding. For every £1 spent on PR, they generated over £58 worth of coverage. Most importantly, Livewire made a significant contribution to a very healthy bottom line by driving traffic to our stand and helping us to secure some truly significant contracts.”

Richenda Wood, Managing Director, Livewire Public Relations, said: “We are delighted to have won such a prestigious award! Biometrics is a hugely interesting and powerful technology which is really taking off in the UK. We worked strategically to secure positive coverage on a technology which offers huge benefits to the end user but is often plagued by alarmist headlines. Hats off to the Livewire team!”

Caraline Brown, Chair of CIPR Home Counties South, said: “A CIPR PRide Award is a hallmark of professionalism and success – it identifies, recognises and rewards the outstanding achievements of those working in the PR industry outside of London. To win a CIPR PRide Award is a tremendous achievement and I congratulate all of this year’s winners.”

The winners were announced this week at a presentation dinner, Hilton Metropole Hotel, Brighton.

About the CIPR Pride Awards 2009

The CIPR PRide Awards have grown in strength and stature, recognising public relations success and achievement in the nations and regions.

• There were over 1,400 plus entries UK-wide this year.

• Being shortlisted - even better winning one - is proof to your colleagues and clients that your work has been judged to be among the best in the UK – and is a great morale booster for your team.

• The CIPR PRide Awards is the only awards scheme which showcases the best PR work being carried out across the UK regions and nations and sets industry standards.

• There are thirteen areas taking part in the CIPR PRide Awards – Channel Islands; East Anglia; Home Counties South; Midlands; North East; North West; Northern Ireland; Scotland; Thames and Chiltern; Wales; West of England; Wessex; and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire.

• There are 24 award categories (25 in Scotland) – for a full list visit http://ciprprideawards.com/page114153.aspx

• The judging process is rigorous with a national panel of industry experts assessing the shortlisted entries and choosing the winners. For 2009 we appointed two Chairs of Judges, John Aspery and Chris Genasi, who will resolve any disputes and help ensure a fair and consistent judging process.

• Sponsors for the 2009 PRide Awards are as follows:
o Headline sponsors are media intelligence company Precise
o PRWeek are the National Media sponsors
o Goddard Gadd, Redbrand and PRCA are also national sponsors