ANZ's corporate affairs and marketing team has already received plenty of plaudits for last year's horse management. And it has been acknowledged again after winning the PRINZ supreme award for its ‘New Zealand Simplification Project’.
Winners from nine award categories were judged by a supreme judging panel of chief judge Anna Radford, life member and past PRINZ president Cedric Allan, and international judge Daniel Tisch, chair of the Global Alliance and chief executive of Argyle Communications in Toronto.
The judges said: “This entry was extremely professional, and Peter [Parussini] and his team did a superb job in every respect. The team was faced with a difficult and complex project that had many potentially hostile stakeholders, but they held true to strong public relations principles at every stage of their planning and implementation. As a result, the project delivered excellent results against its clearly articulated objectives.”
The communications support for the project involved successfully guiding two million customers and more than 8,000 staff, as well as government and regulatory officials, media, unions and influencers, through a huge rebranding exercise when the ANZ and National Banks merged. In doing so, the team helped ANZ to avoid customer losses and negative impacts on staff morale. Deposits and lending market share increased in the first quarter of FY13, there has been no significant increase in staff turnover and staff engagement has lifted.
In addition to this award, the International Association of Business Communicators awarded ANZ New Zealand a 'Gold Quill' award recently for the same campaign. And this follows on from ANZ New Zealand chief executive David Hisco last month being awarded the CEO Leadership Achievement Award for New Zealand by international banking magazine The Asian Banker. These achievements also saw the magazine name ANZ as New Zealand's best-managed bank.
The ANZ marketing team also won five awards at the New Zealand Direct Marketing Awards and its finance team was named Finance Team of the Year at the New Zealand CFO Summit for their work on the brand and IT systems mergers.
As for the PRINZ awards, judges assessed 58 entries, with 23 becoming finalists and 11 going on to win their categories, in addition to the supreme award.
"The overall standard of entries was impressive and it demonstrates the high quality and wide range of work being done by PRINZ members," says Radford.
Tisch says New Zealand professionals are known for setting high standards in public relations, and PRINZ is known as a leader in the global professional community.
"It’s an honour for me to contribute to an awards programme that raises standards, shares knowledge, strengthens our profession and helps demonstrate the critical role of public relations to organisations—and to society.”
One life membership was awarded to Murray McKinnon and four PRINZ fellows were inducted (Aline Sandilands, AUT University; Catherine Arrow, Unlocked PR and Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management; Daniel Paul, The PR Company; and Kate Woodruffe, Gen-i at Telecom).
2013 winners
Corporate Public Relations: ANZ’s New Zealand Simplification project – Peter Parussini and the ANZ Corporate Affairs team including Stefan Herrick, Sarah-Jane Bashford, Kate Thompson, Paul Carle, Pete Barnao, Jane Gilkison and Barbara Bilcich
Government or Quasi Government Public Relations: Changing the Give Way rules – Jamie Sitzia and Andrew Knackstedt, New Zealand Transport Agency
Internal Communications: Communicating global change on a shoestring – Amanda Schaake, Freelance Communications Consultant, with Fonterra
Issues, Crisis or Emergency Management: Manawatu Gorge project – Anthony Frith, Nicky Chilton, and Barina Barrett, New Zealand Transport Agency
Marketing Communication – Integrated: Letters to my hero – Luci Marshall and Jeni Baylis, Spark PR & Activate
Marketing Communication – Public Relations: Driving Dogs – Angela Spain, Eloise Hay and Kate Barlow, DraftFCB PR & Activation
Not for Profit Public Relations: Buddy Day 2012 – Jacqui Humm and Heather Claycomb, HMC Communications
Paul Dryden Tertiary Award: Auckland Youth Orchestra – Tom Frankish, Natasha Johnstone, Harmeet Sehgal and Charlotte Milton, AUT University (Outside the Square)
Special Event or Project: PAK'nSAVE Rescue – Eloise Hay and Angela Spain, DraftFCB PR & Activation
Sustained Public Relations: The McCain School Veggie Patches Programme – Stephanie Lowe, Fuse
Sally Logan-Milne Young Practitioner of the Year: Alasdair Johnston – Otago University Students' Association
2013 highly commended recipients
Government or Quasi Government Public Relations: What's My Duty? – Aaron Hailwood and Katie Mathison, New Zealand Customs Service
Internal Communications: Once upon a story – bringing Kiwibank's future to life for employees – Juliet Montague, Ideas Shop
Issues, Crisis or Emergency Management: Helping an organisation through transformational change – Sarah Knowles, Michael Dunlop, Adelle Foster and Amy O’Rourke, Acumen Republic
Limited Budget Public Relations: Lindt Creamy Milk launch – Mary-Louise Dare and Alisha Thomas, Draft FCB PR & Activation
Marketing Communication – Integrated: McDonald's Serious Lamb launch – Sean Brown of Mango and Simon Kenny of McDonald's
Not for Profit Public Relations: Feast – Dana Kirkpatrick, Express PR
Not for Profit Public Relations: Pink Ribbon Calendar project: Baring all for breast cancer awareness – Rebecca Oliver, Freelance PR Consultant
Special Event or Project: Number One Shoes 'Catwalk to Sidewalk' – Karen Maurice O'Leary and Angelina Farry, Starseed PR
Special Event or Project: We make the people who make it to the finish line – Paul Weeks, Deepti Bhargava, Catherine Kemp, Bev Armstrong and Darren Horsman, Unitec Institute of Technology
Sustained Public Relations: Kelly Tarlton's SEA LIFE Aquarium – Jenna Edwards, Shona McLean and Matthew Vogts, Spark PR & Activate
Sustained Public Relations: Paymark – leveraging the power of data with PR – Kelly Bennett, Amber McEwen and Julia Rogan, Eleven PR
Sally Logan-Milne Young Practitioner of the Year: Erin Roberts – McDonald’s NZ