Clarion shortlisted for two CIPR Excellence Awards

Clarion is pleased to announce we have been shortlisted for not one, but two awards at this year’s CIPR Excellence Awards.

The Excellence Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding work of individuals, teams and consultancies across the UK and overseas. The two categories we have been shortlisted in are:

Consumer Relations Campaign -  Aunt Bessie's chicken v beef in the battle of the batter

To get mums thinking about serving Aunt Bessie’s Yorkshire Puddings with chicken – the UK’s favourite roast - we approached the world’s most prestigious debating society,  The Oxford Union, and asked them to debate the merits of serving Yorkshire puddings with chicken instead of more traditional beef. Blanket national coverage, widespread debate and a 3.2% sales increase was the successful result.

Diversity and Inclusion in Communications Campaign – Pride in London's ‘#FreedomTo’ Campaign.

Working on a pro bono basis, Clarion developed a fully integrated PR campaign for Pride in London 2014 working alongside the Pride in London team. Utilising the #FreedomTo campaign creative, Clarion created a programme of news generation, feature placement, stunt activity and live interviews with celebrities from Graham Norton to Sir Ian McKellen and Eurovision winner Conchita Wurst.

The coveted awards will be held at Old Billingsgate, London, on Wednesday 3 June 2015. Now for us just to decide what to wear…

#MindControl

Barbara Normile, account director, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

Despite the huge advances in the way we’ve communicated throughout history - from speech to writing and carrier pigeons to telephones, Morse code and the internet - the disparity of communication standards and the accessibility of modern methods in the world still astounds me.

I heard it ‘down the pub’...

Amanda Meyrick, managing director, Clarion Communications, part of the WPP group

How many meetings have you sat through that drone on and on and on?  Speaking succinctly is an art - and the more concisely you speak, the more people will listen and remember what you say.  The king of one-liners, Mark Twain, describes a sound bite as "a minimum of sound to a maximum of sense".  Sound bites are small but powerful groups of words - and whether facts, anecdotes, one-liners or stories, they all make what you have to say memorable and therefore worth passing on. But how to create them as they don't always flow naturally? Here’s some borrowed advice from the experts: