All the 2012 PRISM Awards winners

Kerry Seymour of Splash PR & Media Consultants accepts the Gold Award for the ‘Vote for Table Mountain’ campaign. Pic: Zoom Photography.

The Ngage team with their PRISM Award for the Best Small Public Relations Consultancy: Russell Tandy, Renay Tandy and Ryan Collyer. Pic: Zoom Photography.

Renay Tandy from Ngage with her award for the Best Public Relations Professional in Media Liaison. Pic: Zoom Photography.

Kelly Webster from PR Worx, winner of the Best Up-and-coming Public Relations Professional Award. Pic: Zoom Photography.

Now in its 15th year, the PRISM Awards recognise and celebrate excellence in public relations in the public and private sector, consultants and corporate communication environments.

The Cape Town-based Splash pipped 214 other entries to take top honours for its 'Vote for Table Mountain' PR campaign, which encouraged South Africans to vote in support of the Table Mountain bid to be named as one of the provisional new seven Wonders of Nature. This campaign is now automatically entered into the IPRA Golden World Awards.

66 other awards

In addition to the overall Gold winner, 66 other awards were presented - 19 Gold, 25 Silver and 22 Bronze. Of these other awards, Splash also won Gold in Media Relations, Gold in Environmental, Silver in PR on a Shoestring and Bronze in Travel. The Ogilvy Public Relations group was also a big winner, clearing a total of 10 trophies. Lead by Ogilvy Cape Town, the group collected four Gold, three Silver and three Bronze accolades across its Cape Town and Johannesburg offices.

Ngage is an integrated marketing communications agency staffed by experienced and award-winning trade journalists who work closely with a team of technically knowledgeable account executives. Tandy is a former trade journalist who is described as having remarkable technical writing capabilities and understanding of technical industries.

Best Up-and-coming Public Relations Professional Award was presented to Kelly Webster, an account manager at PR Worx. In the two years since Webster joined the agency, she has been successful in achieving a number of objectives - increasing media exposure for her clients, playing a more prominent role in PR Worx, and gaining a deeper understanding of the events industry.

Campaigns were submitted in a format that included five key judging criteria: understanding and statement of the problem/opportunity, research, planning, execution and evaluation.

All the winners

Splash PR worked passionately with its client, the Table Mountain Supporters Committee, drawing on the support of two Nobel Peace Prize winners and the Springbok rugby team, as well as radio DJs, television presenters and other celebrities, to persuade South Africans and the media to support the campaign. Following incredible media support and an astounding 1 967 editorials, Table Mountain was named one of the New 7 Wonders (N7W) of Nature on 11 November 2011.

"This was an innovative and creative campaign, with some great support garnered from celebrities to drive the cause," commented Marilyn Watson of Cinnamon Communication, PRISM 2012 chief judge. "It exceeded expectations and went beyond the call of duty on a very low budget and extremely limited resources, utilising what was available in every creative way possible."

Comments Sabine Lehmann, the CEO of the Table Mountain Aerial Cableway Company, a long time Splash client and a prime mover behind the Vote for Table Mountain Campaign, "We have been working with Splash PR for five years and we knew they were GOLD all along."

Enormous ramifications

As a campaign promoting a national treasure as a permanent international tourist attraction, the ramifications beyond the success of the campaign are enormous, not just in terms of tourism for Cape Town but for South Africa as a whole. It also perfectly showcases that big budgets are not always necessary for big results, and that the creativity and ability to package a dream is one of the talents of excellent communicators.

"Our industry is increasingly recognising the stature and credibility of winning a PRISM Award - as evidenced by the 30% increase in entries we received this year," continues Watson. "There is a growing understanding of the importance and relevance of the awards and the positive impact it has on winners' businesses. Our award winners must have surpassed 'business as usual', being those that have pushed the boundaries of creativity and innovation."

This year's PRISM Awards were sponsored by: Airports Company South Africa, Anglo American, Associated Gifts, BlingSA, CIMA, DM Events Agency, DSPM, Gautrain, Graham Beck, Hyatt Regency Johannesburg, I.C.E. - Internet Corporate Exposure, Innovative glass design, Kraft Foods, Legend Lodges Hotels & Resorts, Mobilitrix, MSC, PEAR, Quarto Press, Sovereign Entertainment, Supreme Gifts, True Love, Unique Avcom, Virtual Productions and Zoom Photography. Bizcommunity.com was online media partner; AdVantage and The Event were media partners; Mix FM and Capricorn FM were broadcast partners; and Mango was travel partner.

The 15th annual PRISM Awards ceremony took place at the Hyatt Regency Johannesburg Hotel. Guest MCs were SABC's Ashraf Garda and eTV's Imran Rappetti, while entertainment was provided by soft rock/post grunge band Ice Project and singer-songwriter Zina Girald.

*PRISA administrative error in table corrected at 9.55am on 27 March 2012: all Mango entries were submitted by Mango itself.