Mango Communications wins big at PRINZ Awards

AUCKLAND, TODAY: Last night, Mango Communications won the PRINZ supreme award at the annual gala in Auckland. Their clever and crafted campaign, designed to start a PR firestorm, did just that.

Their campaign, titled Correct the Internet, aimed to address the underrepresentation of women’s sports achievements on search engines. Research before the FIFA Women’s World Cup in 2022 revealed a bias favouring men’s sports, prompting action to influence search engines.

“You’d be hard-pressed to find many Kiwis unaware of the ambitious objectives this campaign set out to achieve given the significant media coverage it received,” said PRINZ Awards Chief Judges Denise Mackay FPRINZ, APR, and Andrew Pirie, FPRINZ.

The judges admired the campaign’s ambitious goal to influence ‘big tech’ and its “we’ll give it a crack anyway” attitude. A true David versus Goliath effort.

“This entry is an exquisite example of exceptional public relations and communications professionals and a strong fourth estate working together to create positive change. An almost flawless entry in content and delivery,” said Denise.

“It was a highly ambitious, innovative, and courageous campaign that achieved a positive impact on a global scale,” added Andrew.

The campaign’s multi-faceted marketing effort had significant public relations involvement and impressive media results.

Six entries, all gold winners in their categories, were judged for the supreme award.

The PRINZ Awards recognise excellence in New Zealand’s public relations and communications industry, promoting continuous improvement and celebrating best practice.

“It was a highly ambitious, innovative, and courageous campaign that achieved a positive impact on a global scale.”

CATEGORIES

Telum Media – Best Use of Media Relations

Bronze Award Winners

• Anthem for Lifting Aotearoa’s sights to greater sustainable transport opportunities
• Great Scott for Putting the springs in Hanmer’s new slides

Silver Award Winners

• Great Scott for One for wāhine – a stunning victory for NZ Young Farmers
• Blackland PR for Lowering fees for Wellington sports players
• Development West Coast for Return of the Kōtuku: a media campaign takes flight

Gold Award Winner

• Mango Communications for Correct the Internet

Isentia – Best Use of Digital and Social Media

Bronze Award Winner

• ANZCO Foods for A Technology Leap Forward

Silver Award Winners

• Stats NZ for Building Trust & Confidence Online for the 2023 Census
• Development West Coast for West Coast Wikipedian at Large

Consumer or Customer Relations

Silver Awards

• Acumen for Samsung: A taste of 5G
• Acumen for Uber: Helping Kiwis Donate from their Doorsteps
• Cherryred for NOT out with the old, but in with the new

Government Relations and Public Affairs

Silver Award Winners

• Restaurant Association of New Zealand and Awhi Group for Advocating for Change: Elevating the Hospitality Industry through Government Partnership
• Priority Communications for FundaPen campaign – A triumph for Aotearoa’s anaphylaxis sufferers
• Anthem for Lifting Aotearoa’s sights to greater sustainable opportunities
• Silvereye for Silvereye campaign for the NZ Game Developers Association
• Anthem for The Domino Effect

Most Innovative Campaign

Bronze Award Winners

• Acumen for Samsung: A taste of 5G
• Mango Communications for Correct the Internet

Gold Award Winner

• Development West Coast for West Coast Wikipedian at Large

Corporate and Business Public Relations

Bronze Award Winners

• ANZCO Foods for A research-led solution that worked for users and ANZCO
• Kordia for Kordia’s Business Cyber Security Report

Silver Award Winners

• Port of Auckland for Port turn-around: Reversing years of declining favourability
• Anthem for Lifting Aotearoa’s sights to greater sustainable transport opportunities

Financial Communications and Investor Relations

Bronze Award Winners

• One Plus One Communications for Growing up in public: Binance NZ’s journey from crypto disruptor to mature financial services provider
• Fonterra for Flexibility for farmers under new capital structure

Robert Walters – Internal Communications

Bronze Award Winners

• Switched On Group for Constructing Culture through Values Campaign
• Kiwibank for This is empowering our people. This is Kiwibank Wardrobe.

Silver Award Winners

• New Zealand Blood Service for 25-years of Te Ratonga Toto O Aotearoa New Zealand Blood Service: Celebrating a lifesaving story
• NZ Superfund for Supercharging our intranet

Community Relations & Engagement

Silver Award Winners

• Fonterra for Fonterra’s Climate Ambition
• Development West Coast for Reframing perceptions through media and community engagement
• Queenstown Airport for A Master Plan for an airport our community can be proud of
• Beca & Waipa District Council for Ahu Ake – A spatial plan for Waipā, like never seen before

Gold Award Winners

• Palmerston North City Council for Paving a new path for Palmy’s most dangerous street
• Great Scott & McElrea Consulting for Huihui Mai: bringing Waitaha together to plan our future

Issues, Crisis or Reputation Management

Bronze Award Winners

• ProCare Health for I ore ate tuatara ka puta ki waho? A problem is solved by continuing to find solutions
• Pan Pac Forests for Rising above: Maintaining business reputation following a natural disaster

Silver Award Winners

• Watercare Services for Communicating to customers and stakeholders in stormy times
• Unison for Power to the People

Marketing Communications

Bronze Award Winners

• Coastguard Tautiaki Moana for It Takes A Crew To Save A Life

Silver Award Winners

• Mango Communications for Correct the Internet

Celebrity Speakers – Experiential & Activation

Gold Award Winners

• Acumen for Samsung: A taste of 5G
• Acumen for Uber: Helping Kiwis Donate from their Doorsteps

Isentia prize for Excellence in Research, Measurement & Evaluation

Winner

• Mango Communications for Correct the Internet

PR In-House Team of the Year

Silver Award Winner

• Development West Coast

Gold Award Winner

• Invercargill City Council

PR Consultancy of the Year – Small to Medium

Silver Award Winners

• Scope Communications
• Campbell & Co

Gold Award Winner

• Little & Loud

PR Consultancy of the Year – Medium to Large

Gold Award Winners

• One Plus One Communications
• Special PR

Sally Logan-Milne Young Practitioner of the Year

Highly Commended

• Lebron Davis

Winner

• Briar Robb

Supreme Award

• Mango Communications for Correct the Internet