Marketing's list of top PR players in the region

The wait is over. Marketing is proud to reveal the finalists for the fourth annual PR Awards, celebrating the leading communications campaigns and strategies from across Southeast Asia, South Asia and ANZ.

Over 90 brands and over 50 agencies have made it to the shortlist across 30 diverse categories and competition is tight.

Both Jetstar Asia and Unilever Singapore have been selected as finalists seven times. Jetstar received a lot of attention from the judges mainly for their Singapore-focused campaign “Jetstar goes Singlish, lah!” while Unilever Singapore struck a chord with executions for ice-cream brands Magnum, Ben & Jerry's and Cornetto.

Changi Airport Group, Panasonic and Prudential all placed six times as finalists making the contest very close and many other brands received multiple nominations including Microsoft Asia, Nespresso Singapore, HomeAway, Taiwan Tourism Board, Science Centre Singapore and many more.

Check out the full shortlist here.

All finalists represent the future of the PR and communications industry with innovative approaches to technology as selected by an elite panel of 24 judges.

“With the multiple channels available to reach the customer, whether it be traditional media, social media, digital marketing, or even in-person engagement, it’s essential for all forms of communication to be in line,” said jury member Preeti Gupta, corporate affairs director at BMW Group Asia.

“PR needs to work with each department to develop an integrated communication strategy that leverages the information each department has and their existing customer touch points,” she claimed.

There is a lot to be done and judges emphasised the importance of achieving a mix of social media and traditional coverage.

“Unfortunately, many companies today still judge a successful PR campaign only by the volume of coverage achieved during a campaign. Although this is an easy way to measure success, it’s not the most accurate in today’s world where one influencer’s social media post can have more impact on the target audience than five media articles,” Gupta argued.

“With the latest analytics software available in the market, it’s completely possible to track the impact of social media and influencer engagement, but this also requires budget that many don’t have or aren’t willing to spend just yet.”

According to judge and Sydney-based director of corporate communications and public affairs for Asia Pacific at the Kellogg Company, Rebecca Boustead,“new skills in social listening, one on one conversations and nurturing relationships in this age of transparency will be key to our success”

Many entrants this year showed the potential of the industry and underlined the significance of awards programmes such as the PR Awards.

“For me the most successful campaigns were those that generated both social buzz as well as traditional buzz through earned channels, often without the benefit of a big marketing spend. Ultimately, it is easy to ‘buy’ coverage but it is a skill to create ‘earned’ coverage. The entrants have shown a wide range of ideas and activations, some more successful than others in truly driving earned content. At the end of the day the earned content that is shareable and creates buzz is what success is for our industry,” said Boustead.

"The awards are very important as they push us to ensure we measure our work, demonstrate business value and showcase what can be done to raise awareness of companies, brands and employees to build reputations."

Rezwana Manjur, editor at Marketing Magazine agreed, "The PR Awards strives to set the benchmark for creativity and quality in communications strategies and we’re excited to be with the finalists and winners this year to celebrate their efforts in moving the industry forward."

But the search is not over. Join us for the biggest regional PR celebration with over 300 brand and agency professionals on 23 March at the Mandarin Orchard Singapore where winners in each category as well as the overall brand and agency PR Awards Champions for 2017 will be announced for the industry.

To secure your tables please contact Johnathan Tiang on +65 9338 1039 / +65 6423 0329 or at johnathant@marketing-interactive.com today as places are limited.