PLMR WINS SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR AT THE 2017 PUBLIC AFFAIRS AWARDS

PLMR has taken home the biggest digital lobbying award at the Public Affairs Awards this year, scooping the prize for Best Social Media Campaign of 2017 – reflecting the agency’s booming digital practice.

The award recognised PLMR’s campaign with awarding body CACHE, which successfully pressed for the Government to U-turn on a key qualifications policy which had led to a recruitment crisis in early years settings.

The team galvanised leading early years association bodies, early years staff and nursery managers, parents, and national and local politicians via the hashtag #SaveOurEarlyYears, and used innovative and interactive web and social media techniques to put pressure on the Government to reverse the policy.

PLMR Director and Head of Education Ollie Lane, who led the campaign, said:

“To bring the issue to the heart of Government, our campaign needed to harness the grass-roots power of parents and nursery staff, alongside the sector’s senior figures, and then amplify these voices through a creative and proactive digital campaign. This was a classic case of a digital-driven campaign with strong elements of traditional public affairs and strong PR – successfully executing all three elements was critical to winning the campaign.

“It was wonderful to work with such a great client, and to help them achieve such an important policy change – one that has ensured that early years settings can again recruit the staff they need, and that our youngest children get the best start in life.”

PLMR’s growing specialist digital team has been nominated for a string of high-profile awards this year, including “Best Digital Campaign” at the Public Affairs Awards and “Best Social Media Campaign” at the Corporate Communications Awards. PLMR digital account manager Liz Moore was also nominated for the highly prestigious Douglas Smith Prize at the Public Affairs Awards, which recognises the best young public affairs consultants in the UK.

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PLMR’s crisis communications experience is second to none, and includes pre-emptive and reactive work across traditional and social media channels. We work with a range of organisations to offer critical communication support when they are faced with difficult and challenging scenarios.