They rode into the media village as simple PR hired hands – but hoped to leave as heroes with armfuls of silverware.
HOLYROOD PR has been shortlisted seven times in the 2016 CIPR Scotland Pride Awards for our work on behalf of delighted clients throughout the year.
The news was particularly welcome among our magnificent seven team members who work tirelessly on a day to day basis to ensure PR success for our clients.
Public relations experts up and down the country look forward to the Pride Awards, which are viewed as the industry’s ‘Oscars’. They recognise and reward the best of the best.
Our seven shortlisting cover a diverse range of clients across varied projects. Here’s the run down of the categories in which we’ll be competing:
- Outstanding Small Public Relations Consultancy – Holyrood PR
- Outstanding Young Communicator – Chris Fairbairn ACIPR
- Best Corporate and Business Communications Campaign – The Scottish Business Resilience Centre: Cracking the Media
- Best Corporate and Business Communications Campaign – Showcasing Perth To The World
- Best Use of Media Relations – The Nan Who Loves Naan
- Low Budget Campaign – Bagpipe Amnesty Hits The Right Note
- Low Budget Campaign – Scottish Business Resilience Centre: Cracking the Media
Shortlisting success in 2016 represents four years of consecutive and consistent excellence for our multi-award winning agency. In 2013 we earned five nominations, claiming two golds and a silver; in 2014 we enjoyed seven nominations, picking up three golds and a silver; while in 2015 we earned four nominations, leaving with two golds and a silver. More details of those successes can be found on our dedicated PR awards section.
SO LET’S MEET THE PR TEAM BEHIND OUR LATEST SUCCESSES:
Chris “Saddlesore” Fairbairn
Chris hails from Berwick-Upon-Tweed and joined the team in November of 2014, originally as an intern but soon climbed the ranks to become an Account Manager.
Working on clients including Mackie’s of Scotland and CALA Homes, his work has seen him shortlisted as Young Communicator of the Year, one of the most sought after accolades in public relations.
One of Chris’s key client accounts is the Scottish Business Resilience Centre, which works alongside the government to help 140,000 SMEs in Scotland secure their businesses against crime.
His impressive work with SBRC has been key in earning him his ‘Young Communicator’ award shortlisting, while it has also been nominated in two other categories.
Outside of work, fitness fan Chris can often be found in the gym. We’re all used to the funny sight after he overdoes it on leg exercises, which leaves him walking like John Wayne after a week in the saddle.
Discover the facts behind the award shortlisted SBRC campaign, Cracking the Media and learn how we turned some tech talk into a client success story
Ainsley “The Colonel” Piggott
Ainsley is an Account Manager leading the PR team and working across a number of successful client wins.
With a steely gaze and a reliable trigger finger she helped us enjoy award nomination success thanks to her adept handling of a major public relations project for The Scottish Schools Pipes and Drums Trust.
She’s disciplined in her approach to client work, which no doubt stems from her time at a military boarding school.
Charged with organising an amnesty for bagpipes to keep the playing tradition alive, Ainsley’s PR success quite literally spanned the globe.
‘The Colonel’ managed to round up the media, including broadcasters to help the client reach their target in earning donations of bagpipes from all around the world.
Alicia “Six Gun” Simpson
Account executive Alicia is a valuable member of the team, securing success for clients in a variety of industries.
She proved to be quick on the draw when challenged to help earn positive media coverage for Bupa’s Scottish care homes, sourcing a string of human interest stories which achieved some truly impressive results.
Since we’re having a Western theme it’s fitting that we’ve got a few Indians involved – most notably the curry-loving 103 year-old whose story was told to the world by Alie.
Nicknamed the “Nan who Loves Naan”, care home resident Margaret Phillips credited her long life to her love of the spicy Indian food (yeah, we know its the wrong kind of Indian!) from time she spent in The Raj.
Not only did the story create more than 400 items of coverage all over the world, it also saw Margaret crowned, Scottish Curry Lover of the Year.
The Nan Who Loves Naan was part of a hugely successful PR campaign worked on by the team at Holyrood PR; discover the stories behind the campaign.
Stuart “The Baker” Milne
Heralding from a family of bakers, stemming back five generations to 1919 in St Andrews, Stuart turned his creative skills to creating the perfect mix of ingredients for public relations.
Starting off as an intern with Holyrood PR, he was soon back in the saddle as a Junior Account Executive proved a real winner for both “The Baker” and Holyrood PR Chiefs.
He’s intent on coming up with the recipe for success through his work with clients as varied as Scottish Water, SimplyFixIt and Surgeons’ Hall.
When he’s not turning up the temperature on his PR campaigns, he’s winning over colleagues by delivering selections of Scotland’s best tasting doughnuts.
Stuart also worked on some successful PR for clients including Mackies Ice Cream & Chocolate – working with our team to churn up a real success.
Craig “Dead-eye” Sinclair
Craig is our expert in-house videographer working across Holyrood PR’s client base and with many other businesses to help them tell their stories via powerful video.
With a great eye for what works in moving images, he has helped film some quality footage for clients and regularly sees his video projects picked up by broadcasters and embedded into the most influential of news sites.
As well as working right across the business, Craig is also one of the longest serving members of the core team, and as the ole-timer of the office, is the go to guy for all sorts of questions.
Guiding the team into showing the benefits of video to their clients, Craig’s cracking visuals were key components in several of our award shortlisted projects, including the bagpipe amnesty and the Nan Who Loves Naan.
Kenny “Shotgun” Murray
As well as being a keen marksman and gun club member (no, really), Kenny delivers a shotgun effect by spraying the Holyrood PR team with his random stories on a daily basis.
However, it has to be pointed out that he’s still to demonstrate his fabled skills on the bongo drums.
Working across all our clients, Kenny has helped the team understand digital and has translated it into media success. The benefits of digital are felt across the business – not least in our award shortlisted campaign to bring tourists to Perthshire.
Kenny worked with Perth & Kinross Council to create a digital B2B campaign,
He also flags up new trends and platforms and his insightful blog posts let our clients know what tech/communications breakthroughs they can expect to see in the coming years.
Tourism is a competitive industry at the best of times but especially so in the run up to the biggest travel-trade expo in Scotland. Learn how we put Perthshire on the map
Kallan “The Kid” Glynn
Kallan is our PR Assistant and although he’s the youngest on the team, he is learning fast.
His biggest responsibility is in ensure we deliver accurate measurement and evaluation for our clients, by collating coverage and ensuring progress against client objectives is tracked.
Assisting all members of the team, Kallan is steadily picking up tips and tricks from his PR colleagues so he too can become a public relations expert.
We were recently shortlisted for ‘Outstanding Small Agency of the Year’ which wouldn’t have been possible without strong measurement and evaluation, which Kallan was vital in.
That’s the Magnificent Seven. Working hard to drive home the cattle and bring in the media success for our clients and in lassoing in their objectives. You too could hire this expert team – so do it whilst the iron is hot.
Want to stay ahead of the game? Then you need to speak to our award-winning PR agency
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