Team scoops Top Award

Our Corporate Communications team has been recognised as Best In-House Communications Team by the Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA), the world’s largest professional PR body.

The award was announced at the PRCA’s 2022 DARE Awards, which were held in Birmingham on Monday evening, celebrating the best in PR, communications and public affairs. The winners were determined by a panel of highly respected industry experts who looked at the role PR and communications played in the wider organisation, effective use of resources, implementation of creative ideas and general contribution to the organisations objectives. The entries were marked against the criteria of team performance, staff, financial and innovation.

In judging our corporate communications team as the winner, judges scrutinised the team’s performance and determined that its strategy has effectively supported WPD’s overall business objectives, communications, planning and delivery. They also recognised the success of the teams’ most recent customer awareness campaign (Power for Life) which has helped to improve overall media sentiment and raise brand awareness to its greatest level since 2011.

WPD’s External Affairs Manager Alex Wilkes said: “This is a fantastic achievement and I’m very proud of the team. There’s always more to do and we’re challenging ourselves to keep pace with a huge number of vital changes in our industry at the moment to make sure we’re keeping all our colleagues informed as well as to achieve the best possible recognition externally for the fantastic work we are delivering as a business.

“But as we set about doing so, this is fantastic feedback and peer recognition to receive. My folks work really hard to support the wider business and I want to say thank you and well done for their efforts. The team has delivered direct community support to over half a million people in our region in the last year as part of our newly established £1 million Community Matters programme, in addition to the longstanding activities of handling media enquiries, issuing proactive press releases, managing social media pages and delivering two customer awareness campaigns.

In the last twelve months we’ve also held nearly 1,000 electrical safety talks with almost 50,000 schoolchildren, alongside important internal communications including our quarterly PowerLines staff magazine, and launching and running a daily news intranet page for staff.”