ACCELERIS IS NAMED ‘MOST OUTSTANDING PR CONSULTANCY’

Agency also picks up Best Website award as it strikes double Gold in prestigious industry awards.

Acceleris Marketing Communications has been named ‘Most Outstanding PR Consultancy’ in a prestigious industry awards scheme.

Just one month before its fourth anniversary, the agency picked up the coveted Gold award for ‘Most Outstanding PR Consultancy’ in the 2010 Chartered Institute of Public Relations PRide Awards for Yorkshire and Lincolnshire announced at a ceremony in Leeds last night (Wednesday).

The agency collected a second Gold award in the Best Website category for its work creating a highly acclaimed new site for Sheffield Homes, one of the largest social housing management organisations in the country with more than 40,000 homes in its care and was also a finalist in the best Not for Profit category for its campaign for Candlelighters, the Yorkshire children’s cancer charity.

Since it was launched in December 2006 the agency, based in Harrogate, has generated more than £5 million in revenues, is ranked within the top four of regional agencies by fee income alongside much longer established businesses and has established a client base of major national organisations in both the public and private sectors. It has 16 staff.

Managing Director Peter Davenport said last night:

“This has been a tough year for everyone in business with lots of external economic pressures and challenges so it is especially rewarding to have the consistent quality of our work during this period acknowledged by our peers.

“In this testing environment clients are more focussed than ever on ensuring they get a real return on their investment and I believe that has played to our core strength of delivering services that genuinely help them meet their objectives.”

During the year Acceleris has added some major new names to its client portfolio. It was appointed to handle all national and regional PR work for Kier Building Maintenance, one of the UK’s leading social housing repair and maintenance specialists with 3,500 employees and part of Kier Group, the global construction firm.

It joined the agency’s other major national clients, including The Fuelcard Company, the UK arm of the American owned, world’s largest fuel card company, Motors.co.uk, the Daily Mail Group’s online motor retail site, now second only to Autotrader, and for which it developed a major online and offline campaign to support the launch of a new brand identity, the National Federation of ALMOs ( Arms Length Management Organisations) whose 69 member organisations around the country manage more  than 1 million council houses and deliver a major part of the Government’s £multi-billion ‘Decent Homes’ programme , national law firm, Walker Morris, leading UK kitchen manufacturer, Rixonway  and Nynet, the innovative public-private sector initiative to develop broadband access for rural North Yorkshire and which has been identified as a UK and European best-practise model.

Acceleris won the Best Website category for its development of a new website for Sheffield Homes, an Arms Length Management Organisation. The site was the first in the country to feature the agency’s specially developed @home web portal to encourage greater tenant engagement and has been praised by the Audit Commission and a Cabinet Office assessor.

In the Not-for-Profit category, Acceleris was a finalist for its campaign to develop a new brand, new website and comprehensive PR programme for The Candlelighters Trust, the Yorkshire children’s cancer charity, as it prepared to move its specialist ward from St. James’s Hospital in Leeds to the city’s General Infirmary.

Louise Vaughan, Acceleris Director and Head of PR, added:

“Although we are not quite yet four years old as an agency, we have more than 100 years of PR and Media experience among a very talented and committed team who all share a passion to build simply the best agency we can.

“We were runner up as Most Outstanding Consultancy last year so to go one step better this time is a fantastic achievement and collecting a second Gold for our work with Sheffield Homes work only added to our delight. We are really proud of what we have achieved to date but we have much greater ambitions so we won’t be resting on any laurels.”

In the coming weeks the agency is involved in competitive pitches for national clients in finance/business advisory, marketing services, insurance, office supplies and housing.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT ACCELERIS ON 0845 4567 251