Shanghai GREAT Festival of Creativity wins Communications Award
The British Consulate General Shanghai, No.10 and UKTI won a Public Service Communications Award in Coventry on Wednesday night.
The British Consulate General Shanghai, No.10 and UKTI won a Public Service Communications Award in Coventry on Wednesday night.
This award recognised the success of the GREAT Festival of Creativity that was held in Shanghai in March, 2015.
In a drive to demonstrate that Britain is a world leader in commercial creativity, the GREAT Festival showcased the best of British talent and expertise. Helping to inspire, stimulate and fascinate a high-level business audience from the UK, China and beyond.
The Festival was led by HRH The Duke of Cambridge. It showcased UK innovation at its very best in sectors such as fashion, luxury retail, health, technology and entertainment, demonstrating the UK’s track record in bringing competitive advantage through commercial creativity and it is estimated that the Festival will bring £150m to the UK economy.
On receiving the award Yvonne Wang, East China Press Officer at the Consulate in Shanghai said:
It is truly humbling to be recognised in this nationwide competition, especially given the distance between East China and the UK.
Some of the key highlights of the GREAT Festival campaign included a Chinese New Year message by The Duke of Cambridge that was broadcast before the most watched TV programme on the planet, a series of warm-up events in China’s dynamic second-tier cities, and the #GFEST# hashtag reaching 23.5 million social media users in China.
Mark Logan, Head of Communications at the British Consulate in Shanghai commented that
In this Golden Era between the UK and China the ability to communicate clearly, to share in best commercial practice, and to promote an increasing number of quality exchanges is the legacy of the GREAT Festival of Creativity.
Matthew Forbes, Deputy Consul General in Shanghai remarked
I’m delighted that the Great Festival team has been recognised. Our strengths in creativity are important as China is increasingly moving from a focus on manufacturing to design and innovation. The UK’s creative industries are worth £76.9bn to the economy, and growing at a rate of around 10%.
Clare Barnfather current Head of GREAT Britain Campaign and Partnerships at No.10, and UKTI GREAT Festival lead commented:
We’re delighted to be given this award. The GREAT Festival of Creativity showed what can be achieved when Government teams up with business to help build opportunities in such an important market like China. This was a really strong communication drive that showed one of the world’s biggest markets what British innovation and creativity has to offer and we’d like to thank all our partners who helped us achieve this.
Tingting Yang, Head of Regional Cities said:
Part of the strategic communications success was making sure that we used our local expertise in China to really understand what our Chinese audience wanted from a creative partnership with the UK.
The Public Service Communications Excellence Awards were launched in 2014. Developed and awarded by the leading public service communications professions Government Communication Service GCS and LG Communications. The awards celebrate excellence in public service communications campaigns and programmes.
There is only one category for the awards – Excellence in public service communications campaigns and programmes. Regardless of discipline, budget or channel the organisers were seeking the best of the best, from large budget TV campaigns, to grass roots community engagement or organisational change communications - excellence was the key factor in making the award.