Business | Media and Marketing

Mepra honours the best in PR

Individuals and teams vie to take home prizes for outstanding public relations practices

Staff Report
Published: 00:00 December 2, 2011

Image Credit: Virendra Saklani/Gulf News
Jubilant members of the Edelman team after receiving Agency of the year award at the 2011 Mepra awards on Wednesday night. The Middle East Public Relations Association (Mepra) is a non-profit professional association based in the UAE.

Dubai: Public relations (PR) agencies, individuals and academics were recognised for their contribution to the industry at the inaugural Middle East PR Association (Mepra) Awards ceremony held at the Jumeirah Beach Hotel in Dubai on Wednesday.

Ten best practice awards were presented at the event, alongside team and individual categories.

Now in its third year, the awards have become a significantly recognised accolade among the PR community. Judged by a panel of 20 experts, from agency and in-house teams, academia and media, 13 winners were chosen out of more than 65 submissions.

In addition, the new Mepra Chairman's Award for Services to Public Relations was awarded to Sadri Barrage from Headline PR, for his achievement.

Guy Taylor, Mepra chairman, said: "The awards have grown to become an integral part of the development within the Middle East PR industry. As markets mature and we drive forward professionalism, creativity and best practice it is important to recognise those who are contributing to this.

Support

"Congratulations to all the winners and thank you to all those who have supported and continue to support Mepra. The organisation has had an exciting 2011 and we are looking forward to further increasing our presence through 2012."

The Middle East Public Relations Association (Mepra) is a "not-for-profit" professional association based in the UAE. It was founded in 2001 to represent the interests of PR practitioners working in the region. It has more than 370 individual members and 33 registered agencies with members in Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, Jordan and the UAE.

65: entries were submitted for the award
13: of the entries were chosen as winners
370: people are individual members of Mepra
Multi disciplinary communications: DABO & CO and TMH
CSR and community affairs: Jumeirah Group
Research led communications: DABO & CO
Government communications: Hill & Knowlton
Employee engagement: Orpic & Four Communications
Corporate Image/reputation: Edelman
Consumer Relations: Four Communications
B2B: DABO & CO
Use of social/digital media: Hill & Knowlton

Team Awards

Agency of the year: Edelman
In-house team of the year: Mubadala
Individual Awards
Outstanding young professional of the year: Sonal Rupani from Edelman
Mepra chairman's award for services to Public Relations: Sadri Barrage from Headline PR