This year, Gellis’ DG ECFIN Educational project on the euro made it to the final round of judging in the Communication Research category for the flagship IPRA event – the Golden World Awards. Gellis has been short-listed once previously for a Golden World, and earlier in the year, the DG ECFIN project succeeded in winning the IABC Gold Quill Award.

The IPRA judges recognised Gellis’ expansive research, which looked to uncover how educational products on the euro could be created and disseminated, based on the perspectives and practises of teachers across Europe.

The eventual winner of the category came from PR agency Dentsu Public Relations, which carried out a research and promotional project on behalf of Hokkaido Rice Promotion Committee. The study revealed that although Hokkaido rice was perceived by consumers as a budget brand, in blind tasting tests the brand performed better than the market leaders for preference. Dentsu used this information to build a PR campaign that saw Hokkaido rice sales and price increase significantly.

The Golden World Awards is a great event for companies to come together and learn from each other. Gellis Managing Director George Ellis took part in the 2010 award judging and was impressed by the originality and calibre of many of the projects.

With many interesting projects now getting underway at Gellis, we hope to return to the Golden Worlds next year, perhaps this time to the winner’s podium.