West Coast stories shine on national stage

DWC was acknowledged for their work promoting the West Coast as a great place to live, work, and do business, securing Silver Awards in three categories ‘Best Use of Media Relations’, ‘Marketing Communications’, and ‘Best In-house PR Team’—the latter for the fourth consecutive year.

The PRINZ Awards celebrate excellence in New Zealand’s public relations and communications sector. This year’s gala event drew over 180 professionals from around the country, with only five campaigns earning coveted Gold Awards.

DWC has previously won Gold Awards in the ‘Best Use of Media Relations’ category in 2022 and ‘Most Innovative Campaign’ in 2024 for its Wikipedian at Large project.

DWC Marketing and Communications Manager Aaron Rees said it was an honour to be recognised alongside some of the country's top agencies and larger in-house teams.

“We’re just a two-person comms team on the West Coast, so it’s pretty humbling to be up there with some of the biggest and best-resourced teams in the country,” he said.

Aaron acknowledged his colleague Lucy Nilson, describing her as “a talented young Coaster and a real force of creativity.”

“Our wider DWC team also plays a massive role — they’re out on the ground working with local businesses every day, keeping us connected with what’s happening across the region and constantly feeding us great Coast stories to share.”

Throughout 2024, DWC generated over 200 national and international media stories showcasing the region.

This year’s PRINZ Supreme Award went to Pead for its “Restoring Mana: The World’s Largest Haka” campaign, which brought together 6,467 people at Eden Park to reclaim the Guinness World Record for the haka from France and raised more than $500,000 for the Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust.

Chief judges Nikki Wright and Andrew Pirie said the campaign “showcased some of the best qualities of public relations as it harnessed the power of haka to unite New Zealanders and reclaim the Guinness World Records title for the World’s Largest Haka. It aptly combined cultural pride with a charitable purpose.”