And the award goes to…

By Karuna Kumar

It seldom happens to a reporter. You are sitting with a vigilant eye in the midst of 100+ people to cover an event and you end up on stage in the limelight, collecting a prestigious award.

That was the scene at the 8th Annual IVCA Clarion Awards 2010, held at the British Film Institute, London on Friday 24th September 2010. Our very own Marc Wright won an award in the printed material category for editing the second edition of the book – The Gower Handbook of Internal Communication. I had the opportunity to collect the award on his – and Gower’s - behalf.

But enough about us. Back to the awards.

The IVCA Clarion Awards are a recognition of excellence in communicating the importance of Corporate Social Responsibility, diversity, sustainability, community development and welfare issues in the public, charity, social enterprise and corporate sectors. The awards are supported by an independent, not for profit organization, The International Visual Communications Association (IVCA) representing commissioners and creators of film, video, digital and live events in the corporate and public sectors. Extending awards is their way of recognizing and celebrating all aspects of corporate and related communications. The IVCA is the largest professional body of its kind in Europe with 1000 production members and 1500 client associates who commission business solutions from the industry.

An inspiring display

Kick-starting this year’s event, Marco Forgione, IVCA’s Chief Executive exclaimed, “We will truly see some inspirational award winning work tonight.” Referring to the audiences as facilitators of change, he said, “You have a unique ability to shift people’s perception, change attitudes and change behaviours. We are now standing at a tipping point. The challenge for our work now is to have a political and campaigning edge.”

Following a succinct introduction, the Deputy Mayor of London, Richard Barnes, joined Marco on stage. Barnes is a Conservative member of the London Assembly and represents the Ealing and Hillingdon constituency. Speaking briefly about the event, he went on to award Stanley Fink, Chairman of Absolute Return for Kids (ARK) and Camila Batmanghelidjh, Founder of The Place 2 Be and Kids Company, the IVCA Champion Awards.

Top honours

The IVCA Chairman’s Award were given to Streaming Tank and the drpgroup. Forgione explained, “For the first time we have awarded two IVCA Chairman’s Awards as we felt that both campaigns were truly innovative and successful in raising awareness of the issues they were aiming to highlight. In addition they each demonstrated real beneficial outcomes for the communities and people involved. Our congratulations to both Streaming Tank and The drpgroup on their winning achievements and of course to all the other winners and highly commended entries in this year’s IVCA Clarion Awards.

The other categories of awards varied from advertising and promotion, strategic communications, video, interactive and website to viral, printed material and live events. Consultation, television and radio were some of the other categories, further divided into sub-categories of corporate communication, public sector communication and charity and social enterprise.

The exalted award winners were teams that assumed the highest level of creativity and innovation in their respective categories.

Keeping it real

The works of Radley Yeldar, Grace productions, BBC Drama and Camila Batmanghelidjh particularly stood out in terms of the authenticity and realism of the content and treatment. They went beyond just sharing a social message and called for a social movement towards the varied concerns they delved into.

The event showed the works of each of the nominated teams, lending the audiences an insight into the creatives’ of each of the winners. An air of sharing best practices and drawing learnings from each other’s works is was undoubtedly the most exciting part of the event.

On a congratulatory note to the winners, Forgione said, “To qualify as a finalist is excellent, to win is a tremendous achievement, and I offer my heartfelt congratulations to all those took part. The winners have demonstrated the tremendous value and business return they are able to deliver for their clients' business. They not only provide examples of best practice but also demonstrate the high levels of creativity, innovation and expertise which are a true inspiration to all of us in the visual communications industry.”

A brief overview of the 2010 winners

A complete list of winners can be found at:

http://www.ivca.org/ivca/live/news/2010/2010-ivca-clarion-award-winners-announced.html