AUCKLAND, Today: Pead has claimed the PR industry’s highest honour, taking home the Supreme Award at this year’s PRINZ Awards for Restoring Mana: The World’s Largest Haka.
The winning campaign, created for Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust, rallied thousands of Kiwis to reclaim the Guinness World Record for the largest haka — and raised over half a million dollars.
The powerful campaign saw 6,467 people perform at Eden Park. It also prompted Guinness to change its rules, ensuring only Māori can lead future haka attempts.
It was a night of celebration for the 180 PR pros who gathered in Auckland, with more than 75 awards handed out across a wide range of categories.
“It harnessed the power of haka to unite New Zealanders and reclaim the Guinness World Records™ title… combining cultural pride with a charitable purpose.” – Nikki Wright & Andrew Pirie
Each Supreme Award finalist — Pead, Acumen NZ, Hamilton City Council, Great Scott, and Special PR — had already won gold in their category, putting them in the running.
The judges praised Pead’s entry for taking “all of New Zealand and the world on an exciting journey to create positive change”.
They described it as “joyful, insightful, creative and a truly inclusive communications campaign” with deep cultural impact and national pride. Chief judges Nikki Wright and Andrew Pirie said, “This bold, nation-building campaign showcased some of the best qualities of public relations.
“It harnessed the power of haka to unite New Zealanders and reclaim the Guinness World Records™ title… combining cultural pride with a charitable purpose.”
Notable winners included:
- PR Consultancy of the Year (Large): One Plus One Communications
- PR Consultancy of the Year (SME): Scope Communications
- PR In-house Team of the Year: ProCare
Special PR scored gold for KFC Gravy Train, and Acumen earned top honours for Advocating for Food Security in the government category.
The evening was a celebration of world-class PR work made right here in Aotearoa — and a reminder of the industry’s power to drive impact.
Full list of winners below.
Telum Media – Best Use of Media Relations
Bronze Award Winners:
- The Shine Collective for One in Five – A Transformative Shift in Māori Data.
- Great Scott for The new apartment on the block – The opening of Christchurch’s Rānui apartments
- Quantum Jump for Campaign for Greater Wellington
Silver Award Winners:
- Blackland PR for A new household name in building: NZ Certified Builders
- One Plus One Communications for RMHC NZ: Not every family will be at the beach this Christmas
- Development West Coast for Putting the West Coast back on the map
- One Plus One Communications for NZFN: Pitching in to feed Aotearoa
Gold Award Winner:
- Special PR for KFC Gravy Train
Isentia – Best Use of Digital and Social Media
Bronze Award Winners:
- Ngai Tahu for Kauraka e Mataku kia Takatū! Don’t be scared, be prepared
- Breakout Room (MBM) for Unpro – Sport New Zealand Ihi Aotearoa
Silver Award Winners:
- Hamilton City Council for The cost to run a city
- One Plus One Communications for The Team Talk that Rarked Up a Nation
Government Relations and Public Affairs
Bronze Award Winner:
- Auckland Transport for Tackling Drink Driving in Auckland – An evidence based, partnership approach
Silver Award Winners:
- ProCare for Patient Voice – giving power back to the people
- Employers and Manufacturers Association for Change the Act – EMA’s campaign to simplify holiday pay
Gold Award Winner:
- Acumen for Advocating for Food Security: How Ingham’s secured a policy change for poultry farming in New Zealand
Streem – Corporate and Business Public Relations
Silver Award Winners:
- Acumen for Taking Animal Health forward with Boehringer Ingelheim
- One Plus One Communications for Lifting the lid on 2degrees’ books to show NZ they mean business
Robert Walters – Internal Communications
Bronze Award Winner:
- Summerset Group Holdings for From gratitude comes greatness: transforming Summerset’s employee recognition programme.
Silver Award Winners:
- Fonterra for From Indifference to Inspiration: Sharing Fonterra’s revised strategy
- Port Marlborough for Portsafe – Empowering our people through internal communications
Gold Award Winner:
- Great Scott for Connecting the dots to protect lives – Methanex’s process safety campaign
Community Relations and Engagement
Bronze Award Winners:
- Auckland Council for Last Call: Tackling alcohol harm head on in Auckland
- Coastguard Tautiaki Moana for Coastguard Bar Awareness Roadshow
- Ashburton City Council for 5 for our future – Kia Rima Mō te Anamata
Silver Award Winners:
- Palmerston North City Council for Shaping Palmy together: the Long-Term Plan that listened
- Pead for Restoring Mana: The World’s Largest Haka for Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust
Gold Award Winner:
- Hamilton City Council for A rose amongst thorns – the challenging evolution of Hamilton Gardens
Issues, Crisis or Reputation Management
Silver Award Winner:
- Common Ground PR for Strength After Scrutiny: The Ārepa Rebuild
Marketing Communication
Bronze Award Winners:
- ACC for Turning Critics into Champions: Redesigning ACC’s Sensitive Claims Service with Empathy and Trust
- Māia Studio for Step Into your place
- Hamilton City Council for Manu with Mana
- Anthem for Driving Omoda Jaecoo’s entry into the New Zealand market
- Special PR for Cold Call Back Service
Silver Award Winners:
- Development West Coast for The Coast Calls: how we made New Zealand listen
- Acumen New Zealand for Streets, Eats and Snow-Capped Peaks: Celebrating a decade of Uber in New Zealand
- One Plus One Communications for NZFM – Pitching in to Feed Aotearoa
- Bay of Plenty Regional Council for Baybus On Demand: Smarter public transport, on your time
Gold Award Winner:
- Pead for Restoring Mana (prestige): The World’s Largest Haka for Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust
Celebrity Speakers – Experiential and Activation
Bronze Award Winner:
- Special PR for Pou-o-kai
Silver Award Winner:
- Acumen New Zealand for Streets, Eats and Snow-Capped Peaks: Celebrating a decade of Uber in New Zealand
Truescope – Sally Logan-Milne Young Practitioner of the Year Award
- Highly Commended – Hannah Powell
- Winner – Fiann Blackham
Isentia Prize for Excellence in Research, Measurement & Evaluation
- Winner: Great Scott for Connecting the dots to protect lives – Methanex’s process safety campaign
PR In-house Team of the Year
- Silver Award Winner: Development West Coast
- Gold Award Winner: ProCare
PR Consultancy of the Year – Small to Medium
Silver Award Winners:
- Blackland PR
- Brainchild
Gold Award Winners:
- Scope Communications
PR Consultancy of the Year – Large
- Silver Award Winner: Special PR
- Gold Award Winner: One Plus One Communications
PRINZ Supreme Award
- Winner: Pead for Restoring Mana: The World’s Largest Haka for Raukatauri Music Therapy Trust
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