Sector: Consumer PR and Brand Communications|Sustainability

Grayling has been named seven times on the shortlist for the 2021 European Excellence Awards, which celebrate the best campaigns and agencies from across Europe. The nominees for this year were selected from over 800 applications for each category.

Grayling was this year nominated in the prestigious Large Agency of the Year category, testament to the fantastic year we have had. We have seen growth across all of our European teams, in both revenue and employee numbers, and have added clients including The Lego Group to our rosters.

Grayling UK has been recognised in the Food & Beverage category for their work with fish-free brand Good Catch on OurWay, a campaign described by Ad Week as “promotional gold”.

Our team at Grayling Russia are ending a brilliant year, having already been named Russia/CIS Consultancy of the Year at the PRovoke Agency of the Year awards, with two European Excellence Award nominations. They have first been named in the NGO’s & Associations category for their work with the Social Partnership Development fund, on a campaign named No more chemistry with chemo which tackled the issue of social isolation for women with cancer in Russia, and secondly in the Influencer Communications category for their work with client Crocs.

Grayling France were recognised for their work with client Badoo in the Benelux & France category. The campaign, entitled Yes to real encounters, Yes to Beautiful encounters, addressed the issue of microaggressions in the dating process and involved the production of a short film to raise awareness and educate the French public on the issue.

The team at Grayling Austria have been named in the regional Germany, Austria and Switzerland category for their campaign Raising worldwide awareness about old age poverty. This campaign was carried out with client Vollpension Generationencafé and aimed to raise awareness about age-poverty and Covid-induced isolation for elderly Viennese citizens.

Finally, Grayling Hungary have been recognised for their work with Diageo; the Hungarian team organised a livestreamed concert, with access granted on the completion of a ‘DRINKiQ’ quiz – an innovative way of educating Hungarians on the importance of responsible drinking.

The jury – which included Grayling’s global CEO Sarah Scholefield (who recused herself from judging Grayling entries) – will meet in late November to discuss the shortlist, and the winners of the European Excellence Awards will be announced at a virtual ceremony on 10^th December.

The Viennese social business Vollpension actively campaigns against old-age poverty around the world and has launched the #bakeagainstpoverty initiative for this purpose. Now, Grayling’s offices in more than 20 countries worldwide are raising awareness of the initiative through targeted media relations and strategic communications consultancy – all on a pro bono basis.

Old-age poverty and isolation are two growing challenges worldwide that have been massively intensified by the Covid pandemic. In Austria alone, more than 220,000 senior citizens live in old-age poverty, a large proportion of whom are women. The social business Vollpension is not only actively committed to combating this problem in Austria, it also offers a cross-border solution to growing old-age poverty and loneliness with its international baking platform, #bakeagainstpoverty.

Bake around the world

Senior citizens from all over the world can apply until 15th September 2021 to generate income through online baking courses from their kitchen at home, with the added benefit of avoided loneliness during the pandemic and staying in digital contact with other people. The Viennese social business wants to encourage as many senior citizens from as many countries as possible to apply for the “Bake Against Poverty” campaign and will support the participants with training in media and digital skills. The first baking courses will go online at www.bakeagainstpoverty.com in autumn 2021. Through this international baking platform, Bake Against Poverty offers a cross-border solution to the growing problem of poverty and loneliness among the elderly.

Grayling supports in more than 20 countries

“Old-age poverty is an issue all over the world, even in countries like Austria that have strong social security systems”, said Hannah Lux, one of the founders of Vollpension. “The local Grayling team, plus the agency’s international network, was our preferred partner and the great media response from countries like Spain, the Philippines and even neighbouring Germany confirms that we made the right choice.”

The international hub for the project is in Austria and Grayling’s corporate affairs team of Kilian v. Dallwitz, Michaela Schützinger and Johanna Wenzl coordinates media relations in more than 20 countries, including the USA, UK, China, France, Germany, Spain and Russia, with Grayling’s international offices rolling out activities using their local and cultural know-how.

“Poverty and a lack of digital literacy in old age are among the great challenges of our time and we see it as part of our social responsibility to support this initiative pro bono,” said Grayling Austria CEO Sigrid Krupica. “We are proud to be able to leverage our international network for this client. The successful international roll-out is an impressive demonstration of how relevant the topic is in other countries too.”

For inquiries, please contact berith.hagvaag@grayling.com.

Photo: From left to right: Kilian v. Dallwitz, Sigrid Krupica (both Grayling Austria), Hannah Lux (Co-founder, Vollpension), Johanna Wenzl, Michaela Schützinger (both Grayling Austria), in front: Granny Kathrin from the Vollpension team in Vienna. Copyright: Marvin Strauss.