Leeds Beckett University - City Campus,
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Leeds Beckett wins ICCO’s inaugural University PR World Cup
Competing with ten other teams from UAE, UK, USA, South Africa and Hungary, Olivia Withnell and Rose Halpin bagged first place with their campaign pitch for a brief set by the World Wildlife Fund (WWF).
Both Olivia and Rose are studying at Leeds Business School on the new BA (Hons) Marketing and Public Relations course. The pair had just three days to complete their work on the brief. This included coming up with a creative campaign idea and producing a five-minute video pitch explaining how the campaign would be implemented.
The University PR World Cup (UPRWC) runs alongside the ICCO Next-Gen PR World Cup, which is open for PR working professionals 35 years and under. The competition is a Public Relations and Communications Association (PRCA) led initiative for university students aspiring to work in the PR industry and gives students like Olivia and Rose their chance to shine. The PRCA is the world’s largest professional PR body, representing more than 35,000 PR professionals from around the world.
Thanks to their win, Olivia and Rose can look forward to an internship at a top ICCO member agency next year. The ICCO provides a global voice for public relations consultancies and acts as a forum for some of the world’s biggest and best PR firms to come together to look at issues of mutual interest. Olivia and Rose can look forward to a fantastic start to their PR careers with the opportunities winning the competition has presented.
Olivia Withnell, BA (Hons) Marketing and Public Relations student said: “This feels like a success for both me and Rosie but also Leeds Business School and I would like to thank my Marketing and Public Relations lecturers for their exceptional academic support. Our course helps us make sense of theory and apply it to real-world communications challenges. Our work-based learning is invaluable. It was a fantastic opportunity to work on a real PR campaign and be able to share ideas to a renowned organisation such as WWF UK. I look forward to putting this great experience into practice as I progress through into my final year!”
Rose Halpin, BA (Hons) Marketing and Public Relations student said: “We thoroughly enjoyed the competition and exercising our creativity. Building this PR campaign for WWF, as well as the skills from doing our degree, we were able to use theory and apply it to the real practice of communications in an effective way. It was so exciting drawing up a campaign for the chosen organisation, WWF, due to it being such an influential organisation fighting for such an important cause that I myself advocate for.”
Professor Dr George Lodorfos, Dean of Leeds Business School said: “We are proud that for over 30 years, Leeds Business School has been recognised as an international centre of excellence for communications education. We are therefore so delighted to hear our two students have won the first ever ICCO University PR World Cup. Olivia and Rose are students of the new BA (Hons) Marketing and Public Relations Degree which is an industry led course that aims to reflect the needs of the communication profession underpinned with rigorous academic standards. This is such an honour for us at Leeds Beckett to win in the first year of the competition and we congratulate Olivia and Rose on their major achievement.”