Blair Peberdy

ACE Award Lessons From Blair Peberdy

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This blog post was written by Charzie Abendanio, a third-year student at the Humber College bachelor of public relations program and Vice President of CPRS Toronto’s Student Steering Committee

 

Blair Peberdy

Blair Peberdy

As a judge for the ACE Awards and an award recipient during his time at Toronto Hydro, Blair Peberdy has a lot of valuable insight to applicants in this year’s 2015 ACE Award submissions. In the six times Blair has judged for ACE, he has seen the best that Toronto has to offer. Now with Weber Shandwick, Peberdy took time to shed some light on what judges will be looking for this year.

 

“The ACE Awards are a chance for organizations and companies to gauge how well they are doing compared to their peers,” said Blair. “Even if you don’t win, you gain creative inspiration from all the first-class submissions and winners.”

 

For Blair, the quality of submissions has continued to improve over the years. With new mediums changing how public relations professionals deliver their message, the award show is seeing more “cool and creative campaigns”. While judging, Blair enjoyed campaigns that involved classic corporate communication theory and practice. He recalls last year’s best PR campaign winner, Edelman Toronto, who stole the show with their integrated community relations campaign for client Ontario Graphite.


 

“A campaign like this one drew upon grassroots community around stakeholder issues and issues management,” said Blair, “and their use of new resources led to new and exciting marketing communication.”

 

Blair extolled the critical importance of clearly defined, measureable goals. When arranged logically and the thoughtfully aligned, the more successful the campaign will be. “Tie your measurements to your original objectives while explicitly identifying the measurements that determine the campaign’s success.”

 

A campaign must have all the major components: goals, objectives, strategies, tactics and measurements. “This disciplined PR management approach follows the criteria provided by the ACE Awards,” said Blair. “It goes a long way when a coherent entry allows judges to grasp the full breadth of a campaign.”

 

At the end of our time together, Blair was asked what exactly makes a great submission.

 

“Creativity is important but a great submission should also be organized around entry criteria, error-free, use good graphics, be professionally presented and must be easily navigated by the judges.” A campaign doesn’t necessarily need a large budget but combining the basics, as well as a creative aspect and being well-organized allows the judges to see the big picture.

 

“The ACE Awards showcases top talent in Canada,” said Blair. “It gives our industry the chance to learn from one another and recognize great work. We need to step back, congratulate each other and celebrate our accomplishments together.”

 

Inside the ACE Awards Gala – Thoughts from a veteran attendee

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By: Miranda Germani

Are you considering attending the hottest PR event in town but aren’t quite sure what to expect? Blair Peberdy, vice-president, marketing, communications and public affairs, Toronto Hydro-Electric System, has attended every ACE Awards Gala for the past decade. Blair gives us the inside scoop on what it’s like to join more than 300 of Toronto’s PR practitioners and students to celebrate the best in PR, network with colleagues, and enjoy a delicious meal.

For those who haven’t attended an ACE Awards gala before, this repeat guest and award-winner describes the event as “one of the few opportunities for Toronto’s PR and communications professionals to get together to celebrate excellence in our business. There’s always a fantastic buzz in the room and the quality of the awards submissions is very impressive.”

Blair thinks it’s important for communications professionals to attend the ACE Awards gala, regardless of whether they’re winning an award.

“Attendees have the opportunity to network with some of the best communicators in the country from the agency, corporate, government and not-for-profit sectors at an event that is fun and well attended by senior, intermediate and entry-level practitioners,” said Blair. “The atmosphere is friendly and it’s the best event in Canada featuring top creative and strategic communications programs, executed exceptionally well.”

The ACE Awards gala is a great way to celebrate with colleagues and friends, and everyone can learn something to use in their professional career. As Blair explains, “Great campaigns are always featured and well-presented in a fast-paced format. I usually come away with one or two great ideas. It’s also a fantastic opportunity to quietly gauge how your own communications programs stack-up against some of the top PR professionals in Canada — and it’s usually a pleasant surprise!”

Blair concluded explaining why he has been a loyal attendee. “I like to attend because I enjoy the networking, but most importantly I find the quality of the awards submissions and the excitement at the event to be inspiring.”

The ACE Awards gala is fast-approaching. This year’s ACE Awards is being held on Wednesday, April 24, 2013 at the Arcadian Court, hosted by Global Toronto’s Sean O’Shea.

Eager to get your hands on the hottest PR ticket in town? More information is available on the ACE Awards page. But don’t delay – this event always sells out!

Tweeting about the ACE Awards? Follow @CPRSToronto and use the hashtag #CPRSACE