Bauer Media's film monthly Empire Magazine and fashion weekly GRAZIA won PPA Awards last night, at a glamorous 1950s-themed ceremony at the Grosvenor House Hotel in London.
The PPA Awards, celebrating their 30th birthday this year, are the most coveted in the magazine industry calendar and last night’s event was no exception. Categories cover a wide range of disciplines, all providing a showcase for the phenomenal creativity and talent within the UK magazine sector.
Consumer Magazine Of The Year - Empire
The Judges commented: “2009 was an ambitious year that paid off editorially. The magazine demonstrates a deep understanding of its community and serves it in a variety of ways, knowing how to create an impact.”
2009 was Empire’s year, celebrating its 20th birthday with a sixth successive ABC rise, huge world exclusives and adding Steven Spielberg to the masthead. The anniversary issue delivered 67 world exclusives, reuniting the cast of ultimate 80s movie The Goonies and featuring Jack Nicholson’s first magazine interview in 30 years. In pride of place in this issue was a birthday portfolio containing Spielberg commissioned shoots with 27 of the biggest stars in the world paying tribute to their greatest roles of the last two decades.
Further success stories in 2009 include Empireonline increasing traffic by 366%, live events – The Empire Awards and Movie-Con and the launch of the Empire iApp.
Paul Keenan, added: “This highly prestigious recognition from PPA is a superb accolade for the whole Empire team. With Editor Mark Dinning scooping three BSME Awards in a row and James Dyer, empireonline's editor with two BSME's to his name, the momentum behind the 20th anniversary year has been a truly memorable ride thanks to a highly talented team at the top of their game. Their natural restlessness for further innovation has them constantly striving to raise the bar and I am sure will position them for future recognition.”
Editorial Campaign Of The Year - Go Shopping Neutral, Grazia
The Judges said: “This campaign was startlingly original, completely relevant to readers and produced a hugely effective result.”
During one of the deepest recessions in living memory, the Grazia team decided it wanted to help its readers give something back while doing what they love most – shopping. Teaming up with Mary Portas they created a pop-up charity store in Westfield which was stocked with donations from high street stores, celebrities and designers, who also gave up their time to staff it. Readers queued around the block to shop and the initiative achieved blanket coverage on line and in all major newspapers.
In the three weeks the shop was open it raised £113,000 for Save the Children.
Paul Keenan, commented: “GRAZIA took a simple premise and yet again over delivered. The team is bold, innovative and brave, and the brand continues to be highly sought out by Clients. With nine outstanding ABC increases, GRAZIA – online and on the page - is quite simply ‘a media icon of our time’.
Photography
A gallery of images from the event are available to download from the following location: http://tinyurl.com/3xwjzqz
