We are celebrating once again as our work with British Steel has won yet another national industry award! British Steel’s employee newspaper ‘Steel Matters’ won Best Internal Publication at the CIPR Excellence Awards ceremony held in London on 6th June.
Now in their 33rd year, the Chartered Institute’s Excellence Awards are public relations’ most established celebration of creativity and professionalism; they seek to showcase the highest levels of professional achievement across the UK and throughout the world. The Best Internal Publication award recognises a particularly outstanding publication aimed at an organisation’s internal stakeholders to meet specific objectives.
Steel Matters is a key communication tool for British Steel, broadcasting a wide range of monthly news from corporate information and project wins to community and people-led stories. We design, print and distribute copies to 4,000 British Steel staff each month, across 19 locations; particularly important as over 25% of the workforce do not use electronic devices as part of their job roles.
Ian Cant, Creative Director at Ruddocks commented:
“We are absolutely delighted to have won this award with British Steel, it is a huge achievement, not least, as we were up against strong competition from some really impressive projects. We have been working with the British Steel team for well over a year now and this wholly reinforces just how successful a good partnership can be.
“We are really proud of the Steel Matters publication. It has been hugely instrumental in re-engaging and bringing the workforce together under the new British Steel identity following the rebrand last year.
“We were keen to make this publication work for the British Steel staff, fundamentally we wanted people to want to read it. It became clear that the existing newspaper format was popular so we designed a contemporary style with an enhanced quality finish that is sympathetic to apparent cost.
“The redesign, whilst improved, remains true to the industry and has been very well received across the company with increased readership, and engagement up 10% from this time last year.”
The awards were judged by a panel of 88 judges made of up of senior industry leaders who made specific reference to the “change in people’s pride and commitment to the organisation” facilitated by this publication.
British Steel are also delighted with the award and Hannah Young, Communications Specialist and Steel Matters editor commented on the win:
We are really thrilled with the result, a great reward for lots of hard work to create a publication we are all very proud of.
Ruddocks Managing Director Paul Banton echoes the comments by British Steel:
“It has been a truly fantastic first year for British Steel and we are so proud to have been part of their story so far.
“Steel Matters is the result of continued hard work and exceptional team work; we are now working with British Steel to increase readership levels and reduce production costs even further.
“We look forward to building on the success of the last year and many more exciting times ahead.”