Zero Degrees West is celebrating with Paramount Pictures and Universal Pictures as the agency helps scoop PR Initiative of the Year at the 2017 BASE Awards, held at Tobacco Dock last night.
The accolade was a result of the out-of-this-world campaign the team devised for the home entertainment release of Star Trek Beyond, which saw ZDW take on an intergalactic search for the next Vice Admiral of Starfleet.
The multi-platform project fought off competition from two other longstanding franchises, Spectre and Star Wars, and was described by the BASE judges as being the ‘freshest in terms of new ideas’.
For Star Trek Beyond, the PR team set about partnering with leading recruitment company Manpower UK to search for the nation’s ultimate ‘Trekker’. Working side by side with Zero Degrees West’s creative studio to produce a unique job advert, the callout across traditional, digital and social media directed aspiring applicants to sign up at Starfleetjobs.com. An ‘official’ posting on the Manpower website and a day of face-to-face interviews gave the campaign a level of authenticity that got fans excited and the applications pouring in.
An on-air plug from Star Trek actor, Simon Pegg, and the chance to win a once in a lifetime experience further ensure results of galactic proportions – the campaign reached over 300 million people within its first week of release and achieved a combined media value of more than £1 million.
ZDW’s innovative approach of dealing with a well-established brand is what wowed the BASE panel. The judges said:
“What particularly struck us about some of the other shortlisted campaigns was they had been strong in one or two media channels, but this campaign generated coverage across the board.”
“Freshest in terms of new ideas”
Zero Degrees West also had the pleasure of congratulating hmv which was named Retail Store of the Year and was described by the judging panel as ‘the only bricks and mortar retailer still supporting all areas of the industry.’
Not only that, but hmv also walked away with the Physical Retailer Initiative of the Year award for its Hollywood Classics project which ZDW was also part of. As the exclusive PR agency and flagship creative partner for hmv, the whole team at Zero Degrees West is extremely proud of its clients’ successes this year and look forward to another year of award-winning work.
