A Bournemouth public relations company has won two CIPR PRide Awards for its social media and event management campaign with Yellow Buses.

Darren Northeast PR was nominated for two categories – Travel, Leisure or Tourism and Transport and Automotive – winning the gold and silver awards respectively.

The CIPR (Chartered Institute of Public Relations) PRide Awards for the South and the Channel Islands recognise outstanding work delivered by PR agencies across the region.

Yellow Buses had enlisted the help of the agency to promote its community beach party, Buster’s Boscombe Big Beach Bash, across social media.

One of the main successes of Darren Northeast PR’s work with Yellow Buses was the #BustersBeachParty social media campaign which ran three weeks prior to the event.

This drew high rates of engagement with nearly 10,000 people in the local area on the Yellow Buses Facebook Page.

The three weeks of digital PR attracted more than 2,500 attendees to the event which was held in June 2018.

Darren Northeast, Managing Director, said: “The team are thrilled to get official recognition for making this event a huge success.

“Being a family-friendly and community-focused event, it was vital that social media was used to firstly reach as much of the community as possible, but also to engage with them and build a more personal relationship between Yellow Buses and the public.

“As people spend more time online, it’s essential that more investment is made in digital PR campaigns. This social media campaign proves the importance and effectiveness of using online PR channels.”

Fiona Harwood, Yellow Buses’ Marketing Sales Manager, said: “The PR undertaken by Darren Northeast PR helped to significantly raise the profile of this event.

“We wanted to ensure that all of the PR was community-focused to fit with the key message of the event and they achieved this through a strategic, well-planned and very effective social media campaign.”

This year’s CIPR PRide awards were held at the Bristol Marriott Hotel City Centre.