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DentsuPR Wins 2005 IPRA Grand Prix Award |
-- Dentsu Public Relations wins International Public Relations Grand Prix Award ! --
-- gDementia Debunkedh Campaign makes DentsuPRfs the First Japanese Entry to Win Prestigious Honor in Nine Years -- |
Tokyo, December 2005 ? Dentsu Public Relations Inc. has won its first ever Grand Prix Award for excellence in public relations from the International Public Relations Association (IPRA), the foremost association for international public relations professionals.
The recently held award ceremony in London, England, recognized DentsuPR for work done on the gDementia Debunkedh project, an ongoing educational campaign about the disease undertaken for pharmaceutical companies Eisai Co. and Pfizer Inc. The Grand Prix Award caps off a tremendously successful year for DentsuPR as this past July gDementia Debunkedh also took top honors in the IPRA awards sub-category of eHealth Organizationsf
In selecting DentsuPR for the highly coveted Grand Prix Award, Jury Chairman Sheila OfSullivan said, gAll 40 members of the jury panel unanimously recommended it. The Dementia Debunked campaign should serve as a reference for the entire global PR community, especially the research and surveys which were outstanding.h
Competing against 239 entries from 39 different countries around the world, DentsuPR is the first Japanese PR firm to have won the Grand Prix Award in nine years.
gDementia Debunkedh, conducted between November 1999 and December 2004, used exhaustive qualitative and quantitative research involving hundreds of hours of interviews with the caregivers of dementia sufferers to identify misperceptions about the disease in Japan. This first phase program revealed the depths of dementiafs stigma in Japanese society, the medical communityfs inadequate understanding of the disease, and the low incidence of early-screening among people most at risk.
Using the wealth of data accumulated, DentsuPR collaborated with Japanfs medical community to better educate both doctors and patients about the disease and provided Eisai and Pfizer with a far better understanding of ways to approach treatment of dementia sufferers amid a rapidly aging Japanese population.
DentsuPR account executive Kenji Hanaue has overseen the gDementia Debunkedh campaign since its inception in 1999 and continues to work on the project today. gTo receive the PR worldfs most prestigious award is an incredible honor. Compared to America and Europe, awareness of PR in Japan is quite low but Ifm hopeful that this award will help raise the importance and necessity of PR here,h says Hanaue.
DentsuPR has won five previous IPRA Golden World Awards - in 1991, 1993, 2003 and 2004 - though 2005 marks the companyfs first in the gHealth Organizationsh category as well as their first ever Grand Prix Award. 
