Nine hundred print industry members donned their finest threads and celebrated in style at the 15th annual Pride In Print Awards at Sky City on May 16.
The Awards are a calendar highlight for many in the print and packaging industries. Not only are they the “print party of the year”, they showcase the excellent quality print being produced every day in New Zealand. From production floor to management, it takes a dedicated team to produce jobs that exceed client expectations, and make it through the stringent Pride In Print judging process.The Pride In Print Awards rely on a strong collaboration between industry members from different sectors, many of whom have decades of experience, who give their time to judge 800+ entries each year. The Awards bring all sectors of the industry together in the Awards committee, judging criteria, judging process, with each sector having ownership of the awards in their area.
The Pride In Print Awards set a benchmark in the print industry. They underline the need to strive for excellence every day, for every print job.They must also move with the times.
PrintNZ is currently working with Wellington’s Chilli Marketing to implement a print industry marketing strategy. A major part of this work is looking at how the industry can raise the profile of print in order to attract labour, investment and customers.
PrintNZ is committed to looking at the Awards within the strategic marketing strategy for the print industry. We need to ensure the Awards remain ‘fresh’ and are used as a tool to promote print so that more customers purchase print. We also need to examine whether the current format is doing the job we want it to do.
The benefits of having the Pride In Print Awards programme include:
• Inclusiveness of all print and packaging sectors – a broad church.
• Participation of many in the industry – companies entering the Awards, judges drawn, attendees at the big event and the Awards Committee
• The enduring nature of the Awards – their longevity lasting 15 years.
• Excellent Awards management by Sue Archibald
Some of the issues that have been raised by PrintNZ members are:
• The number of categories and awards within those.
• The cost of running the Awards – over $500K budget for the 2007/08 Awards
• Should the Awards be held annually?
• Little publicity for the Awards in mainstream media compared to other award programmes held in the building or automotive industries etc.
PrintNZ will use an independent party to facilitate this process.
We want help to answer the hard questions:
1. If we had no industry awards currently, what awards programme could be developed to maximise positive exposure of the industry?
2. How can we move the successes of what we have now to a new framework - if this is what the industry wants?
For further detail of the PrintNZ Marketing Strategy refer to our Helping Hand article in this issue, or download a copy of the strategy from our website at www.printnz.co.nz. I welcome your thoughts and feedback – please email
