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Innovation Lab luminary See.Sense has won The Guardian Small Business Showcase Awards for Marketing and PR Excellence.
The awards received more than 1,000 entries across seven award categories. Featuring 21 competing companies, See.Sense was the only company representing Northern Ireland.
See.Sense drew praise for how it utilised the Giro d’Italia, staged in NI last year, to promote the product. The campaign, acheived on a start up budget, featured a PR programme from Rachael Harriott of Harriott Communications and Andy Hill who mentored See.Sense in marketing through the Business in the Community programme.
The Judges commented: "There’s something classically Irish and cheeky’ about See.Sense’s campaign.
As well as the video above, PR and marketing initiatives included a special limited edition pink see.sense cycle light – ‘corsa rosa’, a partnership with Tourism NI who showcased the product to visiting cycling journalists and dignitaries, and a link in with the 2014 Lord Mayor, who cycled around the City with a See Sense light attached to his bike.
Irene McAleese, co-founder and marketing director for See.Sense said: "We were thrilled to win The Guardian Small Business Showcase Award for PR and marketing excellence. Product marketing on a startup budget is definitely challenging and has also been a learning curve for us, so it is wonderful to receive outside recognition that you are doing a good job. Given that the recognition comes from a national competition, that received hundreds of entries in our category, makes it all the more satisfying."
Other campaign contributors included Honcho Media’s Andy Yoong, who supported the video with drones, Deepa Mann-Kerr who contributed artwork to the brochure included with the limited edition pink light box, and Roy White who wrote the Hume and Dunlop story, also included in the brochure. Ballygally Castle donated a prize for a competition which featured in the brochure and Vitus bikes provided bikes for filming of the video. Also members of See.Sense local cycling club North Down CC appeared in the video along with See.Sense Sales Manager, Ross Blayney, the star of the video.
