A jury of 44 public relations practitioners worldwide voted a campaign undertaken by DPR for the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) the outright winner in the award category ‘Overall Institutional’ that includes programs for promoting general relationsfor business, associations and non-governmental organizations.

DPR’s public awareness campaign for JICA was one of 25 programs from eleven countries chosen for a 2004 IPRA Golden World Award and was the only winning entry from Japan. IPRA received entries from 237 public relations agencies and organizations worldwide.“We are delighted that we could win our second Golden World Award in two years,” says Ujitaka Miyashita, president of Dentsu Public Relations Inc. “It makes the success we achieved for our client through our campaign all the sweeter!”

That campaign, conducted between November 2000 and October 2003, helped to remodel JICA’s public image ahead of the agency’s change of status from that of a quasi-government organization to an ‘Independent Administrative Institution’.

By following DPR’s recommendations for improving its internal and external communications, JICA ceased to be a faceless bureaucracy whose activities just 5% of ordinary Japanese knew and became an accessible organization recognized instantly by nearly half the population.“I am very happy that our efforts for JICA were regarded so highly by our contemporaries worldwide,” says DPR account executive Kenji Hanaue who supervised the campaign. “For a DPR program to be recognized as the ‘best of the best’ is truly an honor.”

DPR has won four previous IPRA Golden World Awards – in 1991, 1993 and 2003 – though this is the company’s first in the category of Overall Institutional.Trophies and Certificates of Excellence will be presented to Golden World Award winners at a gala GWA dinner in London on October 21, 2004.