​​​An innovative public relations campaign for South Africa’s first dance film Hear Me Move has won a 25 member student team of the University of Johannesburg (UJ) a Gold and Silver award for the South African PR Campaign of the Year at the prestigious PRISM Awards on Sunday, 17 April 2016.

The PRISM Awards are Africa’s most sought after awards in the public relations industry.

The students heed the call of a Johannesburg based Film and Television Production house who teamed up with Ms Janine Lloyd from PR Expert to build an interactive and engaging public relations campaign to promote the release of Hear ME Move.

“Developing a culture of representation at competitions is important to the Faculty of Humanities. The students should be extremely proud of themselves to receive acknowledgement in such a prestigious and challenging competition. Our students’ performance was exceptional as the level of competition was incredibly high. Our team competed against teams representing top public relations agencies,” said Mrs Rene Benecke, Lecturer in the Department of Strategic Communication, UJ.

She pointed out that the campaign not only provided the students to get recognition for their work but it also provided an opportunity for the students to build a dynamic network in the public relations industry as they embark on their career.

The public relations campaign involved a 360 degree approach to create awareness. These included dance flash mobs; social media content and engagement with consumers; a celebrity influencer campaign; media partnerships; cinema activations; streetlamp billboards and brand affiliated dance themed get-togethers.

Ms Lloyd pointed out that the standard with which the students executed the selected strategies is testament of the high level of learning and teaching offered by the University.