Empica, one of the Bristol area’s longest-established public relations agencies, has been nominated for an industry award for its campaign to raise awareness of the mis-selling of pensions to thousands of steelworkers.
The work carried out alongside its client, Bristol-headquartered national law firm Clarke Willmott, has earned it a place among the finalists in the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) Dare Awards. 
The awards strive to seek out and reward the best PR and communications professionals across the UK. The winner will be decided by a panel of judges and announced at a regional award ceremony in September.
The Empica campaign, which was centred on helping steelworkers in Port Talbot who were victims of a pension mis-selling scandal, has been named as a finalist in the Integrated Campaign of the Year category in the South West region.
Empica managing director Martin Powell, pictured, said: “Often PR is portrayed as something frivolous and unimportant.
“This campaign demonstrates what the industry is really about as it alerted many steelworkers to an issue and led to it being talked about in Westminster. Millions of pounds were put back into the pockets of hard-working people.”
Clarke Willmott partner and managing director Philippa Hann added: “Empica supports us with all our communications but it is fantastic to have this campaign recognised as we knew that it was a hard to reach group.
“Our work is still going on to support the steelworkers and ensure as many of those as possible who lost out on pensions get the message. We understand that around 8,000 people transferred out into private pensions instead of opting for a final salary scheme.
“The Financial Conduct Authority has identified that the majority of these should not have transferred and many millions of pounds are likely to be due in compensation.
“The award nomination helps us to continue to highlight the issue.”
Wraxall-based Empica has been providing PR and marketing for 30 years, working with clients as diverse as Bristol Private Equity Club, Bristol Hoteliers Association, Bristol Centre for Reproductive Medicine (BCRM) and Bristol Memorial Woodlands to build their reputations, differentiate their services and engage more effectively with their clients and customers.
The words, pictures and videos created by the agency are featured regularly across the internet, in newspapers and magazines, on TV and radio and on social and digital channels.
