EUROPEAN BUSINESS AWARDS 2014/15

PR TOOLKIT

NATIONAL CHAMPION

Contents

Section 1 OVERVIEW

Section 2 KEY MESSAGES AND KEY FACTS ABOUT AWARDS

Section 3MEDIA ACTION LIST

Section 4 MEDIA RELEASE – OVERVIEW AND DRAFT RELEASE

Section 5BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE AWARDS

Section 6KEY CONTACT

SECTION 1

OVERVIEW

First, may we take this opportunity to offer huge CONGRATULATIONS on being named a National Champion for your country in the 2014/15 European Business Awards.

You are one of Europe’s most dynamicand exciting businesses, actively demonstrating the core principles of the European Business Awards: Success, Innovation, Ethics and an International mind-set.

The news of your achievement presents you with opportunities to generatemedia coverage for your company’s projects and services. You have been recognised in Europe’s leading Business Awards programme as atop business in Europe and it’s definitely time to SHOUT ABOUT YOUR SUCCESSand let your target audiences: clients, staff, stakeholders and supporters, know that your work isbeing celebrated by leading businessprofessionals, politicians, academics and entrepreneurs across Europe.

You are flag bearerfor your country and a case study for European business success. Companies like yours will continually raise the standard benchmark for business excellence across Europe.

The purpose of this PR Toolkit:

The purpose of this toolkitis to provide you with the background materials and media templates to help you to gain coverage and exposure for your organisation as easily as possible. It alsosuggests ways in which to promote your achievement as widely as possible.

SECTION 2

EUROPEAN BUSINESS AWARDS - KEY MESSAGES AND KEY FACTS

To help you summarise the main aims, and the importance, of the European Business Awards below are some of the key messages and key factsyou can use in your PR activity.

The European Business Awards:

  • is an independent Awards programme, sponsored by RSM International, designed to recognise and promote excellence, best practice and innovation in the European business community
  • connects the best in European business, across borders, business size and sector
  • celebrates excellence, innovation, entrepreneurship and best practice among business

The programme has rapidly established itself as the major accolade in European business and is widely recognised as the premier business platform across the continent. The Awards have attracted support from significantly influential individuals and some truly dynamic organisations.

The guiding principles of the Awards are Innovation, Ethics and Financial Success. These are the values which underpin the achievements of thriving businesses and very much align with the values of RSM.

  • Ethics - businesses need to demonstrate how they operate with a broad awareness of their role and impact in wider society
  • Innovation – the ability to innovate, pioneer and in some cases regenerate their operations
  • Financial Success – the ability to generate a financial surplus

These three points provide the framework for the judging process and enable organisations of all sizes to compete on a common set of principles that are applicable to all.

THE 2014/5 EUROPEAN BUSINESS AWARDS FACT SHEET

  • The European Business Awards recognises and rewards excellence, best practice and innovation in companies across the European Union. The competition is free to enter and open to organisations of all sizes and from any industry sector
  • RSM International is the lead sponsor of the Awards, and has supported them since their inception. RSM is the seventh largest audit, tax and advisory network worldwide with a major presence across Europe
  • The European Business Awards is now in its 8th year
  • It is Europe’s largest and most significant cross-sector business recognition programme
  • This year it has engaged with over 24,000 businesses in 33 countries across Europe during the entries campaign
  • There are 3 phases of judging
  • There are 2 phases of public voting
  • There are 132 judges and the equivalent of 285 days of judging
  • There are 10 categories (see section 5 for details)
  • There are 709‘National Champions’ across33European countries
  • The 2013/14 competition generated widespread GLOBAL media coverage, leading to over 4,000 items of coverage across print, broadcast, online and social media, resulting in a PR value of over €5million. The PR campaign has reached over 300 million people
  • The public voting phase for 2013/14 competition generated93,425 votes(more than double the amount received in the 2012/13 competition)
  • There wereover 400,000unique visits to the EBA website during the competition

SECTION 3

MEDIA ACTION LIST

News about the successful National Champions is being released on Thursday 4th September 2014 at 00:01BST (GMT+1) / 01:01 CET

At this time a central press release will be released and promoted on the European Business Awards website

THINGS YOU CAN DO FROM 4 SEPTEMBER ONWARDS:

Contact local and professional press and media – issue a press release to your local/national and trademedia: including print, online and broadcast press. If you can, engage a local PR company to help you. Follow up with offers on interview where possible.

Update your website– post the news on your website and feature the European Business Awards logo prominently on the site stating your achievement within the Awards programme.

Write/email all your clients, stakeholders, funding bodies and associations and notify them of your achievement in the Awards.

Social MediaDo you have presence on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube?Do you have a blog? If not then consider starting pages and ensure that you keep the information up to date and upload press releases and images as and when you send them.

Join the European Business Awards on our new Twitter handle/name:@rsmEBA,and don’t forget to hash tag us in your tweet: #rsmEBA. We will be tweeting live regarding the announcements so retweet our tweets and tweet your own reactions. This is a great way to be seen by your peers.

Join the EBAs on LinkedIn and Facebook and comment or start a discussion in the European Business Awards group. The group in LinkedIn iscalled “The European Business Awards” and find us on Facebook at

We also have a YouTube channel on

Our lead sponsor RSM International will also be posting and updating information so please join their sites too:

Twitter - @rsm_world

Blog – rsmworldblog.com

LinkedIn – RSM company/group page

Create an email signature for your organisation promoting your achievement within the Awards programme including the European Business Awards winners’logo.

Include the EBA winners’ logo on stationery (letterhead paper, business cards, etc). A link to where you can be download the logo from will be sent to you via email from the EBA.

Approach industry and relevant category conferences throughout Europe and explain your achievement in the Awards and offer to speak at their conferences about your business and what has made it successful.

Host your own breakfast, lunch or seminar for potential and existing customers showcasing your achievement in the Awards programme and why you were selected.

And importantly: keep us up to date on the successes you have had in generating coverage by forwarding any coverage to our PR Manager, Vanessa Wood at

SECTION 4

MEDIA RELEASE AND STRATEGY

Last year’s European Business Awards generated over 4000 items of media coverage. Companies like yours received global exposure for their company by doing proactive PR campaigns and working hard to get their name in the press – this also helped them when it came to the public voting part of the competition.

We are here to provide central guidance to help you achieve this for your company so please find below a draft press release with key messages and a central quote for you to use.

DRAFT MEDIA PRESS RELEASE TEMPLATE FOR WINNERS ANNOUNCEMENT:

Must not be released before central news has been released by The European Business Awards newsroom on 4th September 2014 at 00:01BST (GMT+1) / 01:01 CET

[INSERT COMPANY NAME] FROM [INSERT COUNTRY] NAMEDNATIONAL CHAMPION IN THE EUROPEAN BUSINESS AWARDS 2014/15

[Insert Company Name] Wins for [Country] in Prestigious Awards competition

Xxxx from xxxx (town/country) has today been named as a National Champion inThe European Business Awards sponsored by RSM International; a prestigious competition supported by businesses leaders, academics, media and political representatives from across Europe.

The European Business Awards now in its 8th year engaged withover 24,000 business from 33European countries this year and 709 companiesfrom across Europe have been named today as National Champions; going through to the second phase of the competition.

[Insert a sentence or two about your company]

[Suggested quote from your company, insert name and title of person] “We’re very proud to be selected to represent [insert country] as a National Champion. The European Business Awards is widely recognised as the showcase for Europe’s most dynamic companies and we are now looking forward to the next round of the judging process where we can explain in more depth how we are achieving business success.”

Adrian Tripp, CEO of the European Business Awards said: “Congratulations to [insert company name], it is a great achievement to be named National Champion and we wish them luck in the next stage.The European Business Awards is going from strength to strength, inspiring businesses to greater success and helping to improve the competitive edge of companies across Europe.”

Jean Stephens, CEO of RSM International, said: “Every year this competition gets tougher and more competitive as more companies, of varied sizes and across all sectors, chose to compete in this prestigious competition. With the increased number of entries and countries, this year looks to become the toughest Awards yet. It will be exciting to watch as we move through to the next round.”

A panel of judges made up of Europe-wide business leaders, academics and entrepreneurs will view the National Champions’ videos, and award the best of this group the coveted ‘Ruban d’Honneur’ status. Ruban d’Honneur recipients will thengo on to the grand final in 2015. All of the National Champions will also take part in a public vote to decide ‘Public Champions’ for each country.Last year over 93,000 votes were cast, and over 400,000 people visited the EBA website during the competition.

Supported since their inception by lead sponsor and promoter RSM International, the seventh largest audit, tax and advisory network worldwide with a major presence across Europe , the European Business Awards was set up to recognise and reward excellence, best practice and innovation across the European business community.

For more information on the Awards and its winners, please visit and follow us on twitter at @rsmEBA

ENDS

For further press information, please contact:

Insert company contact information

EBA: The Newsroom at the European Business Awards on +44 (0) 796 6666 657 or email

About the European Business Awards:

The European Business Awards recognises and rewards excellence, best practice and innovation. The competition is free to enter and open to organisations of all sizes and from any industry sector.

The European Business Awards programme serves three purposes for the European business community:

•It provides examples for the business community to aspire to

•It celebrates and endorses individual’s and organisation’s success

•It provides an active platform for debate

About RSM International

RSM International is the lead sponsor of the European Business Awards and has sponsored the Awards programme since its inception.

RSM International is a worldwide network of independent accounting and consulting firms. RSM and its member firms are separate and independent legal entities. RSM does not provide accounting or consultancy services, all such services are provided by member firms practicing on their own account. The network’s total fee income of US$3.8 billion places it amongst the top six international accounting organisations worldwide.

Member firms are driven by a common vision of providing high quality professional services, both in their domestic markets and in serving the international professional service needs of their client base. RSM is a member of the Forum of Firms. The objective of the Forum of Firms is to promote consistent and high quality standards of financial and auditing practices worldwide.

2014 marks an exceptional year for RSM International as it celebrates its 50th Anniversary.

SECTION 5

BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON THE AWARDS

1)The Categories

The RSM Entrepreneur of the Year Award

Entrepreneurs are visionaries who are instrumental in the success of a business. Their tireless approach to enterprise expansion places them at the crux of the business. Understanding objectives, formulating ideas and making decisions are part of the role. This award recognises those special traits that make successful entrepreneurs so inspiring.

The International Award for Environmental and Corporate Responsibility

As an evolving business approach, this award considers business operations in a social, cultural, economic and environmental context. Valuing consumer, employee and eco-friendly issues amongst their core values, these corporations operate transparently and actively nurture employee development and involvement. Winning models look beyond the legislative requirements and endeavour to improve a company’s green credentials through innovation and moral modernisation. This award celebrates businesses that have conscientiously implemented and evolved these practices. (Open to Public and Private Sector organisations.)

The UKTI Award for Innovation

Innovative individuals and organisations drive the economy. Recognising the evolving nature of business, true innovators originate forward-thinking concepts to instigate improvement. This award acknowledges the importance of innovation as a strategy to influence ongoing business development.

The Business of the Year Award (T/O €0-25m)

This award will go to the outstanding company that best demonstrates exceptional financial returns, strong growth and innovation strategies, and market leadership in its sector. Judges will look for evidence of inventiveness, ethical credentials, good stakeholder relationships and long term planning balanced by the flexibility to deliver consistent results in dynamic market conditions.

The Business of the Year Award (T/O €26-150m)

This award will go to the outstanding company that best demonstrates exceptional financial returns, strong growth and innovation strategies, and market leadership in its sector. Judges will look for evidence of inventiveness, ethical credentials, good stakeholder relationships and long term planning balanced by the flexibility to deliver consistent results in dynamic market conditions.

The Business of the Year Award (T/O €150m+)

This award will go to the outstanding company that best demonstrates exceptional financial returns, strong growth and innovation strategies, and market leadership in its sector. Judges will look for evidence of inventiveness, ethical credentials, good stakeholder relationships and long term planning balanced by the flexibility to deliver consistent results in dynamic market conditions.

The Growth Strategy of the Year Award

International growth has enormous benefits for local and global economies. This Award will go to the organisation that best demonstrates an international organic growth strategy that has achieved outstanding levels of sales, profit and market share improvement.

The Award for Customer Focus

An important aspect of business development, customer focus ensures that services provided are useful and relevant to current and potential customers. As a core practice, it drives growth through a deep understanding of customer values. This award celebrates organisations that have enhanced their prospects and profitability by putting the customer at the heart of its business.

The Employer of the Year Award

Businesses can reap rewards by offering employees outstanding training programmes, progression monitoring and continuous career prospects. Employers recognised in this award category have the ability to inspire and motivate their staff by enabling career expansion, operating equal opportunity schemes and understanding the importance of a work-life balance.

The Import/Export Award

This award recognises organisations that can demonstrate a continuously positive trend in the export/import or re-export of goods, demonstrate the expansion of coverage in existing or new markets and, through the introduction of creative and innovative operational processes, show robustness in managing and developing international trade and maintaining and improving market position in the face of competition.

2)THE JUDGES

An elite panel of judges including leading business figures, academics, entrepreneurs, thought leaders and political leaders presides over the judging process, previous support has been provided by:

  • Karel De Gucht (EU Trade Commissioner)
  • Yves Leterme (former Belgian Prime Minister)
  • Jose Aznar (former Prime Ministerof Spain)
  • Arnold Rüütel (former Prime Ministerof Estonia)
  • Emil Constantinescu (former President of Romania)
  • Petar Stoyanov (former President of Bulgaria)
  • Isidoro Unda (CEO of Atradius)
  • Peter Brabeck-Lethmathe (former CEO of Nestle)
  • Gilbert Ghostine (Managing Director of Diageo Continental Europe)

Judges are allocated specific panels and represent different nationalities who are naturally well versed in the cultural aspects of each of the finalists’ countries. The judges are fully independent and receive no personal or financial benefit from their participation, other than first-hand experience of finalists’ success stories, and the opportunity to influence, encourage and promote the highest standards of business.

From the National Champions shortlisted in September, the judges will namethe Ruban D’Honneur winners in February 2015.

Public voting

In addition to the standard judging process, there are two stages of public voting:

  1. One National Public Championper European countryto be selected and announced on the 3rd March 2015
  2. One overall European Public Champion to be selected and announced at the Gala ceremony in June 2015

Please note that public voting does not in any way influence the overall judging results. The two are separate Awards.