One of Bristol’s longest-established public relations agencies has been nominated for an industry award for a campaign to raise awareness of the mis-selling of pensions to Port Talbot Steel workers.

 Empica, is a finalist in the Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) Dare Awards, for the work carried out alongside its client, Bristol-based law firm Clarke Willmott.

The awards strive to seek out and reward the very best PR and communications professionals across the UK and the winner will be decided by a panel of judges and announced at a regional award ceremony in September.

The Empica campaign has been named as a finalist in the Integrated Campaign of the Year category in the South West region.

Empica Managing Director, Martin Powell, 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.”

Philippa Hann, Partner and Managing Director at Clarke Willmott, said: “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.”

 Empica, based at Wraxall Hill, Bristol, has a history dating back 30 years of providing high quality communications support and advice to many of the region’s best known firms.

For more information visit www.empica.com