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Last night the biggest names in the PR industry gathered in the  Roundhouse Theatre in Camden for one of the most important evenings in the PR awards calendar – The 2009 EMEA Sabre Awards.

Following a champagne reception in the stalls of the theatre, the agencies were invited to take their places for the start of the awards. Representing Ogilvy PR London were Clare Gibbins, Clair Whitefield, Rachael Rees, Blair Metcalfe and Lindsey Reaney. We were joined also by our colleagues from OgilvyHealth PR, SPN Ogilvy (Russia) and Ogilvy PR Czech Republic.

The night was a triumph – Ogilvy PR London alone was nominated for six awards covering the length and breadth of our PR offering from Tech to CSR, Corporate to Consumer Marketing.

The nominations celebrated work across clients from all practices including Mattel, Unilever, FremantleMedia, EMBRATUR and a special mention for our environmental product OgilvyEarth; which received particular praise in light of the very successful Hopenhagen project (below) for the COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen last year.

The consumer team were the real winners of the evening however, collecting a Sabre Award for Best Household Product for the team’s work on the Unilever Cleaner Planet Plan, an environmental initiative which launched in 2009 across the laundry category and which includes huge household names such as Persil, Surf and Comfort. The team also collected a Bronze Award for Media Placement thanks to The EMBRATUR Taste of Brazil Project which saw journalist Charles Campion complete the mean feat of touring over 20 Brazilian restaurants over 4 days and which secured coverage with London Evening Standard, the Financial Times and Guardian Unlimited.

An enjoyable evening was had by all – the team chowed down on an interesting dinner consisting of a trio of peas, vanilla and lime mash and a stuffed cabbage; excitedly tweeted from their table and had a little dance before turning in for the evening .

With a total of six awards won by the Ogilvy PR Worldwide team, the team emerged from the awards as one of the big winners of the evening alongside fellow PR giants such as Fleischman-Hillard, Frank PR and Weber Shandwick.

So who won what?

• Thinking of You – Kyivstar with SPN Ogilvy (Employee Communications category)
• The Cleaner Planet Plan - Unilever with Ogilvy PR London (Non-Corporate Charities and Not for Profits)
• Hopenhagen - United Nations with Mannov representing Ogilvy (Poster/Calendar Photography)
• Exploring the ‘truth’ behind Psoriasis - Wyeth Pharmaceuticals with OgilvyHealth PR (Website);
• Hopenhagen - United Nations with Mannov representing Ogilvy (Media Placement)
• Taste of Brazil - EMBRATUR with Ogilvy PR London (Media Placement)

This July as part of the Ogilvy Group UK’s pop up branch opening on London’s Roman Road, local community organisations will be able to benefit from Ogilvy PR’s expert advice absolutely free.

Over three days the Ogilvy Idea Shop, will serve as a free advertising and marketing clinic for local businesses, community projects, charities, arts groups and other organisations and individuals in East London and Ogilvy PR is encouraging everyone to sign up for this service.

 “Ogilvy Ideas Shop is a fantastic opportunity to pass on our knowledge and big brand experience to charities and local organisations that need marketing support but cannot afford to employ a full time communications professional. I volunteered at the first Ogilvy pop-up shop in Brixton and what was so exhilarating was meeting people and businesses with a whole range of marketing, advertising or communication issues and then seeing them walk away with tailor-made ideas and tactics that they could implement as soon as they left,” said Clair Whitefield, account manager at Ogilvy PR.

Idea Shop will be staffed by volunteers from across Ogilvy including top-notch advertising, public relations and marketing creatives, strategists and planners who ordinarily work for the agency’s big brands and will be on hand to offer advice on a variety of subjects including advertising, public relations, digital, email, social media, strategy, direct marketing, branding, design, search, SEO and copywriting.

This is the second time Ogilvy has run Idea Shop, having taken over a unit in Brixton Market in February. During the three day event Ogilvy volunteers met with 63 organisations such as Oh Sew Brixton, Artisan Carpentry, cancer care charity Macmillan and after school club Kids’ City, and gave more than 100 hours’ worth of free advice.

Anyone interested in attending the Idea Shop is invited to book in for a 90 minute session by going to www.ideashop.www.ogilvy.co.uk by 11th June
The Ogilvy Idea Shop will pop up at 430 Roman Road, London, E3 5LU from Thursday July 8 to Saturday July 10.
A dedicated website and blog is now up and running, http://ideashop.www.ogilvy.co.uk/.

You can also follow Idea Shop on Twitter @Idea_Shop.