Shotgun Blast from the Deep

Overview

NIWA’s comms team outlines their PRINZ Supreme Award winning campaign.

NIWA’s use of communications to tell the scientific story of the Hunga Tonga–Hunga Haʻapai volcanic eruption in 2022 won its communications team the Supreme Award at the PRINZ Awards 2023.  At the Awards last May, head judges said the NIWA campaign was well-researched, conceived and executed within a very short timeframe and while managing multiple agencies.  The campaign also won the Best Use of Media Relations award.

NIWA communications manager, Sarah Fraser, and members of her team will walk us through this unprecedented communications challenge.  The Tonga volcanic eruption in January 2022 was one of the world’s most unparalleled natural events. An internationally funded team of New Zealand scientists set sail to discover its mysteries, and they needed an explosive communications strategy to match.

Attendees will hear about how the NIWA communications team worked across different disciplines, cultures, and time zones to pull off a 12-month-long science story that was interesting, informative, and imperative – one that reverberated around the globe, much like the shockwaves from the volcano.