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Striking Gold at the PRINZ Awards: Development West Coast’s mineral mining campaign wins top PR honour

Bethany Cook 5 June 2026

Development West Coast took home the Supreme Award at the annual PRINZ Awards for their campaign, Unlocking minerals through trust and policy alignment.  Over 230 PR and communications professionals from across the country gathered last night to celebrate the excellence and achievements of Aotearoa’s PR industry at the PRINZ Awards Gala Dinner. The evening resulted in over 70 award winners and a record number of gold awards.

The 15 categories are designed to highlight the wide range of roles and outcomes that communications professionals practice. This year, campaigns took home gold awards in the categories: Best Use of Media Relations, Government Relations and Public Affairs, Best Use of Digital and Social Media, Marketing Communication, Community Relations and Engagement, Corporate and Business Public Relations and Best Use of Small Budget for Impact. The 12 gold award-winning campaigns, submitted by Anthem, Belle PR, Convergence Communications, Development West Coast, FleishmanHillard Aotearoa, Hamilton City Council, Network Communication, ProCare and Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori, went head-to-head to take away the final award of the evening, the Supreme Award.  

Development West Coast earned the ultimate award by leading a holistic government relations and public affairs programme to reposition modern mining as nationally strategic, regionally enabling and environmentally responsible. The West Coast holds nationally significant deposits of gold and critical minerals vital to clean energy and advanced manufacturing, but boom-and-bust cycles left communities wary and investors cautious. Development West Coast integrated public affairs, media, decision-maker immersion and community storytelling to shift behaviour, not just awareness. Their work resulted in government support for industry-enabling infrastructure and housing projects, local mining jobs rising, employment growth and a shift in the nation’s sentiment and understanding of mining.

The judges found the campaign to be “a highly strategic and expertly executed programme that demonstrates the full power of integrated government relations, media and stakeholder engagement to influence both narrative and policy settings.” They noted that the scale, coordination and discipline of the work was exceptional.

Chief Judges Nikki Wright FPRINZ and Tracey Bridges LPRINZ comment “this is a standout piece of work that exemplifies the very best of modern public relations and is a deserving Supreme Award winner, demonstrating the impact that well-executed, strategically grounded communications can achieve.”

Other notable awards of the evening were awarded to Hannah Kronast for the Sally Logan-Milne Young Practitioner of the Year, Belle PR for the Isentia Prize for Excellence in Research, Measurement and Evaluation and One Plus One Communications for PR Consultancy of the Year (Large). The regional agencies were also well represented with both The Shine Collective (Bay of Plenty) and Brainchild (Waikato) receiving Gold Awards in the Consultancy (Small to Medium) category.

The Public Relations Institute of New Zealand were thrilled to have so many PR and communications professionals together in one room to celebrate another year of incredible mahi in Aotearoa. The high calibre of the campaigns resulted in the highest number of gold awards that PRINZ has seen in recent years. PRINZ would like to thank their principal partner Isentia and sponsors Truescope, Streem, Telum Media,  Momentum Consulting and Celebrity Speakers for making this night possible.

See the full list of winners below.

Isentia – Best Use of Digital and Social Media 

Bronze Awards

  • New Zealand Police – All roads lead to recruitment
  • Tertiary Education Commission – Job Hunters’ Workbook

Silver Awards

  • Breakout Room – The Teaseburger
  • Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori – Ake Ake Ake – 50 years of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

Gold Award

  • Network Communication – National Blood Donor Week

Telum Media – Best Use of Media Relations

Bronze Awards

  • Scope Communications – Selling a Legend: How the Cardrona Hotel campaign became a national moment
  • Anthem – Spark Kids: Launching New Zealand’s First Purpose-Built Kids Mobile Plan
  • Great Scott – Making the longest day last even longer – Sharing Coast to Coast stories
  • FleishmanHillard Aotearoa – All Brads are equal at Macca’s
  • Ngāi Tahu Tourism – Celebrating 60 years of thrills on the Kimiākau
  • Māia – How WIPCE 2025 lifted Indigenous voices to lead the news

Silver Awards

  • Network Communication – National Blood Donor Week
  • Association of Salaried Medical Specialists – Healing the Nelson Hospital
  • Barnardos Aotearoa – Media in action: Rallying and driving change for children

Gold Award

  • Development West Coast – Changing the narrative in a contested sector

Best Use of Small Budget for Impact

Bronze Awards

  • FleishmanHillard Aotearoa – All Brads are equal at Macca’s
  • Acumen New Zealand – Attracting more diverse learners to the trades

Silver Awards

  • Silvereye Communications – Craigieburn Basin Restoration Trust: Feel the Burn
  • ProCare – Patient Voice: How patients drove the fight for fair GP funding
  • Breakout Room – Raising awareness by asking people to ‘Please Ignore It’

Gold Award

  • Belle PR – Urban Miners Digital Graveyard – Tech or Treat

Streem – Corporate and Business Public Relations

Bronze Awards

  • HMC Communications – Making Private Wealth a Public Conversation
  • One NZ – Leading the Way: How One NZ is building trust on its journey to become the most AI enabled telco

Silver Awards

  • Alexander PR – Master Electricians: Building the backbone of New Zealand’s electrification future
  • Suncorp NZ – Insuring New Zealand’s Future: How Suncorp prepared Kiwis for the reality of climate risk

Gold Award

  • Convergence Communications – Regional Investment in Business Done Well

Community Relations and Engagement

Bronze Awards

  • Carterton District Council – Carterton District Council Community Survey – a fundamental shift
  • Great Scott – Night for Flight: Turning local stories into life-saving support
  • Māia – Te Paringa Tai – How WIPCE 2025 united diverse communities

Silver Awards

  • Auckland Council – Taking the lead: protecting at-risk communities with dogged determination
  • Whakatāne District Council – Stand for Something | Tū Tūturu – Election campaign 2025\

Gold Award

  • Hamilton City Council – Election 2025 – Breaking Down Barriers

Celebrity Speakers – Experiential and Activation

Bronze Award

  • Hamilton City Council – Election 2025 – Breaking Down Barriers

Silver Award

  • FleishmanHillard Aotearoa – Worst Children’s Library

Government Relations and Public Affairs

Bronze Award

  • Suncorp NZ – Insuring New Zealand’s Future: How Suncorp shaped NZ’s National Adaptation Framework

Silver Award

  • Alexander PR – Giving an industry its voice back: How Master Electricians used government relations and public affairs to reshape New Zealand’s electrification future

Gold Awards

  • ProCare – Patient Voice: How patients drove the fight for fair GP funding
  • Convergence Communications – Regional Investment Done Well
  • Development West Coast – Unlocking minerals through trust and policy alignment

Internal Communications

Bronze Awards

  • Spark – Introducing SPK 30 to Spark’s People
  • Port Marlborough NZ Ltd – Seen, Valued, Recognised

Silver Awards

  • The New Zealand Automobile Association – AA App: Early employee access building confidence, readiness and advocacy
  • Summerset Retirement Villages – An EVP anthem unites Summerset’s employees
  • One NZ – Leading the Way: One NZ empowering every employee to work with AI Confidently and Responsibly

Truescope – Issues, Crisis or Reputation Management

Bronze Awards

  • PowerNet Ltd – Backbone Broken: PowerNet’s October 2025 Storm Response
  • Auckland Airport – Karawhiua: Give it heaps!
  • One NZ – Swift, Values-Based Response: Managing reputational risk and protecting trust during the actress incident

Momentum Consulting – Marketing Communication

Bronze Awards

  • One Plus One Communications – Stopping the Stigma Surrounding Medicinal Cannabis
  • Eleven PR – ANZ x Auckland FC Record Season

Silver Awards

  • Eleven PR – Scammers Bloom
  • FleishmanHillard Aotearoa – Kina Cottage

Gold Awards

  • FleishmanHillard Aotearoa – The Pollination Tour
  • FleishmanHillard Aotearoa – Worst Children’s Library
  • Anthem – Spark Kids: Launching New Zealand’s First Purpose-Built Kids Mobile Plan
  • Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori – Ake Ake Ake – 50 years of Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

Sally Logan-Milne Young Practitioner of the Year Award

  • Winner – Hannah Kronast

Isentia Prize for Excellence in Research, Measurement and Evaluation

  • Winner: Belle PR for Urban Miners Digital Graveyard – Tech or Treat

PR In-house Team of the Year

Bronze Awards

  • Spark New Zealand
  • One NZ
  • University of Waikato

Silver Awards

  • Development West Coast
  • Barnardos Aotearoa

Gold Award

  • CentrePort

PR Consultancy of the Year (Small to Medium)

Gold Awards

  • Brainchild
  • The Shine Collective

PR Consultancy of the Year (Large)

Gold Award

  • One Plus One Communications

Supreme Award

  • Winner: Development West Coast for Unlocking minerals through trust and policy alignment
Categories: PRINZ News

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