Awarding Excellence in the Building Industry

Challenge

Octabuild is an informal grouping of eight major building materials manufacturers in Ireland. They are Irish Cement, Gyproc, Wavin Ireland, Tegral Building Products, Dulux Paints Ireland Ltd, Sanbra Fyffe, Kingspan Insulation and Bostik Industries.

Strategy

One of the group's objectives is to promote the close link between Octabuild and its retail customers.

Action

To emphasise these links Octabuild holds a biennial awards scheme to highlight the quality of service in the builders’ merchant trade; the awards have been ongoing for over 20 years. Every aspect of event management is utilised by Walsh Public Relations to deliver a successful event. This includes a launch; co-ordination of the judging phases; build-up to the presentations; management of the awards ceremony, follow up media programme to highlight the winners and post awards evaluation.

Results

The event attracts over 250 leaders in the builders’ merchant trade and generates media coverage that reaches an audience of over 2m readers. In addition, the goodwill generated within the industry as a result of the awards is immeasurable.

Irish Hardware magazine in its editorial comment has said: "There is no doubt that the Octabuild Awards scheme is a huge resource for the industry and it is one that is valued highly by hardware businesses throughout the land."