Talents of four Staffordshire-based PR and communications firms were recognised at the inaugural CIPR Midlands Awards, which celebrated outstanding campaigns from across the region over the past two years.
The awards attracted 84 entries from 23 different organisations across 23 categories – and a dozen accolades were brought to the county.
Stone Junction, in Stafford, received three gold and four silver awards for its integrated campaign work, alongside recognition for B2B and international PR.
Gold awards came in the categories of Best Integrated Campaign and Best B2B Campaign, both for work with CP Automation, while a low-budget project for MintMech won Best Public Affairs Campaign.
Silvers were awarded in the Best Social Media Campaign, Best B2B Campaign, Best International Campaign categories. Lucia Scarano, an account executive at Stone Junction, also won silver in the Rising Star category, recognising her work in expanding the company’s media relations activity in Italy and developing relationships with journalists in the region.
Richard Stone, founder of Stone Junction, said: “Taking home seven awards at the CIPR Midlands Awards 2026 is a real reflection of the consistency the team has shown across very different client campaigns this year.
“Companies in the engineering and automation sectors face real pressure to build credibility with the people making purchasing decisions, and PR is central to how they do that.
“Maintaining that quality across multiple campaigns at once is genuinely difficult, and I’m proud in particular of the lead generation work these campaigns contained, something which isn’t always common in PR.”
Alison Gallagher-Hughes, founder of Stafford’s Tillymint Marketing and PR, was named Independent Practitioner of the Year, with judges commenting: “An experienced practitioner with an impressive track record, Alison demonstrates how strong client relationships and a clear commitment to quality and continuous learning continues to deliver great outcomes.”
Other winners were Lesniak Swann based in Stoke-on-Trent which took the Best Low Budget Campaign gold for using PR to help set new standards in fire safety with FSi Promat. The Stoke-on-Trent company also won silver awards in the Small Agency of the Year and Best Publication categories.
Best Publication was won by Stafford-based Edson Evers for a Showersave white paper which judges said “translated technical thought leadership into an accessible, market-relevant publication, delivering excellent earned coverage, strengthening authority and achieving cost-efficient reach.”
