After being defeated in last year’s final, Deliberate PR has won the annual five-a-side football tournament for comms professionals, the PR Cup.
Deliberate PR were the latest winners of the PR Cup (Friday 27th September), beating Brands2Life, 3-0, in the final of the charity five-a-side tournament for industry professionals at Powerleague Shoreditch.
The event for agencies and comms professionals featured teams from the likes of MatchFit, Hope & Glory and Ready Media Group, pitting PR playmakers, marketing maestros and creative comms players against each other to be crowned the second winners of the PR Cup since its COVID-enforced hiatus.
Deliberate had a point to prove after losing on penalties to Portland Communications in last year’s final. The two teams met for a tense rematch in this year’s Round of 16 stage – with Deliberate extracting their revenge this time on their way to redemption from last year’s heartbreaking defeat.
Elsewhere, Kekst CNC also emerged with some silverware, beating Wildfire PR 3-1 in the Plate trophy, a parallel tournament for the best teams from the group stages not to make it into the knockout rounds.
Both agencies headed a list of 31 agencies and over 200 PR professionals at the event, which raised a record £13,650 for the Taylor Bennett Foundation –which addresses the lack of diversity in the Public Relations sector, by encouraging black, Asian and minority ethnic graduates to pursue a career in communications.
The tournament was exclusively sponsored by premier broadcast specialists, Markettiers, and was organised by PR agency Ready Media Group.
Koray Camgöz, Chief Executive Office of the Taylor Bennett Foundation, said: “A huge thank you to everyone who joined us in Shoreditch last week for this year’s PR Cup. We’re incredibly grateful to the entire team at Ready Media Group for their generous support. We’d also like to thank Markettiers for covering the costs, which allowed all the funds raised to go directly towards our mission of creating opportunities for Black, Asian, and ethnically diverse professionals in PR and communications.”
David Fraser, Managing Director of Ready Media Group, said: “I’d like to say a huge thank you to all the players and agencies who helped make the fourth edition of the PR Cup was the best yet. We had more players than ever, more agencies than any other year and the highest amount raised for charity so far. The tournament is now a firm fixture in the PR calendar, and it will be back bigger and better next year, with maybe a spin off tournament or two in the meantime. Watch this space!”
Daniel Stainsby, Deputy Managing Director at Markettiers said: “It was an easy decision for us to not only sponsor the PR Cup 2024 but also get involved with a team ourselves, supporting the important work of the Taylor Bennett Foundation. We had a fantastic time playing against talented industry peers (and a former Lioness!) and seeing the power of our community when united for a common cause. Congratulations to all the teams, and a huge thank you to Ready Media Group and everyone who participated to make this event such a success.”