Mary Murphy, Director, RPS Project Communications and Michael Sands, Communications Manager, Dublin City Council.

RPS Project Communications and their client Dublin City Council have won an "Award for Excellence in Public Relations 2010" for their PR campaign on the DublinBikes Scheme. The Award for Best Public Information Campaign was presented to RPS Project Communications Director Mary Murphy at an event on 24th June.

The information campaign utilised PR to great effect and at low cost and resulted in over 5,000 people subscribing to DublinBikes in its first few months. Nearly six-times the number of users projected for the first year had already registered in the first six months and the number of people cycling in Dublin has increased by 12% since the launch of the DublinBikes scheme in September 2009.

The Annual Awards for Excellence in Public Relations are organised by the Public Relations Consultants Association (Ireland), Public Relations Institute of Northern Ireland and the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (Northern Ireland Region). 44 firms from all over Ireland, North and South, competed for 15 awards.

Ann- Marie O'Sullivan, Chairman, Public Relations Consultants Association; Michael Sands, Communications Manager, Dublin City Council; Michael Stubbs, Assistant City Manager, Dublin City Council; Mary Murphy, Director, RPS Project Communications and Mr Michéal Martin, T.D., Minister for Foreign Affairs.

"DublinBikes is a fantastic initiative and we are delighted to have worked with Dublin City Council on this project from the early days when we strategised to minimise negative comment and managed media relations to turn the story around from one of scepticism to a positive initiative one that everybody has embraced," says Mary Murphy, Director, RPS.

For further information on the DublinBikes Scheme visit www.dublinbikes.ie

Contact:
Neasa Kane, Director, RPS Project Communications
E: neasa.kane@rpsgroup.com