By JESSE GRAHAM
A PUBLIC relations company has received a national award for its work in getting people back to Marysville after the Black Saturday bushfires.
Chatterbox Marketing, which ran a three-year PR campaign, ‘There’s Something About Marysville’, received the Highly Commended award at the Public Relations Institute of Australia’s National Golden Target Awards on Monday 24 November.
The award, which was in the Issues Management and Crisis Communications category of the awards, noted the success of the campaign to help people overcome fear of visiting the Marysville area in summer and the bushfire season.
Directors of Chatterbox Marketing, Meg Law and Matt Jones, said the community had shown “incredible resilience, strength, determination and courage” in the aftermath of the fires.
“To see them pick themselves up and go about rebuilding their town with such pride and passion was extremely inspiring and humbling,” Ms Law said.
She said she was pleased the company could help to move the town’s recovery forward through promoting tourism to the area, and dedicated the award to anyone affected by the fires.
The Black Saturday bushfires in February 2009 resulted in the deaths of 173 people and widespread destruction in Marysville, Narbethong, Kinglake and Steels Creek, among other areas.
