Telecommunications giant Orange and Co-operative Financial Services were the big winners at the annual awards ceremony of the British Association of Communicators in Business (CiB) last Friday.

The two companies each won a Gold award on a night that gives the UK’s leading internal communications practitioners the red carpet treatment, whittling 520 award entrants down to 31 class winners.

Orange was recognised for its in-house magazine, Orange News. Produced by communications consultancy Insidedge, it was praised for being completely on brand and hitting the mark with its audience in format, content and tone.

Meanwhile, Co-operative Financial Services’ rebrand campaign, ‘Good with money experience’, was said to have been strategically well though-out, enhanced employee engagement and helped the external rebranding exercise. It too won a Gold award.

The evening, held at the Hilton Birmingham Metropole Hotel, also saw awards presented for best global campaign, multi-lingual communication, internal newspapers, team briefings, online communication, design and imagery.

“The CiB awards set the benchmark standard for good employee engagement,” said awards chairman Dave Morris. “Congratulations to Orange and Co-operative Financial Services, who’ve both showed acres of creativity, passion and innovation. They’ve impressed some of the most senior internal communicators in the UK.”