Lithuanian national broadcaster’s director wins PR Impact Award

The director general of Lithuanian National Radio and Television (LRT), Monika Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė, was among the winners of this year’s PR Impact Awards, the country’s leading communications industry competition, LRT.lt reported Friday.

Over 50 projects and their creators were honoured at the awards ceremony, which also recognised key figures in the communications sector. Garbačiauskaitė-Budrienė received the special Trial by Publicity award, selected by readers of the M360 portal for her resistance to political pressure from the Social Democratic faction in parliament.

The Agency of the Year title went to Fabula Rud Pedersen Group for the fourth consecutive year. Vaidotas Vyšniauskas, chair of the Communications Industry Association, praised the winners for their ability to integrate diverse media, experiment with bold ideas, and engage audiences even on complex topics.

“The best submissions stood out for their originality and clarity in delivering difficult messages to target audiences,” Vyšniauskas said. “While comparing projects directly is challenging due to varying themes and approaches, the winners demonstrated excellence in media integration, fearless experimentation, and even self-deprecating humour.”

This year’s competition drew 178 entries, including 127 unique projects, with integrated communications emerging as the most popular category. Public sector campaigns, event-based communications, and social responsibility initiatives also saw strong participation. Digital and crisis communications categories received more submissions than in previous years.

A 25-member international jury of communications and marketing experts, led by Dr. Lina Jakučionienė of Vilnius University, evaluated the projects. Results were audited by media monitoring firm Mediaskopas, a long-term partner of the awards.

Other special honours included the Business Opinion Leader award, which went to economist Aleksandras Izgorodinas of Citadelė Bank, based on media citation metrics. Paulė Pupinytė-Bružienė, head of communications at Vilnius Water, was named Communicator of the Year for campaigns like In Vilnius, the Best Comes from the Tap and Riebkalnis, which raised public awareness of infrastructure issues and encouraged behavioural change.

Last year’s top communicator, Gintarė Kitovė of retail chain IKI Lietuva, was succeeded by Pupinytė-Bružienė. The top five communicators also included Rima Aukštuolytė of Ignitis Gamyba, Lina Skersytė of Lidl Lietuva, Odeta Vaitkevičienė of Kaunas Police, and Rimantas Zagrebajev of Kelių Priežiūra.