At Cowshed, people and community is at the heart of the work that we do. And we are thrilled to announce that this has been recognised as we secured The Pineapples strategy award for our work on Newport Placemaking Plan for Newport City Council.
The Pineapples Awards celebrate excellence in placemaking, recognising projects that positively impact urban life and community engagement. Cowshed is an award-winning creative communications agency that specialises in audience engagement, and this award is another testament to the work that we do.
Our insights and engagements team, Tahnee Chambers and Ahsrah Suudy, along with campaigns manager Elle Cretney and chief client officer Kate Mann, joined our partners from Stride Treglown at the awards on Wednesday evening.
The judges commended the way the project “was designed to be genuinely inclusive, with so many local people and businesses involved”, describing the work as “truly inspiring.”
“The way in which this strategy for Newport was rooted in the place and the ambition that ‘Newport needs to fall in love with Newport again’ was truly inspiring.”
The Pineapples Awards judges
The judges said: “The way in which the plan was designed to be genuinely inclusive, with so many local people and businesses involved, and stitching together immediate quick win projects and long-term interventions particularly impressed the judges. The Newport Place Board utilises many different routes to delivery, such as ensuring that mandatory tasks (upgrading street lighting) are delivered to align with and progress broader strategic outcomes and showing that all stakeholders/parties understand how small interventions are part of the wider movement towards the future Newport.”
The project began in 2024 and sought to engage with the people of Newport to enhance the understanding of what a placemaking plan entails and to gather ideas on how to progress the plan.
Over 1,700 residents, businesses and stakeholders were involved in the engagement, through digital surveys, face-to-face engagement and focus groups.
This resulted in us creating ‘60 Big Ideas for Newport’ which were circulated on an innovative online platform that leveraged gamification to encourage interaction. Residents could ‘swipe right’ on resonant ideas, resulting in 850 responses.
We finalised the project with 18 ideas, allocated into short, medium and long-term actions which are currently being implemented across the city.
Tahnee Chambers, director of engagement and insights at Cowshed, said: “We are so pleased that our work on this project has been recognised at The Pineapples. We’re proud of our community-first approach to strategic comms, making sure people are genuinely empowered to influence the policies that shape the places where they live and work.”
Vicki Spencer-Francis, CEO and founder at Cowshed, said: “Cowshed’s strategic focus and deep commitment to community engagement has been recognised yet again. Working with the people and communities of Newport over the past two years has been an absolute pleasure. Huge props to our team leading this work, Tahnee Chambers, Sam Roberts and Ashrah Suudy and the team at Stride Treglown, along with our incredible clients at Newport City Council.”
