East Anglian based Pier has been announced as a finalist in The Grocer Marketing Advertising and PR Awards (The MAP Awards), the national awards that celebrate the best creative campaigns in the grocery and FMCG sectors.

The awards highlight both client and agency contribution to creative excellence and places Pier alongside some of the very best marketing agencies in the UK.

The MAP Awards have 22 categories ranging from Brand Experience of the Year to Outdoor Creative of the Year. The awards are judged by a panel of 20 experts from across the industry, selected on the basis of their expertise and independence. This year saw 185 industry heavyweights vying for prizes and Pier has been selected as a finalist in the Consumer PR Campaign of the Year category for its Kerry Foods campaign: Ken Hom – 30 Years of Great Food/Chinese New Year.

Pier director Kate Bowden Smith comments: “This is another fantastic result for us, 2014 has become our most successful year since Pier started in 2008 and to be recognised as a finalist amongst some of the very best agencies in the UK is a real accolade.”

This is the latest award success for Pier which earlier this year announced that it had been shortlisted in the 2014 Chartered Institute of Public Relations Anglia, Thames and Chiltern PRide Awards 2014 for both the ‘Outstanding Public Relations Consultancy’ and ‘Best Use of Media Relations’ categories.

Set up in 2008, Pier has grown from two people to a carefully selected team of eight. Over the last three years Pier’s turnover has increased by almost 190% and this year Pier tripled its office space to accommodate its expansion.