The campaign was shortlisted for the top five in the Sports and Lifestyle category in the awards.

Swedish ice hockey club Bjorkloven were crowned winners for their #Filltheareana project.

The IPC #WaitForTheGreats project was launched following the postponement of the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games to 2021, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

The campaign included a television spot developed by advertising agency adam&eveDDB that was aired over 2,000 times by broadcasters in 10 countries.

A 24-hour Instagram Live relay and athlete takeovers were also arranged, which featured athletes from all 22 sports and 38 nations, in multiple languages.

The launch of #WaitForTheGreats was complemented by the release of Rising Phoenix, the Netflix movie about the Paralympic Movement.

The IPC say the film sparked conversations about the Paralympics to a wider audience.

IPC President Andrew Parsons also conducted interviews with more than 40 international media outlets leading to widespread global coverage, while an Allianz “Winning Mindset” podcast was launched.

The IPC says the campaign gathered 14 million impressions, 13 million video views and 400,000 engagements across the IPC digital channels.

"This was a tremendous effort from Team IPC involving multiple departments and our tremendous pro-bono advertising agency adam&eveDDB,” said Craig Spence, IPC chief brand and communications officer.

“At a time when we originally should have been in Japan delivering a spectacular Paralympic Games we found ourselves celebrating one year to go until Tokyo 2020 for the second year in a row.

“Thanks to the team’s dynamism and the magical creativity of adam&evedDDB, we delivered a fresh campaign that really did build excitement and interest in next year’s Games, engaging millions of people around the world.

"It is wonderful to be recognised by our industry peers and I am really proud of the team’s efforts this year for dealing with a historic Games postponement and delivering top class work in unique circumstances.”

The European Excellence Awards honour outstanding campaigns and projects in the field of public relations and communications.

The awards are considered a celebration of the most exceptional campaigns in European corporate communications and public relations.

Quadriga, a Berlin-based knowledge hub of excellence in education, information, networking and business IT solutions, hosted the awards.

This was the second time the IPC has been shortlisted for the European Excellence Awards.

The IPC communications and media team won the in-house PR Team of the Year award in 2016, with Spence securing the PR Professional of the Year award.