The Golden Globes have come and gone, and The Oscars are just a few weeks away… But, awards season doesn’t end in February — if you work in the public relations industry.
If you consider four of the top national PR industry awards, our “submission season” typically begins in early October of a calendar year and runs through mid-April the following year. After that, awards ceremonies reveal the winners in events that run from March through June.
I’m sharing a brief overview of four major awards here in an effort to foster understanding and interest in competing for industry recognition via your successful, results-oriented PR programs and campaigns. The good news is: You still have time to enter two of the 2019 awards programs I’m featuring. Bonus: You can repurpose some of your 2019 submissions for the 2020 PR awards season if your award-worthy programs run into 2019. See the dates and deadlines below to see which ones.
The Silver Anvils. Hosted by the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) each year, the Silver Anvil Awards recognize outstanding strategic public relations programs in 18 categories. Successful entries demonstrate complete programs that incorporate sound insights and analysis, planning, execution and evaluation and the highest standards of performance in the profession. The two-page summary is vital to your success, so give it plenty of time and attention, and make note of the formatting rules. They matter.
Dates and Deadlines: Programs that ran — in full or in part — in 2018 qualify for this year’s competition and entries are due Feb. 8 or by Feb. 22 if you pay a $200 late fee.
Submissions: Plan to provide basic entry details (award category, program and entrant names and a 100-word description of your program). You’ll also submit a two-page program summary, supporting materials (up to 225 pages with a maximum file size of 10MB) and up to 3 graphics that represent your entry.
Entry Fees: You pay $340 for each entry if you’re a PRSA member or $440 if you’re not, plus a late fee if you don’t submit by Feb. 8.
This Year’s Awards: PRSA will announce the Silver Anvil finalists by late March 2019, and the Award of Excellence and Silver Anvil winners will be announced June 6 at the ceremony in New York.
Cannes PR Lions. The Cannes PR Lions awards are part of the Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity, a festival and awards program that spans nine tracks — including Reach — where the PR Lions fall. They celebrate the craft of strategic and creative communications. Successful entries demonstrate original thinking, transformative insight and a strategy rooted in earned media that has influenced opinion and driven business, societal, and/ or cultural change.
Submissions: You’ll choose from one of eleven PR sectors and six categories: digital and social, insights and measurement, techniques, excellence in PR and culture and context (Each category has a number of subcategories as well). To compete here, plan to submit a digital presentation image, a case film, physical supporting materials, an award show film and digital supporting images and content.
Dates: Your program is eligible to enter if it aired, launched or was released to the public for the first time between March 1, 2018, and 30 April 30, 2019.
Entry Fees and Deadlines: Entry fees vary by the date you submit: $640 per entry by March 14, $840 by March 28, $930 by April 11 or $1,050 by the final deadline of April 18 (Note: Entry fees have been converted from Euros to dollars and will vary depending on the exchange rate at the time of entry).
This Year’s Awards: The 2019 winners will be announced some time June 17 through 21 during the festival in Cannes.
The PRWeek Awards. These awards celebrate the best of the best corporate, agency, nonprofit, and education teams and the work they produced during the entry period. PRWeek offers over 40 entry categories that fall under either campaigns, technique, personality, education, business (in-house), business (agency) or best of the best. Successful entries demonstrate meaningful results like bottom-line impact and measurable business results, notable changes to stakeholder behavior or operational outcomes that move the needle. Brevity and budget details also enhance your chances for success.
Dates and This Year’s Awards: Judges are evaluating programs that ran between October 2, 2017, and October 1, 2018 for this year’s awards. PRWeek announced the 2019 finalists in December, and winners will be announced on March 21 at Cipriani Wall Street in New York.
Submissions and Deadlines: (If dates and rules follow this year’s competition): Plan to submit your 2020 PRWeek Award entries in early October. You’ll submit summary details through an online form along with materials (images, documents, videos or websites) that support it. Different categories call for different details and section word limits, so be sure to check the entry kit and rules for this once it’s released for next year’s awards.
Entry Fees: You’ll pay $440 per entry and an additional $280 per submission if you enter the same program in multiple categories. Prepare to pay an additional $270 per entry if you miss the early deadline.
The SABRE Awards. Awarded each year by The Holmes Report, these awards recognize PR programs for superior achievement in branding, reputation and engagement across eight practice areas and several different industry sectors. You can also compete in Diamond categories like Company of the Year, Superior Achievement in Brand Building and more and Silver categories like Thought Leadership in PR, PR Agency Marketing and a few others. Successful entries demonstrate courage, authenticity, engagement, sharability, stickiness, ethics and an impact on behavior.
Submissions: Based on last year’s rules and requirements, you’ll submit entries for programs that ran — at least in part — in 2019 for the next SABRE Awards competition. Plan to submit a summary of the assignment (a two-page document, a brief Powerpoint or a video) and samples of work (websites and videos; sample ads, infographics or web pages; mobile applications).
Dates and Deadlines: The entries for 2018 programs closed Jan. 28; but, you can enter programs that ran from 2018 into this year in the next competition (the 2020 awards). If deadlines follow the 2018 dates, plan to enter between Nov. 26 and the early deadline of Dec. 31 this year — or by the late deadline at the end of January.
Entry Fees: You pay $395 per entry for basic entries, an additional $75 if you enter different elements of the same overall campaign in different categories and an additional $80 if you don’t submit by the early deadline. If you enter as a Diamond or Silver competitor, plan to pay an additional $100.
This Year’s Awards: This year’s winners will be announced May 1, 2019, at the 2019 North America SABRE Awards Ceremony at Cipriani 42nd Street in New York.
These are just a few of many industry awards that recognize and celebrate our industry. I know there are many more regional, state and local PR industry awards as well as other national ones. If you have a program that has made a difference in ways that count, it’s not too late to start thinking about submitting and competing for one of them.
Remember, if the deadline has passed for submitting your 2018 work on any of these awards, you can still enter your program in 2020 PR industry awards if some or part of that campaign work happened/happens in 2019.
And, if you are thinking about it, you can find tips on creating your entries through the following links:
Amanda L. Ray 