Tips for titillating PR award entries

As public relations practitioners we can all write, think strategically, boil complicated subject matter into an easy-to-read news release or brochure, and promote our clients’ successes. However, it can sometimes be challenging to craft a captivating, back-patting award entry to display and leverage our own good work.

I recently helped coordinate the judging of the PRSA Paper Anvil awards. During the annual judging, our local chapter members review, judge and provide critiques on public relations campaigns and tactics from a sister PRSA chapter. Being a judge turns the tables and provides an opportunity to understand what judges look for in award entries, as well as identify what qualities and components make an entry worthy of an award.

As a frequent PRSA and BMA award entrant, I took away a few best practices for drafting and compiling an award-winning entry:

7 tips for crafting PR award entries

1. List measurable, clearly defined objectives. Tell the judges why you executed such a campaign and what it aimed to accomplish.
2. Give an overview of the organization and program. It sets the stage and offers the judge context for the award entry they are reviewing.
3. Provide a focused target audience and be sure your tactics correlate and make sense for that audience.
4. Results. Results. Results. If you don’t have any or they aren’t strong, don’t submit an award entry! Creative tactics and well-written news releases don’t mean much without measurable results.
5. Supplement the entry with easy-to-access supporting materials. If you developed a Web site, don’t just list the URL, but create screen shots of the site so that the judges can’t help but see what a great site it is.
6. Be sure to carefully edit your entry to include only pertinent documents and supporting materials that clearly tell a story for the judges. No need to throw in every client correspondence, draft or erroneous photo. 
7. Pay attention to detail. It should go without saying that typos, grammatical errors, formatting issues and the like aren’t acceptable in an award entry that is trying to demonstrate excellence in writing and communications.

As the year comes to a close, take a look at your PR campaigns and tactics and think about how you would package those successes into a valuable, intriguing award entry.

To learn more about the Southeastern Wisconsin PRSA Chapter’s Paragon Award program, visit their Web site.