It's awards season, and there are plenty of programs out there to honor the best in communications. PR NEWS is currently accepting late entries in the CSR Awards, as well as
entries for our PR Professional of the Year (to be named in December). See http://www.PRandMarketing.com for more information.
We don't purport to speak for every awards program, but there are a few standard strategies that should get you far with most PR awards programs:
Enter the Best: Carefully consider which programs you should enter. Judges will appreciate you doing the first round of eliminations for them.
Provide Results: Like client organizations and senior management, judges want to see how the campaign moved the needle. Offer a brief synopsis of key results up front, not just
in a results section buried at the back of your entry or in piles of supporting materials. Match results with your clearly-defined goals for the initiative.
Offer Contact Information: It seems simple enough, but putting your contact information on every page of an entry (not just on the entry form) can be immensely helpful to
judges and program organizers.
Proofread for Typos, Content: Many judges are instantly turned off by what could be a great campaign because of typos and grammatical errors. Treat an awards entry as you would
any key project. Proofread, write clearly, have colleagues, supervisors, or even a co-worker in another department review the entry for an objective take on the entry. And
packaging counts, whether it's getting the binder size right, or just creating an organized presentation of your campaign.