PR Daily’s 2019 Content Marketing Awards celebrates work from agencies, in-house teams and independent consultants. We’re looking for impressive creative content that told stories strategically. We want to know how you tapped into the way people consume content today and used that to your brand’s advantage.

 

PR Daily will recognize marketing and communications professionals who write, edit, film, curate, broadcast, publish or just plain create superb content to promote their brand or organization.

 

Tell us about the content you created to meet a larger marketing goal, such as building brand awareness or finding a fresh talent pool. You can also submit the content and campaigns themselves. We invite you to enter as many categories as you’d like in this year’s competition. Don’t forget our Grand Prize category, “Content Marketing Strategy of the Year,” which will shine a spotlight on the best work in the industry.

 

What makes a winner? Learn more about last year’s winners to see how your work measures up.

 

See a full list of categories and eligibility requirements, and read below to learn how to enter.

 

Please read this page in its entirety before submitting your entry.

See a full list of categories and eligibility requirements, and read how to enter below.

Eligibility Requirements

These awards are open to in-house, agency and independent communication practitioners in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. Enter your work, the work of your organization or submit entries on behalf of your client.

Companies from around the world are welcome to enter as long as the entry is submitted in English.

Contact Brendan Gannon to find the perfect category for your campaign or project. You can reach him at 312-960-4407 or brendang@ragan.com

This year’s program is open to any work executed between Jan. 1, 2018, and June 28, 2019, inclusive.

Prizes

Each category winner will receive:

  • A featured write-up in a Special Edition of Ragan.com
  • An elegant trophy
  • One complimentary registration to any Ragan event, webcast, or conference within 12 months of winning

The winners of the Grand Prize categories also will receive a one-year membership to Ragan Training —a premium online training library featuring hundreds of hours of the very best content from Ragan events. Find out more about the site here: https://ragantraining.com/

CATEGORIES

CONTENT MARKETING FOR THE PURPOSE OF

Brand Awareness

Building up your brand calls for creating content that appeals to both your current audience and the one you hope to acquire. We want to see how you increased awareness about the products or services your brand or client offers. Share your strategy and tell us how you measured success.

Customer Engagement

Customer comments can make or break your reputation, but getting your audience to talk and truly engage can be difficult. What obstacles stood in the way of creating opportunities for true customer engagement? What content did you create to get your audience talking? Did you spark discussions on your blog or social media posts? Did you develop a submission form for customer comments? Did you request video testimonials or written reviews to learn more about product experiences? Tell us.

Lead Generation

Did you create content with impact but that left prospective clients wanting more? Share the content that generated valuable leads for your brand. How did you get your audience to opt in? What made it enticing and engaging? Share your goals for this content and the results.

Reputation Management

Keeping your corporate reputation in good standing is important. What piece of content put your organization’s dedication to transparency on display? How have you used content marketing to recover from a crisis or maintain your pristine reputation? How did you change people’s minds about your brand or inspire them to remain loyal?

Talent Recruitment

You’re interested in recruiting the newest and freshest talent for your team. How did content marketing help you find the perfect candidates for your organization? Maybe you created videos that gave a behind-the-scenes look at the daily operations at your offices. Did articles and interviews featuring your colleagues (and spotlighting their current projects) show potential employees the kind of work they could do within your organization? Share how you used content marketing to broaden your talent pool.

CONTENT MARKETING ASSETS

Article

Were you inspired to write an article worthy of being published on your favorite news site or in your favorite magazine? We want to see how you put your storytelling skills to use. Share the long-form, multi-sourced pieces you’ve written or the short and fun interviews you’ve published. We want to see it all.

Audio Storytelling

An expert storyteller can do his or her job across mediums, so audio storytelling isn’t a problem for you. Was your piece of audio content a recurring podcast, clips from a speech, local radio segments features or a one-off addition to another piece of content? Tell us how you used audio storytelling to stand out, and show off what made it memorable.

Blog

Your blog is an information hub for industry experts, customers and potential employees. Tell us how you created blog posts that were fun and informative while providing an inside look at your organization. Did your leaders—or maybe your interns—create content that told a compelling story about their connection to the organization? Did you supplement written content with video and visual elements? Tell us about your strategy and how it affected traffic and other metrics.

Content Series

The best stories aren’t always one-hit wonders. Keeping readers coming back is just as worthy a goal, and you achieved it with a thought-provoking content series. Did you feature your new class of interns in an article, or create a video series following a product from design to completion? Fill us in.

Electronic Publication or E-newsletter

Share how you took your e-newsletter from “auto-delete” to “must-read.” Tell us about the launch of your latest digital publication. What news did you gather from your analytics and how did you update your strategy to create content that was fresh and new?

Influencer Content Marketing

Your audience wants to hear from trusted sources. How did you tap into the minds of customers to find out who influences their purchasing behavior? How did you turn a viral video star, blogger or social media maven into an ambassador for your brand? How did you use someone else’s digital influence to expose your product or service to an entirely new market? Did you sponsor a series of videos created by a high-profile YouTuber, or maybe got an Instagram style star to feature your product in their #OOTD to earn all the double taps? We want to know how you used influencers to attract the masses.

Infographics

Your team used an infographic to share insights about your industry. What surveys or studies did you conduct to find the information? How did you pull it together in a creative and informative manner? How did you promote it to ensure it was widely shared? Tell us your strategy, how it got you attention and, of course, show us the infographic.

*NEW!* Newsjacking or Trend-Related Content Marketing

There are times when pop culture moments or news stories align perfectly with your brand messaging. How did you capitalize on a fleeting moment in public consciousness that felt truly connected to your brand? We want to hear about your strategy for capturing an audience quickly by finding a real foothold in the conversation surrounding a piece of news or trending topic.

*NEW!* Personalized Content Marketing Strategy

Personalized content is always eye-catching. How did you use personalized content to show your audience that you understand its needs? Tell us how you used demographic data to segment your audience and develop messaging that spoke to them. We want to know about the research that went into the strategy, execution and results.

Print Publication

You can’t get away with the generic ribbon-cutting ceremony cover shot anymore. Instead you took inspiration from the best magazines on newsstands for your print publication. Thinking like a journalist and publisher allowed you to feature the best articles and most compelling images in your publication. Tell us why your brand’s print publication is now the Vogue of your industry.

Social Media

Communicating with your audience has never been easier, thanks to social media. But are you creating content that they love—and love to share? Tell us how your content strengthened your organization’s presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and Snapchat. We want to see examples of your best posts and the audience reaction.

Sponsored Content

You partnered with a publication to get your brand out there. How did you choose which print or digital publication to contribute to? Share your method for creating seamless content that didn’t seem like an ad. Why was this piece successful?

User-Generated Content

Letting your consumers take the helm of your content can be a risk, but you had great success. How did you select your brand’s biggest champions to share their experience with your product or service? Did you create a design competition on social media? Maybe a patient created a blog series about his or her recovery journey at your hospital, or you invited your biggest fans to submit videos about their favorite products. We want to know how you used your customers’ passion for your brand to tell a story.

Video

Creating a video that stands out in today’s saturated social sphere is no easy task. What did you hope to accomplish with your video? How did it come together and result in thousands of views? Tell us how you used this fast-growing communications medium to share your message.

Website

We want to see websites that make use of many different types of content. Tell us how your content-oriented site scored big with your fans or journalists. How did you test your work against top contenders? We’re interested in website metrics, too: total visitors, unique visitors, time spent on site, the number of stories on your website, and videos and images shared on Facebook, LinkedIn, etc.

*NEW!* White Paper

Tell us about the research you did to produce an advanced guide for your audience. Why is your organization the authority on this topic, and your product or service the solution? Tell us why an in-depth piece of long-form content was the best way to pitch your product to a new audience. How did people respond? How were you able to use a white paper to generate new business leads, media coverage or partnerships?

GRAND PRIZE

Content Marketing Strategy of the Year

Content marketing is essential to the success of your entire marketing plan. Tell us about your overarching strategy and how you executed it across multiple channels. We want to see how your content told your brand’s story and sold readers on it and your products. Tell us about your content marketing strategy, how you made use of the above categories and what the outcome was.

How To Enter

On the entry form, be sure to include a thorough synopsis explaining the purpose and scope of your project. We suggest that the synopsis be around 1,000 words (max: 1,250 words) and include the following sub-headings (when applicable):

  • Goals
  • Strategy and tactics
  • Execution
  • Evaluation: success, results or ROI

Be sure to follow the guidelines laid out in the category descriptions, as the judges will look for those elements when they select the winners.

You will be able to upload up to five additional documents to your submission. We encourage you to include press releases, design concepts, videos, analytics, testimonials and anything else you feel will give us a better sense of your project. Proprietary or internal information can also be attached and will not be shared with the public.

Supporting documents that can’t be uploaded to the system should be mailed to:

Brendan Gannon
Ragan Communications
316 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 400
Chicago, IL 60601

ENTER

Additional Questions

Additional Questions

If you have any questions about the program or problems submitting your entry, please call Brendan Gannon at 312-960-4407 or email him at brendang@ragan.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you are interested in sponsoring one of Ragan Communications’ award programs, please contact our sponsorship team at sponsorship@ragan.com.