PR tells the story. The PR Daily Awards tells your story.

Proving the value of your PR initiatives has never been more critical to positioning you and your team for future success. Winning a PR Daily Award is a testament to your hard work and the innovation. Enter the industry's top benchmarking program and showcase the power of PR. You and your team deserve the recognition!

The PR Daily Awards recognize the most outstanding public relations campaigns and initiatives of the year. Choose from dozens of categories, spanning all areas of communication, from media relations to CSR to product launch and social media. The PR Campaign of Year Award caps it off.

There's no reason to not enter, unless you want to stay under the radar and watch your counterparts in other divisions get a larger slice of the budget and recognition.

Gather your top successes of the past year and enter the PR Daily Awards today.

More to know about the PR Daily Awards:

  • Enter in as many categories as you'd like
  • Recognize your team members in the entry form
  • Budgetary information and other behind the scenes strategies in your entry are kept confidential
  • It takes less than 7 minutes to enter one category
  • The Awards cover the time period of the last 12-months.
  • Ask us any questions - we're here to help xxxx
  • We will notify the finalists in early 2020.

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, and vendors, 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 Sept. 1, 2018, and Oct. 1, 2019, inclusive.

Recognition

Each category winner will receive:

  • A featured write-up in a Special Edition of Ragan.com
  • An elegant trophy   
  • Fifteen percent off registration to as many conferences as you’d like within one year of the winner announcement

PLUS: Grand Prize winners receive all of the above, as well as a complimentary one-year membership to Ragan Training, our premier portal featuring hundreds of high-quality streaming videos that can be browsed by topic area, keywords or speakers.

CATEGORIES

GENERAL CAMPAIGNS

B2B Campaign

Tell us about your product or service and the audience you were hoping to get out in front of. How did you target businesses that could benefit from yours? We want to see the campaign you created and how it strengthened the new and established relationships you’ve built in your industry. Please include examples and results.

Branding Campaign

Whether you built your brand from scratch or revamped it this past year, we want to hear about it. Explain how you crafted your new identity and marketed your brand to stand out among your competitors. Share stats that prove your branding or rebranding was a success. If this is a rebrand, please share before-and-after samples and let us know the strategy behind your change.

Cause-Related Marketing Campaign

How did you raise awareness, spread vital information or rally people to act for a good cause? Show us how you've promoted your cause with clever, passionate and engaging PR. Did you rely on traditional tactics such as PSAs and op-eds? Did you start a virtual firestorm with hashtags or viral video? Tell us how you did it.

Community Relations Campaign

How did you take a community service initiative from idea to reality? Did you create a campaign to bring awareness to a community in need? We want to see everything you produced: social media content, newspaper and magazine ads, white papers, op-eds, radio and TV advertising, direct mailings—all of it. Don't forget results.

Content Marketing and Brand Journalism Campaign

What stories did you tell on behalf of your brand? We want to see what you wrote, edited, shot or published. Share work that skillfully wove your organization’s narrative into tales of customer or staff experiences. We love stories that subtly proved your subject matter experts were the industry leaders. What were the goals of your campaign or project? What were the results? Don’t forget to include a link and screenshots of your work.

*NEW* Corporate Communications Campaign

We want to see how you delivered stellar messaging to all stakeholders—both internally and externally—and built your organization’s identity and brand. What channels did you use? What was the overall goal of the campaign? How did you achieve success? Share the details with us.

Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign

Is your organization a steward of the environment? Is giving back to the local or global community an important part of your business or philanthropic model? Do you show innovative, unusual ways of caring for your employees’ well-being, or lend your voice (or financial support) to a worthy cause? What have you done to spread this message and improve your organization’s or client's reputation? Send us the response and feedback.

Crisis Communication Campaign

How did you confront and power through a crisis this past year from inside or outside? What was your communications plan? Tell us what your strategy was for getting your message to the right audience in a timely and tactful manner.

Event Marketing Campaign

How did you get the word out and build excitement for your event? How was your plan creative and effective? What tools did you use to execute: social media or traditional communications? Don’t forget to send samples of your work and show us pictures of your exciting soirée.

*NEW* Influencer Campaign

Partnering with the right celebrity or influencer can make a huge difference in a campaign. How did you find the best fit for your product or service? Who was the influencer of choice for your goals? What did you hope to achieve? Share what made your campaign a success.

Location-Based Campaign

Did you target a particular geographic region or run a localized campaign that would only make sense in that location? How were you able to understand the market at the ground level and get results? Detail what you did, how you planted your idea in the right local scene and what you accomplished.

*NEW* Marketing Campaign

Your impeccable marketing savvy led to incredible success for your campaign. We want to hear how you delivered an award-worthy marketing performance. What was your strategy? Which tactics did you employ? What channels did you use to deliver your messaging? Don’t forget to include your goals, execution and success metrics.

Media Pitch

As PR moves away from traditional press releases, reporters are getting bombarded with more creative email and multimedia pitches than ever before. Did your organization create a pitch that got major attention? What made your pitch irresistible? Dazzle us.

*NEW* Niche Campaign

Your product or service was targeted to a very specific audience—and you found it. How did you find the perfect audience for your goals and deliver compelling messaging that engaged them? What was your strategy? Share the tactics that led to success, and don’t forget to share metrics.

PR on a Shoestring

How did you pull together a PR campaign with little to no budget? Tell us how you got your brand’s or client’s message tons of attention. Don’t forget to include your goals, execution and success metrics.

*NEW* Reputation Management Campaign

Your organization withstood the initial crisis, but the work wasn’t finished. Share with us how you repaired your leaders’, organization’s or brand’s reputation in the aftermath. Which tactics did you employ? What was the overall strategy?

Social Media Campaign

How did you bring all the pieces together for your best social media campaign from this past year? More than just an improved Facebook newsfeed page or an Instagram or Twitter account, we want to see how you executed a cohesive campaign across several online channels. We'll be looking for deliberate strategy, great content and results.

Thought Leadership Campaign

You positioned your executives or organization as industry experts with an impressive thought leadership campaign. How did you humanize executives and deliver engaging, powerful messaging with meaningful takeaways for your audience? Tell us about the problem this campaign sought to solve. Were you recovering from a crisis? Looking to contribute to a larger, cultural discussion? Rebranding your organization and hoping to stand out from competitors? Tell us what constitutes expertise in your industry and how you were able to share that with your audience. Don’t forget to include details about your strategy, execution and results.

Traditional Campaign

How did you put together a good old-fashioned traditional PR campaign? If you’ve found innovative uses for familiar PR instruments, you will have gone a long way toward making yourself a winner. Your campaign could include news releases, events, television, press conferences and publicity stunts, but no social media. Show us all the details.

Viral Campaign

Did you create something that was so funny, memorable or relatable that it just begged to be shared? Did you create a client video knowing it had potential to gather views by the hundreds of thousands from around the world, or did you shoot a short piece hoping to get a few hundred nibbles from knowledgeable industry influencers? Lay out your plan, campaign and results.

PUBLICATIONS

Annual Report

The best annual reports reveal the heart and soul of the organization while imparting key information to stakeholders. Show us how your annual report conveyed the spirit of your culture and workplace to employees, investors and the public. What creative methods did you employ to achieve your success?

Blog

Tell us what makes your blog original, insightful and inspiring. Please show us its reach and give examples of its reputation and authority in your industry. Include a statistical analysis if possible. Please include links to the blog you created for your organization or client and share a minimum of three posts.

Digital Publication

Many organizations are trimming budgets by relying on electronic publications. Share your digital publications, either in file format or hosted online. Be sure to let us know your goals, strategy, execution and results.

Online Newsroom

Show us how your organization has changed its online newsroom to attract reporters, bloggers, researchers and the public. Does your newsroom tell interesting, vital stories about your organization? If possible, use online analytics to prove your newsroom gets lots of traffic. Anecdotal evidence of increased use is also acceptable—and welcome. Please include a link or multiple screenshots with your entry.

Press Kit

Your new product release, exciting event or press preview wouldn’t be complete without a comprehensive press kit. We want to see how you armed reporters with essential information in advance of exciting news. Share your press kit with us. We’d love to see print or digital versions complete with images and resources. Include examples and feedback.

Print Publication

For all the perks of digital, there’s still much to be said for a great print publication. From magazines and reports to pamphlets, brochures and media kits, share with us your best print publications. Tell us what makes them so great, and be sure to include results and feedback.

Website

Does your new website for your client or organization make you swell with pride? Send us the link and support your case for its blow-your-socks-off greatness. We'll be looking at design, presentation, content and simple, clear navigation. If this is a relaunch, please include documentation (numerous screen shots) of the previous site, and show us before-and-after results side by side.

CAMPAIGNS BY INDUSTRY

Automotive Campaign

Did you need to generate buzz for a new release, sale or automotive technology? We want to see the campaign you put together. Whether you’re championing a luxury model or a minivan, share the goals of your campaign, the channels you used and the impressive results.

Beauty, Fashion or Lifestyle Campaign

Your campaign looks amazing, but did it deliver amazing results? Tell us how you spoke on behalf of a new or established beauty, lifestyle or fashion brand. Standout campaigns are those that champion diversity and communicate creatively. Share your goals and vision, show us the campaign and include results and metrics.

Education Campaign

Knowledge is power, and your campaign was undeniably powerful. Share the PR work you created on behalf of educational institutions, school districts, educational software or e-learning organizations, associations and more. How did you get people excited about learning?

Finance or Utilities Campaign

How did you make communication on behalf of a financial services or utilities brand interesting and fun? We’re looking for unique campaigns that set your brand apart as a leader in your industry.

Food or Beverage Campaign

We’re hungry for fresh, exciting food and beverage campaigns. Are you promoting a new health food or an established, beloved brand? Tell us how you developed a PR campaign that stood out in the crowded food and beverage space.

NEW* Gaming Campaign

The gaming industry is big business. How did you deliver a winning campaign? What were your goals? What tactics and channels did you tap into to achieve success? Share all the details and any relevant metrics.

Hospitality, Travel or Tourism Campaign

Whether you’re dedicated to providing travelers with a luxurious, thrilling or relaxing experience, the story you tell matters. Share the hospitality, travel or tourism campaigns that showed potential guests what they would experience if they were to book with you. Tell us about the goals of your campaign, its execution and the feedback you received from guests or fans on social media.

Sports or Outdoor Campaign

Your campaign was a breath of fresh air. You communicated on behalf of sports or outdoor brands to show off new gear, position a team or athlete favorably or execute an interactive event. Did you inspire people to get moving? Was your partnership with a sports star a social media success? Share your plan and how you pulled it off.

Technology Campaign

Is your tech brand-new or a household name? In either case, we want to know about the PR campaigns you’ve put together to attract new users, local and national news media and social media followers. Include your goals, strategy, execution and metrics.

PR EVENTS

Contest or Giveaway

Everyone loves a free product. Pulling together a giveaway is a brilliant way to generate excitement in your audience. Were you hoping to reach a new demographic, build brand awareness or start trending on social media? What were the benefits of creating this contest or giveaway? Did it generate lots of user-generated content? Share all the details and the feedback you received.

Influencer Event

Trusted tastemakers can make or break your brand. You spared no expense to put together an event for influencers in your industry. How did you get them to share their experience with your brand on social media? Did you pull together an exclusive tasting event, throw a swanky party, take them on a tour of your headquarters or whisk them away on all-expenses paid getaway? No matter how big or how small your event was, we want to know how it put a spotlight on your brand. Share the details from concept to execution, and please include results.

Press Event or Media Tour

How did you pull together a pool of reporters, cameras in tow, microphones ready—all the important industry journalists? Tell us about your preparations for the media day, press conference or media tour that got everyone talking about your organization. If there were positive aftereffects, we want to hear about those too.

Product or Service Launch

Tell us how your PR department or client blew away customers, competitors and the media with the launch of a new product or service. Describe the tactics and strategy, and brag about how sweet the outcome proved to be.

Publicity Stunt

How did your publicity stunt or guerilla marketing tactic directly or indirectly generate buzz for your client or highlight your message? What ideas inspired its creation? What led to its success? How did you measure results?

HEALTH CARE PR AND MARKETING

Community Outreach Campaign

Did you take a grassroots approach to educating your community about health issues? Share the public health issues that were affecting your community. Tell us how you sought to raise awareness about these problems. What creative strategies did you use to spread the word? We want to know what organizations you may have collaborated with and what effect your campaign had on the wellness of your community. What was the goal of your outreach project and how did you achieve it?

Internal Communications Campaign

You appreciate the tirelessly dedicated doctors, nurses, staff and administrators who make your health care institution run smoothly, but how do you communicate that? How do you make sure that staffers who are constantly on the go, solving high-stakes problems, know what’s going on in your organization? Do you use the intranet, meetings, a mobile app or digital signage to get your message across? Tell us how you keep employees informed and motivated.

Marketing Campaign

Tell us how you created a marketing campaign for your wellness initiative, health care institution, health related cause or study. How did you build awareness around the great work you’re doing? We want to see comprehensive marketing campaigns and innovative ideas. Share your strategy for targeting your audience across multiple channels. Don’t forget to share your results.

PR or Media Relations Campaign

You’re in the business of building buzz, and your campaign has everyone talking. Share the public relations or media relations campaigns that got your health-related organization, product or executive noticed. Did you arrange an on-camera interview with your local news station to highlight the work your organization is doing? Did you partner with influencers to help drive your message to your target audience? Tell us your innovative idea and share the results.

Social Media Campaign

Social media is one of the most powerful ways to connect with your audience. How did you build a campaign that strengthened this connection and increased brand awareness? Share cohesive campaigns that saw success across multiple platforms. We want to see great content that drove big results.

Thought Leadership Campaign

In order to position your hospital, medical facility or organization as the best in the business, you created a thought leadership campaign. Tell us how you selected your thought leader(s). Was he or she a successful orthopedic surgeon, a hospital executive with a passion for public speaking or a nonprofit leader with a personal connection to the organization’s mission? How did you build your campaign around this person’s strengths? What differentiated them from others in the field? Don’t forget to share results.

Article

Share the compelling story of a patient’s experience at your hospital, an educational take on studies and scientific breakthroughs or how you shared important information about your organization. Submit op-eds, print or digital feature stories or blog posts. We want to see content that was well written and widely shared.

Blog

Why is your organization’s blog a go-to place for information about your industry? Does it tell the stories of your employees, executives and patients? Tell us about your blog’s reach and how you’ve established a reputation as a trusted authority in the health care industry. Share links to at least three blog posts and include blog metrics.

Content Marketing and Brand Journalism

Tell us your big-picture storytelling strategy and how you executed it. We want to see how you crafted content that told your organization’s story with subtlety. How did you create social media content, articles, video and more that provided valuable information to your audience while also branding your organization as a leading health care provider? What were the goals of your campaign or project? What were the results? Don’t forget to include a link to and screenshots of your work.

Digital Publication

What digital publication did you edit or create that was the total PR package? How did your content and design stay ahead of your competitors? How did your digital design draw in readers? Tell us about your digital publications, either in file format or hosted online. Let us know your goals, strategy, execution and results. Your publication can be internal or external to qualify.

Patient-Focused Content

Consumer stories are incredibly important for understanding where your organization’s reputation stands. When patients are your consumers, you have a great opportunity to tell incredible stories. What opportunities do patients have to share about their experience under your care? How have they helped to build credibility around your mission, staff and history? Share the method you used to gather this information, your vehicles of choice to showcase the story and show us the results.

Print Publication

Is your corporate magazine the Vogue of the health care world? Share it with us. We want to see a stunning display of creative images and informative, engaging content. Do you have a brochure, pamphlet or printed report to show off? Submit those as well. Show and tell us what makes them so great, and be sure to include results and feedback. Your qualifying publication can be distributed internally or externally.

Video

Did you use video to appeal to your audience? Share your digital and TV ads, content marketing videos, testimonials, media reels, facility tours, interviews and more. Tell us the story behind the video and what you hoped to accomplish with its creation. Don’t forget to share metrics.

Website Launch or Relaunch

Did you revamp your web presence? We want to see how you improved your website to create something that’s user-friendly, well-designed and filled with great content. Was this your original launch or were you unveiling something new and improved? Before-and-after screenshots will help sell your case, along with some good old-fashioned metrics, too.

GRAND PRIZE

PR Campaign of the Year

This year’s winner will show command of an impressive number of PR tools, tactics and strategies. Share the specialized PR campaign that got unbelievable results. Our judges will look at everything from your mission and goals to your strategy and tactics—and again, results, results, results.

Health Care PR and Marketing Campaign of the Year

Tell us about your impressive PR and marketing campaign. What did you create on behalf of your hospital, client or agency? What were your objectives for this campaign and how did you exceed them? Our judges will look at everything from your mission and goals to your strategy and tactics. Tell us. Show us. We want to see aspirations, intentions and results.

How To Enter

On the entry form, be sure to include a thorough synopsis explaining the purpose and scope of your project. We ask that the synopsis be at least 500 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:

*NEW ADDRESS*

Brendan Gannon
Ragan Communications 
10 S. LaSalle St., Suite 310
Chicago, IL 60603

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should you apply?
Our award programs help you measure the success of your work and prove the value of your contributions to your organization. You can set yourself apart in the industry as an expert, which will open doors throughout your career. As a winner, you’ll earn publicity for your brand across our websites and social media audiences, discounted training at Ragan conferences, a custom write-up about your campaign and a trophy.
Who can enter?
Entries may be submitted by organizations worldwide. The only requirement is that entries be submitted in English. The program is open to in-house, agency, independent communication practitioners and vendors in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors.
What does it take to be a winner?
We look for top-quality work that shows clear, bold and creative ideas that benefit your business or client. Please provide metrics or media coverage that back up your claims, and share creative collateral such as videos, visual design or websites that were a part of your project. Please look at our past award winners to see what gets recognized and rewarded. We encourage you to submit the same campaign to multiple categories, if you feel they are relevant. Doing so increases your chances of winning.
What are the entry requirements?
The entry form requires that you submit a synopsis explaining the purpose and scope of your project. The synopsis—1,000 to 1,250 words, please—should include the following sub-headings (when applicable):
  • Goals
  • Strategy and tactics
  • Execution
  • Evaluation: success, results or ROI
Campaigns must have been executed within 12 months prior to the date we begin accepting submissions for a given program.
Why are some deadlines extended?
We extend deadlines based on applicant needs and upcoming promotional opportunities.
When will I find out results?
We try to announce a list of finalists six to eight weeks after the close of the program. The announcement of the winners comes about three to four weeks after the announcement of the finalists. Each announcement will be made with a headline on our website, in our daily email newsletter and on our social media platforms. Emails notify entrants in advance of these announcements. As deadlines are extended, so are expected announcement dates.

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

If you are interested in sponsoring one of Ragan Communications’ award programs, please contact Kristin Farmer at 312-960-4405 or email her at kristinf@ragan.com.