Entry Deadline: June 18, 2021

PR TELLS THE STORY.
THE PR DAILY AWARDS TELLS YOUR  STORY.

Public relations professionals played a crucial role in delivering engaging communications during a year unlike we’ve ever experienced. Your work helped organizations and clients deliver powerful and essential messaging during a worldwide pandemic, calls for social justice and equality and so much more.

Enter the industry’s most esteemed recognition program from the brand you know and trust: PR Daily. Ragan’s PR Daily Awards will honor the best in public relations from the past 15 months. The awards program will showcase the PR campaigns, events, initiatives, publications and more that led to success for your clients or organization.

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 innovation. Enter the industry’s top benchmarking program and showcase PR’s influence within the organization and the marketplace.

You and your team deserve the recognition! Want to see what winning works looks like? Take a look at last year’s winners.

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

HOW TO ENTER

Campaign or Project Entries: 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 no more than 1,000 words and include the following sub-headings (when applicable):

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

Individual or Team Entries: Tell us in 1,000 words or less about the nominee’s or team's accomplishments in the previous 12 months. Winners will be those who have distinguished themselves among their peers with meaningful achievements. Please include examples of creative campaigns or initiatives that have proved beneficial to your organization or clients. When applicable, please include the following sub-headings:

  • 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 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 
10 S. LaSalle St., Suite 310 
Chicago, IL 60603

ENTER

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 any country 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 call 312-960-4407 or email brendang@ragan.com.

This year’s program is open to any work executed between March 1, 2020, and June 1, 2021, inclusive.

ENTRY FEES

The fee for this program is $425 per entry into standard categories. Grand Prize and Hall of Fame entries are $475 per entry.

A late fee of $199 per entry will be added to all entries after 11:59 p.m. Central time, June 18, 2021.

Do you have a campaign, project, person or team you'd like to enter into multiple categories? Pay the original entry fee, and then only $199 for each additional category!

All entries are non-returnable and non-refundable.

W-9 Form / Tax ID Number Request

CATEGORIES

HALL OF FAME

 Hall of Fame PR Campaign

Honoring an extremely successful PR campaign that should serve as a case study for best practices in public relations. This campaign can be on-going but must be at least 12 months in the market.

GENERAL CAMPAIGNS

 Activism Campaign

Tell us about a campaign you championed that affected change for a cause, initiative, organization or program that your company felt very strongly about. What were you hoping to achieve? What were the results? Don’t forget to share examples.

 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.

 Brand Journalism

We’re looking for organizations with talented storytellers who published engaging narratives that earned incredible engagement. Your stories set you apart from the pack, and we want to see how you delivered captivating content to the masses. Include and samples, links or other materials that showcase your work.

 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 Engagement Campaign

We want to hear about your campaigns that engaged a specific community. What were your goals? Which tactics proved most beneficial? Don’t forget to share results.

 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 Initiatives

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.

 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.

 Covid-19 Communications Campaign

The pandemic has changed everything—and you likely had to change your approach to respond to a global pandemic. We want to hear how you pivoted your communications plans during COVID-19. What innovations did you make or new initiatives did you create? Tell us how you reached your audiences safely in what was unchartered global territory.

 Crisis Communication Campaign

How did you confront and power through a crisis this past year (other than Covid-19)? Tell us what your strategy was for getting your message to the right audience in a timely and tactful manner

 DE&I Communications

You created a campaign or initiative that promoted diversity, equity and inclusion. What were the goals? How did you use your communications platform to combat discrimination against the marginalized group(s) you were supporting?

 Employer Branding

We want to hear about the organizations that employees love to work for. How did you attract new employees, while engaging and retaining your current workforce? We want to hear how you delivered messaging about what makes your organization a great place to work.

 ESG Communications

Tell us how you communicated your organization’s environmental, social and governance efforts. How did you engage stakeholders? What information did you provide? We want to know what your organization is doing in the areas of sustainability and societal impact—and how you delivered these results.

 Event PR 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.

 Government Relations

We want to know about your communications efforts that helped you communicate with governmental publics. How did you communicate with government and legislators to influence change at the local, regional, national or global level?

 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.

 Investor Relations Campaign

How did you engage and educate your shareholders and investors? What was the goal of your campaign? What results did it yield? We want all the details.

 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.

 Media Relations Campaign

Tell us about your campaign working with media that helped deliver engaging messaging about your organization's mission, policies or practices. We want to hear about the mutually beneficial relationships with journalists and how you provided them with a steady stream of story ideas or sources.

 Multicultural Campaign

Tell us about your campaign or project that was delivered especially to engage a particular cultural group. Who were you aiming to engage? What channels did you use? What were the results? We want to hear all about it.

 Nonprofit Communications Campaign

We want to hear about creative, innovative nonprofit communications campaigns that helped promote your important cause or organization. We want to see comprehensive PR campaigns that drove traffic to your website, inspired people to engage with you on social media, drove major fundraising initiatives or turned your supporters into your biggest advocates.

 Original Research

You or your client created original research and the results were highly beneficial. Did you share it with the public? Did this help position your organization, its leaders or your clients as an authority on the topic? Share with us your original research and the results.

 PR on a Shoestring Budget

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 for less than $5,000. Don’t forget to include your goals, execution and success metrics.

 Press Release

We’re looking for impressive press releases that delivered important news about your organization or client. How did you engage busy audiences? What was the purpose of your press release? What opportunities did this lead to? Tell us all about your masterful press release.

 Public Affairs Campaign

How did your PR efforts influence public policy or educate policy-makers about issues? We’re looking for strong public affairs campaigns that delivered results.

 Public Service Campaign

Tell us about your campaign that helped raise awareness for particular societal issues or concerns. What issues or concerns were you aiming to address? How did you advance public education? What were the results.

 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 Justice Campaign

Tell us about your campaign that aimed to bring justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities or privilege. How did you engage and educate audiences? We want to hear about how your powerful and influential campaign.

 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.

 Storytelling Campaign

Tell us about the captivating stories told through your campaign. What mediums did you use? Which channels helped you tell your stories? What story were you trying to tell? We're looking for engaging narrative campaigns that delivered results.

 Thought Leadership Communications

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.

 Use of Data or Measurement

Numbers don’t lie, and you built a campaign around metrics that led to success. How did you use data to tailor your campaign? How did you decide which metrics were important? What obstacles did you have to overcome? Share the results that proved your success.

 Video Campaign

You told stunning visual stories—and we want to hear about them. Share your video campaigns that engaged audiences and kept viewers glued to their screens. What were the goals of your campaign? On which channels were these videos delivered? Tell us about your captivating video campaign.

 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.

 PR By Vertical Industry

These entries cover campaigns in any of the following industries: Arts and Entertainment Campaign; Automotive Campaign; Beauty, Fashion or Lifestyle Campaign; Hospitality, Travel or Tourism Campaign; Sports or Outdoor Campaign; Technology Campaign

BLOGS, PODCASTS & 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.

 Newsletter

Did your newsletter captivate audiences? Did it showcase feature interviews, profiles or sections? Who or what was the subject? What was the message and goal? What was the response? Share the content that earned engagement.

 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.

 Podcast

Your podcast engaged audiences and kept them coming back for more. What is the podcast about? Do you offer insider scoops, book engaging guests or ask thought-provoking questions? Share the details, including your strategy and any metrics that prove your success.

 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.

PR EVENTS (LIVE OR VIRTUAL)

 Charity Event

Tell us about your event that raised awareness or funds for a cause, charity or nonprofit. Who or what was the event benefiting? How did you get people to attend? Tell us about the event and how it benefited the cause, charity or nonprofit.

 Covid-19 Related Event

We want to hear about your events that were related to Covid-19. Was it an awareness event? Was the event in support of an organization or group during the pandemic? Did it educate the audience? Wen wat to hear about ay event you or your client created that was related to Covid-19.

 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.

SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATIONS BY CHANNEL

 Clubhouse

How did you use this invitation- and audio-only platform to communicate with your audiences? Let us know about your engaging conversations and how they led to success.

 Facebook

Tell us how you use Facebook to engage your audiences. How did you stand out on cluttered feeds? Share how you created content that drew visitors in and kept them coming back. We want to hear the goals of your Facebook communications and results.

 Instagram

The visual platform is a great way to capture the attention of distracted audiences, but how exactly did you achieve success on Instagram? We want to see the scroll-stopping content that got viewers to pause and take a second look. What were the goals? What strategy spelled success for your organization?

 LinkedIn

Tell us how you used the professional networking site to connect with your audience. Did you deliver beneficial content that readers enjoyed? How did your organization stand out and engage audiences? Share the goals, strategy and results.

 Snapchat

Your message resonated with audiences, even after your video vanished. How did you captivate audiences? What were your goals? What made Snapchat a great channel for you? Share all the goods.

 TikTok

The short-form video platform is wonderful for captivating visually driven audiences. We want to hear how you used this fast-growing platform to engage audiences and deliver your message.

 Twitter

Your content was short and sweet, and that’s what audiences wanted. How did you captivate readers in 280 characters or less? Were highly engaging visuals part of your content mix? Share all the details.

 YouTube

You got audiences to tune into your video on YouTube. Do you have a popular channel, with successful videos? Did you create one video that took off? We want to know how you used the popular video platform to tell visual stories. Share the goals, strategy and results.

PEOPLE AND TEAMS

 PR Agency of the Year

Your agency delivered—big time—for your client. We want to hear all about your successful work. Share your strategy, tactics, channels, and all the content and metrics.

 PR Leader of the Year

We’re looking for the fearless leaders who captained a team of PR professionals and not only delegated work flawlessly, but mentored the communicators on their team. We want to hear about the nominee’s success over the past year.

 PR Professional of Year

We’re looking for communicators who know how to deliver successful campaigns for their brand, clients or organization. How did the nominee help grow awareness for their organization or client and boost revenue? What beneficial partnerships did they create with outside sources? We want to hear it all.

 Agency PR Team of the Year

What strategies and tactics does your Agency PR team use to send and showcase key messages to target audiences? Tell us how your team creates a narrative for its clients' uniquely compelling point of view for the public, customers, employees—or all three.

 Corporate PR Team of the Year

What strategies and tactics does your Corporate PR team use to send and showcase key messages to your target audiences? Tell us how your team creates a narrative for your organization’s uniquely compelling point of view for the public, your customers, your employees—or all three.

 Government/Nonprofit PR Team of the Year

What strategies and tactics does your Government or Nonprofit PR team use to send and showcase key messages to your target audiences? Tell us how your team creates a narrative for your organization’s uniquely compelling point of view for the public, your customers, your employees—or all three.

HEALTH CARE PR AND MARKETING

 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.

 Brand Journalism

We want to see how you crafted content that told your organization’s story with subtlety. Tell us about your brand journalism that was beneficial to audiences while also branding your organization as a leading health care provider.

 Content Marketing

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.

 Covid-19 Communications

Tell us how your health care organization or client engaged audiences and stay connected with them amid the pandemic. Health care organizations told powerful stories and have played an important role in delivering essential information during the Covid-19 pandemic, and we want to hear about it.

 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.

 Newsletter

Did your newsletter captivate audiences? Did it showcase feature interviews, profiles or sections? Who or what was the subject? What was the message and goal? What was the response? Share the content that earned engagement.

 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.

 Podcast

How did you use audio to share important health information? Do your hosts discuss health-related news stories? Do they interview experts in the health and wellness industry? Tell us why your podcast is the perfect vehicle for any and all of these topics. Don’t forget to include results.

 PR 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.

 Publication

Share your captivating digital or print publications. We want to see a stunning display of creative images and informative, engaging content. Do you have a digital or print brochure, pamphlet or report to show off? Submit those. 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.

 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 Communications

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.

 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.

 Health Care Communications Campaign of the Year

What made your health care communications the best of the best? We want to hear how your communications stood out from the pack and how your campaign delivered incredible results for your health care organization or client.

GRAND PRIZE

 Outstanding Communications During the Pandemic

We're looking for the communications efforts that went above and beyond during Covid-19. How did you stay connected throughout the pandemic? Were your communications instrumental in delivering essential messages? Did you excel in engaging newly virtual audiences? Were your communications critical to helping your organization not only endure, but thrive, during the pandemic? Tell us about your impressive communications throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

 Outstanding Social Justice Communications

Your organization or client took action when it came to a social justice initiative it was passionate about. How did their communications deliver powerful messages in support of this cause or initiative? What were the goals, and how did you achieve them? We want to hear about the influential communications aimed at bringing justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities or privilege.

 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.

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, 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?
Although each award program is unique, 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—and you'll receive discounted rates on additional entries.
Why are some deadlines extended?
We extend deadlines based on applicant needs and upcoming promotional opportunities.
When will I find out results?
We aim to announce finalists about eight weeks after the program close. The announcement of the winners comes about 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 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 brendang@ragan.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you are interested in sponsoring the PR Daily Awards program, please contact Hannah Lavelle at 312-960-4628 or email hannahl@ragan.com.

Ragan Communications is not responsible for international shipping fees related to trophies or certificates.