PR Awards 2022
19th January 2022 / All, Resources
There are lots of ways to elevate your profile, but sometimes the oldies are the best. Winning a PR award gives your brand the credibility it deserves, and can be great for team motivation and attracting new talent and even clients. For those of you thinking about taking part in the race, here are some of the UK PR awards that are taking place in 2022.
Whether you’re part of a PR and marketing team, agency, or you’re working on your own, there’s an award here for everyone. The categories span across the different communications sectors, so take a close look and you may just find the award that was made especially for you.
For a more comprehensive list including marketing, PR and comms awards, please see here.
How do you know which PR awards are the best to enter?
That will ultimately depend on your objective – what is it that you want to achieve by entering? You need to look to enter awards that match up. Look at previous winners and case studies – what is the standard like? Who are the judges? Look to awards that have strong judges and take your time looking at the awards in terms of their own credibility.
Please note that all dates are subject to change. It’s best to keep a close eye on the PR awards you’re interested in, and be mindful that some dates might change closer to the time. Some of these awards will include an entry fee, but not all of them, so don’t be put off if you have a small budget.
Inclusion in the list of PR awards doesn’t mean they have our approval. We will be doing our own due diligence before entering any but we hope you find the listing helpful. If there are any awards that we have missed, please do get in touch with us and let us know and do keep returning as we will be keeping this list up-to-date.
January
Headlinemoney Awards (HeadlineMoney.co.uk)
The Headlinemoney Awards invites journalists, editors and PRs to showcase their best work from 2021, and with over 30 awards across the PR, communications and journalism categories to choose from, there are plenty of opportunities for anyone looking to take part – from PR agencies to independent freelancers. Not to mention, these awards are completely free to enter and are judged by the financial media.
Entry deadline: 28th Jan
Award ceremony: 13th April
Cost: Free
This is one of the most expansive PR award ceremonies in the industry. With its extensive selection of categories on offer, campaigns will be judged against their brand peers, and this award also gives small agencies a chance to showcase great PR.
Entry deadline: 28th Jan
Award ceremony: 28th April
Cost: Unknown
February
UK Best Places To Work – (PRWeek)
While it’s wonderful to be recognised and celebrated for effective campaigns, there’s truly something to be said for the workplace that helps to support and inspire you along the way. Entries have opened for the PRWeek UK Best Places to Work Awards – with a new category that recognises the best employee support during COVID-19 – and so if your agency or team has gone above and beyond for one another in the past year, why not take a look at the list of specialist categories to see if any of them fit the bill?
Entry deadline: 11th Feb
Award ceremony: 2nd April
Cost: Unknown
The Chartered Institute of Public Relations is hosting its annual Excellence Awards for the 38th year running. These are international awards, meaning you stand to gain global recognition from the world’s only Chartered body for PR. You don’t have to be a member to take part – these awards are open to any organisation, company or individual connected to, or working within, the public relations or communications industries. We’d recommend paying special attention to the Independent PR Practitioner of the Year award category.
Entry deadline: 22nd Feb
Award ceremony: 8th June
Cost: £305+VAT
March
The Drum Roses Awards (The Drum)
Are you a hidden gem? The Roses Awards celebrate the best work coming out of the UK’s smaller regions – specifically, outside London’s M25. They emphasise that many of the UK’s most talented creatives work outside of its biggest cities, and want to help brands to celebrate just that. They’re open to anyone producing great creative work, including PR consultancies, digital agencies, creative agencies, marketing agencies, and in-house creative teams, so you’ll be showcasing your work alongside a wide range of competitors.
Entry deadline: 3rd March
Award ceremony: 25th May
Cost: £195+VAT
The Purpose Awards are led by three leading brands – PRWeek, Campaign and Third Sector. Taking part therefore not only allows you to showcase your best work to industry professionals, but if shortlisted you’ll benefit from exposure for your projects on the awards website and across the three participating brand sponsors.
Entry deadline: 17th March
Award ceremony: 10th June
Cost: £530+VAT
The Drum Awards for Marketing seek to reward brands and marketing teams that truly understand their customers. Focusing on outcomes, not outputs, they are open to teams of any size who can prove their campaigns have had a measurable effect. Most importantly – they have a PR category awarding the best PR strategy or campaign. Please note that this particular category charges a £385 entry cost.
Entry deadline: 23rd March
Award ceremony: 15th June
Cost: £350+VAT
PRCA Dare Awards (PRCA)
The PRCA DARE awards are not-for-profit awards, with all the earnings going back into our industry to help teams and individuals maximise their value to clients and organisations. They’re open to PR consultancies, in-house communications teams, digital agencies, marketing teams, and media owners. Please note there’s a non-member entry fee of £200+VAT.
Entry deadline: 29th March
Award ceremony: 6th Oct
Cost: £200+VAT
April
UK Content Awards (UK Content Awards)
If you’ve produced content in the past year that you’re particularly proud of and want to shout about, the UK Content Awards might be for you. They celebrate excellence in content marketing, rewarding agencies, in-house teams and individuals who are creating innovative, exceptional content that attracts, informs, engages and retains the audience to deliver traffic and profit.
Entry deadline: 22nd April
Award ceremony: 7th Jul
Cost: £255+VAT
May
PRWeek Awards (PRWeek)
As most of you will know, PRWeek is one of the leading sources of news, analysis, features and jobs for the public relations industry. Their awards are therefore widely known, and so taking part could mean big publicity opportunities for yourself and your brand, as well as the obvious benefits of potentially winning accreditation from a well-known brand. The award categories fall under the following titles: ‘People, agencies and teams’, ‘campaign techniques’, and ‘campaign sectors’, so take a look and see if there’s one for you.
Entry deadline: 19th May
Award ceremony: 13th Oct
Cost: £610
UK Agency Awards (UK Agency Awards)
The UK Agency Awards reward creative agencies that are based in the UK, including public relations, design, digital, marketing, advertising, and media. Take a look at the ‘PR agency of the year’ category, as well as the various campaign awards suitable for PR teams. The key to these awards is teamwork – showing that your agency works together to deliver stunning results and profitable campaigns.
Entry deadline: 27th May
Award ceremony: 8th Sep
Cost: £195+VAT
June
The B2B Marketing Awards (B2B Marketing)
At Nellie PR, we are very familiar with the ever-changing landscape of B2B communications, and so we know how important it is to celebrate the often-overlooked yet groundbreaking B2B content that PR and marketing agencies produce. For the B2B Marketing Awards, we recommend taking a look through the range of sector-specific categories – note that there is a ‘best PR Campaign’ Award – and with bronze, silver and gold awards being handed out, your chances are even higher for walking home with an award.
Entry deadline: 2nd June
Award ceremony: 16th November
Cost: Unknown
The Third Sector Awards are a great opportunity for charities, not-for-profits and voluntary organisations of all sizes to celebrate their work and shine a spotlight on the difference they make to society. See the Communications Campaign of the Year category, which will be awarded to a charity demonstrating a highly successful, innovative or inspiring communications campaign.
Entry deadline: 9th June
Award ceremony: 30th September
Cost: starting at £175+VAT (varies depending on turnover)
CIPR PRide Awards (CIPR)
The CIPR PRide Awards are location-specific, celebrating PR teams and campaigns in nine of the UK’s regions: Anglia, Thames and Chiltern, Cymru Wales, Midlands, North East, North West, Northern Ireland, Scotland, South of England and the Channel Islands, and Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. Similar to The Drum Roses Awards, these awards seek to shine a light on the best PR teams that may currently be going unnoticed in certain parts of the UK.
Entry deadline: 29th June
Award ceremony: 6th Dec
Cost: £115+VAT
July
PRCA National Awards (PRCA)
The PRCA National Awards are not only open to PR consultancies, in-house communications departments, digital agencies and media owners, but also PR freelancers. Their broad selection of ‘Individual’ awards makes them one of the best options for PR professionals working separately from an agency or team, though there are of course plenty of categories in ‘Campaign’ and ‘Team’ awards, as well. Please note there is a non-member entry fee of £320+VAT.
Entry deadline: 13th July
Award ceremony: 9th Nov
Cost: £320+VAT
September
Marketing and PR Brilliance Awards (BOC UK)
This international award welcomes organisations worldwide to submit nominations: large and small, public and private, for-profit and non-profit. Because of its vast reach, you’ll be up against some large names, but each year winners emerge from small and midsize companies, so don’t count yourself out just yet. There are plenty of PR categories to choose from, so take a look through.
Entry deadline: 23rd Sep
Award ceremony: 9th Dec
Cost: £250+VAT
CorpComms Magazine runs its own annual awards ceremony recognising and celebrating the best in corporate communications. They are also now running the Strategic Comms Awards which recognise excellence in corporate storytelling. We recommend looking at both if your business falls into the field of corporate communications.
Entry deadline: 23rd September
Award ceremony: 17th November
Cost: £390+VAT
December
Agency Of The Year Awards 2023 (Campaign)
Campaign’s Agency of the Year awards celebrate the very best agencies and networks with the help of client marketers. The awards highlight strong leadership, creativity and innovation, stellar new business performance, the development of talent, and contribution to the industry. We recommend the ‘PR Agency’ category, and also suggest checking out the ‘People and Teams’ categories to see if there are any that fit your achievements.
Entry deadline: 16th December
Award ceremony: 16th March 2023
Cost: £695+VAT
Digital PR Awards 2023 (UK Digital PR Awards)
The UK Digital PR Awards celebrate digital PR that drives search visibility, raises brand awareness and delivers exceptional ROI. More than that, they’re looking at impressive innovation and adaptability in the face of unforeseen challenges, so whether you’ve run a successful social media campaign this year, or even pulled off a creative stunt, these awards might be for you.
Entry deadline: 6th January 2023
Award ceremony: 16th March 2023
Cost: £250+VAT
Resources
Here at Nellie PR, we love working with hidden gems. We also provide PR training for teams and individuals, including PitchCraft for Press Coverage – in which you learn how to pitch with confidence or brush up on your media pitching skills to secure better press coverage – and PR that Pays – an online PR training programme with mentoring and lots of hands-on support that delivers transformative results.
Please book a free consultancy call with Ellen Carroll to find out more about the PR, communication, and marketing training and support we provide to help you flourish. Visit our blog for more useful resources and don’t forget to sign-up for our newsletter to get regular PR news and updates.
