Welcome to the PRISM Awards

PRISMs are Africa’s most sought after public relations and communication awards and are judged by over 67 judges alongside 10 dynamic young judges, as part of the PRISMs Young Voices initiative. The PRISMs are awarded to individuals, students, consultancies, companies, government organisations and NGOs that have successfully fused strategy with creativity and professionalism to achieve the best communications and business objectives in their public relations campaigns.

Here is what you need to know

Criteria

Public relations campaigns entered into the PRISM Awards must exhibit a high standard of excellence in a variety of programme aspects. Specifically, each entry will be judged on the basis of its competence in five areas:

Statement of Problem/Opportunity

1. Nature of the company or institution for which the programme was conducted.
2. Specific problem or opportunity addressed by the programme.
3. Geographical area in which the programme was conducted.

Research

Field or library research to define the problem or opportunity and to determine approaches likely to achieve the programme’s objectives.

Planning

1. Detailed statement of the programme’s objectives and establishment of measurable criteria for success.
2. Identification of the public to be reached and actions desired of them.
3. Formulation of messages to be communicated to the public.
4. Selection of communication channels e.g. print media, newsletter and website (internal and/or external) to be used.
5. Creation of vehicles to carry the messages into the media e.g. activities.
6. Action taken to consult with management and secure support for the campaign.

Execution

1. Description of the plan’s implementation.
2. Adjustments to the plan introduced during its implementation.
3. Difficulties encountered.

Evaluation

This section covers identification, analysis and quantification of results. The judges will look for tangible results which demonstrate the achievement of the programme’s measurable objectives, as described in the planning section. Please note that Advertising Value Equivalent (AVE) evaluation is not considered a measurement of outcomes. Should you submit AVE values as part of the evaluation, please note that only a 1:1 value will be considered. The judges take a two-fold approach. One is to question thoroughly the results measured against objectives and the other is how well the project’s goals and objectives met. Judges look to find the output result that indicates the relative media success, and to the extent possible, also the outcomes-based result – i.e. what was actually achieved in real terms based on the initial goals and objectives.