The Public Relations Association of Uganda (PRAU) has today unveiled the 2016 PRAU Excellence Awards with a call for entry for organizations both from the private and public sectors and agencies that have demonstrated excellence in the execution of PR, digital and communications functions.
The annual prestigious PRAU Excellence Awards celebrate the greatest achievements and innovations across the public relations and communications industry in Uganda.
The main objectives of the awards are to: uplift the standard in the Public Relations industry, recognize, showcase and uphold professionalism in the Public Relations industry in Uganda, Honour leadership, service, knowledge and practice in the field as well as promote the good name, image and reputation of PRAU.
According to Ms. Cynthia Mpanga, the PRAU president, “The awards are a highly visible component of the Association setting standards of excellence in the field of PR. They aim to uplift the standards, recognize professionalism in the Public Relations, Honour leadership, service, knowledge and practice as well as Promote the good name, image and reputation of PRAU. The awards will this year be organized under the theme “PR Excellence In a Competitive & Digital World” and shall honour companies and individuals with 13 awards in three categories.”
“Over the past year, we have witnessed a lot of creativity and imaginative use of digital/ social media as a core component of the communications role. Now that digital has come of age in our industry, we expect to receive a good number of entries from participating organizations and individuals,” she added.
Entries for the 2016 awards will be accepted through 1 st to 30 th October 2016, with the winners announced at a glamorous gala on November 25, 2016 at the Golf Course Hotel in Kampala.
The 2016 PRAU Excellence Awards will be presented in the following categories:
PR Campaign category
a) Best Media Management Campaign
b) Best Event
c) Best Crisis Management Campaign
d) Best Corporate Social Responsibility Campaign
e) Best Public Sector Campaign
f) Best Not for Profit Campaign
g) Best PR agency
Supplementary category
h) Best Corporate/online Publication
i) Best Social/digital Media Campaign
j) Best Young Communicator of the Year
Honorary category
k) PRAU Golden Honors
l) PRAU Sheppard Honors
m) People’s Choice Award
According to Ms. Mpanga, the award submission rules will remain the same. That is;
• Each entry must start with an opening 100-word statement describing why the entry should be deemed worthy of an award.
• The entry submission should be limited to 1,200 words. (This excludes the 100 words above)
• The entry must follow this submission structure; (i) Statement on problem/opportunity (ii) Research (iii) Planning (iv) Execution (v) Evaluation.
• One MUST upload on PRAU’s website; a completed entry form, upload a written submission in Microsoft word or in PDF format and has the option to upload a video to support their entry.
The awards are open to; PR and communications practitioners, business enterprises/SMEs, government bodies, PR agencies, associations, NGO’s, students pursuing PR related courses, and In-house PR departments.
Entries submitted to the PRAU Excellence Awards competition will be judged by an independent panel of senior practitioners.