Marketing and PR teams are expected to build awareness, protect reputation, generate demand and demonstrate measurable value. Yet when award deadlines appear, many organisations ask whether preparing an entry is worth the time and cost.

The answer depends on what happens beyond the submission.

Entering an award solely in the hope of collecting a trophy can limit its value. A well-planned award entry, however, can become a useful business asset. It can help your organisation evaluate campaign performance, document results, strengthen client relationships and create credible content for marketing, sales and recruitment.

If the work earns finalist or winner recognition, that value can extend even further. The recognition provides independent evidence that experienced judges have assessed the strategy, creativity, execution and results behind the campaign.

Here is how to turn a PR or marketing award entry into an opportunity for wider business growth.

Start with Work That Supports a Business Objective

The strongest award entries are rarely based on the campaign with the largest budget or the most attractive creative materials. They are built around work that addressed a clear challenge and delivered a meaningful result.

Before selecting a campaign, ask:

• What business or communication problem did the campaign address?
• Why was action needed at that particular time?
• What did the organisation want the audience to think, feel or do?
• What changed because of the work?
• Which results can be supported with credible evidence?
• Why is the approach relevant beyond your organisation?

A marketing campaign may have increased qualified enquiries, improved conversion or helped the business enter a new market. A PR strategy may have strengthened public understanding, protected organisational reputation or changed how an important issue was discussed.

Connecting the work to a genuine business objective gives the entry a stronger foundation. It also produces a more valuable case study that can be used long after the awards process has ended.

Use the Entry Process to Review Campaign Performance

Busy marketing and communications teams often move directly from one campaign to the next. Results may be reported, but there is not always time to examine why certain elements worked or what should change in future.

An award entry creates a structured reason to conduct that review.

Preparing the submission may require your team to bring together:

• Campaign objectives and original benchmarks
• Audience research and customer insight
• Strategy and creative development
• Channel selection
• Budget and resource allocation
• Media coverage and share of voice
• Website traffic and search performance
• Leads, conversions and revenue
• Audience sentiment or perception
• Customer or stakeholder feedback
• Lessons from the campaign

Looking at this information as a complete story can reveal patterns that were not obvious during delivery.

You may discover that one audience segment produced a much higher conversion rate, that a particular media message generated the strongest response or that a smaller channel delivered better value than a more expensive one.

These findings can guide future campaign planning and help the organisation make better decisions about its marketing and communication investment.

Turn the Submission into a Detailed Case Study

A well-written award entry already contains many of the elements needed for a strong case study: the challenge, research, strategy, implementation, creative work and results.

Do not allow that work to disappear after submission.

With suitable adjustments, the entry can be developed into:

• A website case study
• A client success story
• A sales presentation
• A new-business credential document
• A conference proposal
• A LinkedIn article
• An internal learning resource
• A portfolio piece
• A campaign review for senior leadership

Agencies can use the material to demonstrate their capabilities to prospective clients. In-house teams can use it to show senior leaders how marketing and PR activity supported wider organisational objectives.

Confidential information can be removed or presented through percentages, ranges and indexed comparisons. The purpose is to preserve the strategic story and evidence behind the work.

Build Credibility with Prospective Clients and Customers

Businesses regularly claim to be creative, innovative, strategic and results-focused. Prospective clients encounter these descriptions so frequently that the words alone have limited persuasive value.

Independent recognition adds evidence to those claims.

Being named a finalist or winner shows that your work has been evaluated outside your own organisation. It can provide prospective clients and customers with greater confidence in the quality of your strategy, execution and results.

Recognition can be included in:

• Sales proposals and pitch presentations
• Tender documents
• Agency credentials
• Website service pages
• Email signatures
• Client presentations
• Exhibition materials
• Business-development campaigns

The award should support the commercial story rather than replace it. Explain what was recognised, why the work mattered and what it achieved. A badge on its own provides limited context; a concise explanation supported by results is far more persuasive.

Give Sales Teams Better Evidence

Marketing and sales teams often need the same proof but present it in different ways.

Marketing may focus on the campaign story, while sales teams need concise evidence that demonstrates capability, experience and results. An award entry can provide both.

Once an entry has been prepared, create a short internal summary containing:

• The client or organisational challenge
• The audience
• The strategy
• The main activity
• The strongest results
• The category entered
• The finalist or winner status
• Approved supporting visuals

Sales and business-development teams can use this information when approaching organisations facing similar challenges.

For agencies, the recognition may help establish expertise in a particular sector, channel or type of campaign. For in-house teams, it can support partnerships, sponsorship proposals and wider stakeholder engagement.

Create a Planned Content Campaign

Organisations sometimes announce an award result once on social media and then move on. This wastes much of the available content value.

A single entry can support several stages of communication.

After submitting

Share the thinking behind the project without claiming recognition that has not yet been awarded. You might discuss the original challenge, an audience insight or a lesson learned during delivery.

If shortlisted

Announce the finalist recognition across your website, social media, newsletters and internal channels. Explain what the campaign achieved and recognise the people involved.

Before the ceremony

Introduce team members who contributed to the work, share selected campaign results and explain why the project mattered to the organisation or client.

If you win

Publish a clear announcement, update relevant website pages and provide sales and recruitment teams with approved wording and assets.

After the awards

Develop a detailed case study, interview the people behind the work and create practical content based on what the team learned.

This approach extends the life of the campaign without repeating the same announcement. Each piece of content should add information, evidence or a useful perspective.

Strengthen Client Relationships

For agencies, consultants and technology providers, an award entry can reinforce the relationship with the client whose work is being submitted.

Preparing the application together creates an opportunity to review what was achieved and acknowledge the contribution made by both teams. It can remind the client of the value delivered and provide a shared achievement to celebrate.

Before entering, agree:

• Who will lead the submission
• How each organisation will be credited
• Which results can be disclosed
• Who must approve the final entry
• How finalist or winner announcements will be handled
• Who will attend the ceremony
• How the recognition may be used commercially

Clear agreement prevents confusion and helps both parties benefit appropriately from the recognition.

Where the rules permit joint entries, recognising the client-agency partnership can also present a more complete and credible account of the work.

Support Recruitment and Team Retention

Marketing and communications professionals want to produce work that has a visible effect. They also want their contribution to be recognised.

Submitting a campaign demonstrates that the organisation considers the team’s work worthy of external evaluation. Becoming a finalist or winner can give employees a shared achievement and create a meaningful moment of recognition after months of planning and delivery.

Award recognition can also support recruitment. It provides prospective employees with evidence of the standard of work produced by the organisation and the opportunities available to its teams.

The recognition can be featured through:

• Careers pages
• Job advertisements
• Recruitment presentations
• Employee interviews
• LinkedIn content
• Graduate and internship campaigns
• Onboarding materials

For this to feel genuine, recognition should extend beyond senior leaders. Credit the researchers, account teams, designers, writers, analysts, digital specialists and other employees who contributed to the result.

Demonstrate the Value of Marketing and PR Internally

Marketing and PR teams are frequently asked to justify budgets and prove their contribution to organisational performance.

Preparing an award entry helps assemble that evidence into a clear narrative.

A strong submission can demonstrate how communication activity contributed to:

• Revenue and lead generation
• Customer acquisition or retention
• Brand awareness and consideration
• Reputation and stakeholder confidence
• Market entry or product adoption
• Website traffic and search visibility
• Behaviour or attitude change
• Employee recruitment
• Crisis preparedness or response
• Long-term brand development

Being shortlisted or winning provides independent recognition of that work. It can strengthen conversations with senior leadership about future budgets, resources and strategic involvement.

Award success should not be presented as a substitute for performance data. Its value comes from reinforcing the evidence already contained within the entry.

Measure the Commercial Value of Entering

If the organisation wants to understand whether entering awards is worthwhile, decide in advance how value will be assessed.

Possible measures include:

• Website traffic generated by award-related content
• Engagement with finalist or winner announcements
• Downloads or views of the campaign case study
• Leads influenced by award recognition
• Award references in proposals and pitches
• New-business conversations supported by the result
• Media coverage and backlinks
• Employee engagement with internal announcements
• Recruitment enquiries
• Client feedback
• Invitations to speak or contribute to industry events

Some benefits, such as reputation and employee pride, will be difficult to assign a direct financial value. Others can be tracked through enquiry forms, CRM notes, campaign links and feedback from sales teams.

Recording this information helps the organisation decide which awards, categories and campaigns provide the greatest return.

What Makes a Strong PR or Marketing Award Entry?

An effective entry needs more than an attractive campaign. Judges need to understand the problem, the thinking behind the work and the difference it made.

Establish the starting point

Explain the situation before the campaign began.

Was brand awareness low? Was the organisation entering a new market? Did a reputation issue need to be addressed? Were sales declining or was the audience failing to understand a new product?

Provide relevant background and baseline evidence so judges can understand the scale of the challenge.

Define clear objectives

Avoid vague objectives such as “increase awareness” or “generate engagement”.

Use specific goals connected to the original challenge. If formal numerical targets were established, include them and explain how they were selected.

Explain the audience insight

Strong campaigns are based on an understanding of the people they need to reach.

Explain what research revealed about the audience’s needs, perceptions or behaviour and how that information influenced the campaign.

Focus on strategy

Do not allow a long list of activity to replace the strategic explanation.

Judges need to understand why particular messages, creative ideas and channels were selected. Show the connection between the insight, strategy and final execution.

Demonstrate purposeful creativity

Creativity should help solve the communication problem.

Explain why the idea was appropriate for the audience and how it helped the campaign gain attention, improve understanding or encourage action. Avoid assuming that visual appeal alone demonstrates innovation.

Provide relevant evidence

Use the measures that most clearly relate to the campaign objectives.

These might include:

• Sales or revenue generated
• Qualified leads
• Conversion rates
• Customer acquisition
• Brand awareness
• Purchase consideration
• Share of voice
• Media quality and relevance
• Website traffic
• Search visibility
• Audience sentiment
• Behaviour change
• Stakeholder participation
• Return on investment

Media coverage, impressions and social engagement may be useful, but they should be supported by stronger measures where the campaign aimed to change behaviour or deliver commercial results.

Explain challenges and adjustments

Campaigns do not always proceed exactly as planned. Describe any significant difficulty and how the team responded.

This might include a change in market conditions, a limited budget, an unexpected public response or a channel that performed differently from expectations.

Showing how the campaign was adapted can make the entry more credible and demonstrate sound professional judgement.

Make Recognition Part of a Wider Strategy

PR and marketing awards are most valuable when they form part of a wider business, communication and content strategy.

Select campaigns with a clear story and credible results. Use the entry process to examine performance and document what the team learned. If the work receives recognition, give clients, sales teams, employees and prospective recruits the information they need to understand why it matters.

An award will not create business growth on its own. Its value comes from how effectively the organisation uses the independent recognition, evidence and content surrounding it.

Handled well, one strong entry can support credibility, business development, client relationships, recruitment and internal investment long after the ceremony has finished.

About the Marketing & PR Brilliance Awards™

The Marketing & PR Brilliance Awards™ recognise outstanding marketing campaigns, public relations strategies, creative work, teams, agencies and professionals delivering measurable impact.

Part of the International Brilliance Awards™, established in 2014, the programme provides an international platform for achievements across marketing strategy, digital marketing, content, social media, brand development, public relations, crisis communications, media relations and integrated campaigns.

Entries are assessed through an independent blind judging process, with each submission evaluated on its objectives, strategy, creativity, execution, evidence and results.

The entry deadline for the 2027 awards is 5 October 2026. Finalists will be announced on 23 November 2026, followed by the awards ceremony in London on 28 January 2027.

Explore the categories and enter the Marketing & PR Brilliance Awards™ 2027.

About the International Brilliance Awards™

Founded in 2014, the International Brilliance Awards™ recognise work defined by clear thinking, strong execution, and meaningful business impact across organisations worldwide.

The International Brilliance Awards™ serve as the flagship programme of the Brilliance Awards family, which includes Business Brilliance Awards, HR Brilliance Awards, Internal Communications (IC) Brilliance Awards, Marketing & PR Brilliance Awards, Sales & Revenue Brilliance Awards, and Sustainability & ESG Brilliance Awards.

Each programme focuses on a distinct area of organisational performance, while maintaining a consistent standard of evaluation through an independent, blind judging process.