The PRSA Silver and Bronze Anvils remain our industry’s most respected award recognition programs. For more than 75 years, practitioners have carefully sifted through their campaigns and tactics to submit their best-of-the-best as award entries in hopes of earning a coveted Anvil trophy.
And while the Anvil programs have a proud, long history of shining a light on our industry’s most effective and creative efforts, PRSA and its Honors & Awards Committee are not resting on their laurels.
For the 2021 Anvil programs — as the role of communications evolved before our eyes in the throes of the pandemic, we greatly modified both the Silver and Bronze Anvil categories to match the realities we were all facing. We expanded the crisis communication categories and added other relevant areas for submission — notably a Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) campaign category.
We also removed some categories that were clearly out of date. In a year of turmoil, uncertainty and hesitation, I’m proud to say award submissions actually increased year-over-year.
Well, we’re at it again.
Two names, one top-notch program
We’ve made some even bigger changes in 2022 to the Silver and Bronze Anvil programs. In fact, we started by making them one program. Yes, we aligned the timing of both the “campaign” categories (the Silvers) and the “tactic” categories (the Bronze) into one unified program.
In doing so, Anvil entrants only need to remember one set of dates and refer to one call-for-entries — and get to experience one industry-wide award presentation gala.
The pros behind the programs
Next, we injected a brand-new set of “Organizational Award” categories, which we’re particularly energized about. For the first time in Anvil history, PRSA will be recognizing the teams behind the scenes bringing innovation to our profession.
Check out the call for entries to see the breakdown of these categories, including Best In-House Team, Best Agency (with four revenue-level subcategories), Best Organizational DEI Progress and Best College/University Communications Program. We cannot wait to point a national spotlight on those elevating our profession, demonstrating their passion for quality results and embodying best practices in teamwork.
Throughout this year’s call for entries, we also sprinkled both programs with minor tweaks and category consolidations in an effort to make it that much easier to find the right category for your program or tactic. And, like any savvy practitioner, we used research to help direct our efforts.
The committee — with amazing support from the national staff team — reviewed years of past submission data to inform where to trim and where to grow.
I’ll dare to say, this year’s Anvil Awards program is the most accessible ever, and we hope you will crack open the call for entries — especially if it has been a while since you’ve looked through it — and consider submitting. (The early-bird deadline is Feb. 11.) You won’t be disappointed.
And whether you decide to enter or not, I hope that you will consider joining us on May 19, in New York City, for the first-ever Silver and Bronze Anvils combined awards ceremony. We’ll share more on that as the event gets closer.
Michael Gross, APR, is president of AKCG — Public Relations Counselors. He is also the 2020-2022 chair of the PRSA Honors & Awards Committee.
[Photo credit: albert chau]