2012 Bulldog Media Relations Awards
Enter—and win—the most prestigious award in media relations and publicity—judged exclusively by working journalists!
- Get the recognition you and your company deserve for your creativity—and outstanding accomplishments—in media relations!
- More than 100 chances to win!
- Easy and inexpensive to enter
- Winners are inducted into the Media Relations Hall of Fame
- Winners featured in Media Relations Hall of Fame magazine and Winning PR Campaigns newsletter
- Online process makes entering fast and simple
EARLY DEADLINE: Friday, December 30, 2011
EXTENDED DEADLINE: Monday, January 16, 2012 (and will be charged the $95 late- entry fee).
LAST CHANCE DEADLINE: Tuesday, January 31, 2012 (and will be charged an additional $145 late-entry fee).
You have to be in it to win it: Go now to the Entry Registration Page.
Step forward—show the world your brilliant campaigns — and your organization's—PR prowess
Only Awards program judged by working journalists—when you win, you know you're the best of the best
The Bulldog Media Relations Awards are coveted among PR and communications professionals, because they're the only awards judged exclusively by working journalists and now, bloggers. These judges are impartial—above the fray of industry politics. They are tough judges with high standards, but they're unwaveringly fair—and they're the people we most often need to impress.
"It's prestigious to win a Bulldog Award, because the Bulldog Reporter brand is so recognized and respected in the public relations industry. It's even more impressive, because journalists have their own set of standards about excellence in PR. We were thrilled!"
Al Golin, Chairman, GolinHarris, Chicago, IL
Here are some of the dozens of judges who will be taking part in this year's Bulldog Awards:
- Evan Cooper, Deputy Editor, InvestmentNews
- Chris Elliott, Travel Scribe, The New York Times
- Tom Hallman, Feature Writer (Pulitzer Prize Winner), The Oregonian
- Meghan Collins Sullivan, Former Deputy Editor, CNN/Washington Post current Rosalynn Carter Mental Health Journalism Fellow
- Maria Stainer, Assistant Editor/Continuous News Desk, Washington Times
"Winning three Bulldog Awards was great for motivation in our department at UNICEF. The journalists who judge these awards see a wide variety of news—if our message stuck with them, we know we're doing something right. Winning also stimulated recognition from our board and senior management . . . acknowledgement that visibility and PR expertise are critical to our mission. We feel a renewed confidence when approaching department budget discussions."
Lisa Szarkowski, Managing Director Public Relations
UNICEF, New York, NY
Bulldog Award winners receive the industry's highest honor, plus an avalanche of publicity
When you win a Bulldog Media Relations Award, you truly know you've arrived. The world will know it, too, because Bulldog Reporter publicizes its winners to more industry people and general media than any other awards competition.
Stories of all winners and their entries will be featured in the Public Relations "Hall of Fame" online magazine. In addition, winning campaigns will be covered in Bulldog Reporter's Winning PR Campaigns e-newsletter and feature column in Bulldog Reporter's Daily 'Dog, the industry's highest-circulation trade journal. Top winners will also be invited to take part in a series of free, educational "Winning PR Webinars," in which their tactical and strategic brilliance will be explicated. Finally, of course, winners will be announced in multimedia press releases distributed to business and trade press and over Internet news services.
It all adds up to massive publicity for winners—hundreds of thousands of positive impressions for you and your firm.
How to enter—and win—a 2012 Bulldog Award for Excellence in Media and Publicity Campaigns The industry's most prestigious awards
The industry's most prestigious awards competition—103 chances to win, including the Grand Prize: Best Campaign of the Year
The 2012 Bulldog Media Relations Awards recognize the most outstanding achievements in traditional, digital and social media campaigns—celebrating public relations strategic and tactical prowess at the highest level.
Awards will be given for three levels of excellence (Gold, Silver and Bronze) in most every category—which means you have 103 chances to win a 2012 Bulldog Media Relations Award.
Multiple Entries: You can enter any of your media relations campaigns in any number of the Media Relations or Industry-specific categories. Note also that Bulldog Awards Grand Prize winners are chosen by the judges from multi-Gold winners in Media Relations or Industry-specific categories, so it pays to enter in multiple categories.
"Fineman PR enters the Bulldog Awards ever y year, and we're especially proud of Bulldog's near-annual recognition of our crisis communications projects. We know we're up against the ver y best our profession has to offer, so it's an honor that we can measure ourselves among such top-notch firms. Winning a Bulldog Award has raised our national profile as a strategic and creative communications agency, attracting bright and highly talented account people to our ranks."
Michael Fineman, President, Fineman PR
Now you can receive recognition in any of 35 award categories
BY MEDIA RELATIONS ACTIVITY
- Best Use of Broadcast or Internet Video - Business/Consumer
- Best Use of Research - Business/Consumer
- Best Campaign Under $100,000
- Best Campaign Under $50,000
- Best Campaign Under $25,000
- Best Campaign Under $10,000
- Best Company Positioning/Branding
- Best Crisis Communications
- Best Use of the Internet/Digital Tools - Business
- Best Use of the Internet/Digital Tools - Consumer
- Best Issue/Cause Advocacy Campaign
- Best New Product Launch – Business
- Best New Product Launch – Consumer
- Best Online Newsroom - Business/Consumer
- Best Use of Personality/Celebrity
- Best Use of Social Media - Business
- Best Use of Social Media - Consumer
- Best Response to Breaking News
- Best Special Event/Stunt
- Best Website - Business/Consumer
- PR Innovation of the Year
- Best Integration of PR and IR in a Business Campaign
- Best Green Campaign
BY INDUSTRY AREA
- Best Investment, Banking & Financial Services Campaign
- Best Arts & Entertainment Campaign
- Best Education/Public Service Campaign
- Best Health, Medicine & Fitness Campaign
- Best Food & Beverages Campaign
- Best General Business Campaign
- Best General Consumer Campaign
- Best Technology Campaign – Business
- Best Technology Campaign – Consumer
- Best Travel, Hospitality & Destinations Campaign
- Best Not-for-Profit/Association/Government Campaign
- Bulldog Awards' Grand Prize Winner (Multiple-category winner)
Please note that all 2012 Bulldog Media Relations Awards are for campaigns and activities that took place between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011.
"Our gold award definitely gave our account team a huge morale boost, and it helps us market ourselves. It's been ver y visible in new business efforts, especially on our website. The Bulldog Awards are critically important because journalists are our ultimate client. When you win, it's like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval on your work—it imparts extraordinary credibility."
Steve Cody, Founder and Principal, Peppercom, New York, NY
Guide to winning Bulldog Awards for Media Relations and Industry-Area campaigns
The Bulldog Awards reward media relations mastery—your abililty to achieve extraordinary visibility and influence opinion through traditional and digital media. They reward creativity, command of media and technology, and tenacity. Large-budget campaigns are welcome, but small-budget and regional efforts enjoy equal standing. For media relations campaign entries, we suggest you detail strategy, pitch, implementation, and a summary of results, plus a sample of your best hit only. The judges want to see extraordinary media savvy, tenaciousness and resourcefulness.
Specifically, here are the qualities that will win you a Bulldog Media Relations Award, especially when used in combination:
- Creativity and originality in conceiving the story angle, technique or implementation strategy, especially in the face of adversity, such as small budgets, little-known clients or difficult-to-distinguish products or services.
- Strategic brilliance in determining which media and journalists to pitch or how to position your company or product. Judges give particular credit for media relations successes dependent on an intimate knowledge (and/or thorough research) of your target media and current PR technology.
- Fast thinking and quick turnaround in responding to breaking news, crisis or the need of the media for rapid response from you.
- Extraordinary execution of your plan—How astutely have you taken advantage of advanced PR technology and how adeptly have you used it? How masterfully have you employed PR techniques to make an impact and attract favorable media and public attention?
- Results, results, results. How many media—especially the nation's most influential media—picked up your story, particularly those media with tough requirements and little space for PR-driven stories? Relative to your budget, how much impact did you make?
Finally, an awards program that's easy to enter
Entry: The 2012 Bulldog Media Relations Awards are now easier than ever to enter, and now paperless. Simply prepare a 3-4 page brief of your campaign, PR firm or PR professional in PDF format.
Here are the steps you'll follow:
- Review this Bulldog Media Relations Awards 2012 brochure carefully for instructions and criteria for winning Awards.
- Go to the Entry Registration Page, fill out the form for each campaign you intend to enter, then make credit card payment for each campaign. After you click "send" below the payment form, you will be sent a confirmation email and the link to use to upload your entry. Your confirmation email will contain detailed instructions for uploading your campaign to our secure server.
- Create your entry following the Guidelines, including filling out the Entry Cover Page.
- Combine the Entry Cover Page with your entry and convert to a single PDF file. Then submit (upload) your entry using the link in your confirmation email.
Remember to include all video and audio submissions as links in your PDF document to hosted files on either your server or on your choice of hosting sites. We are doing our part to eliminate all the wasted paper, binders, CD's and DVD's that this program generates each year. We hope this makes the process easier to enter and friendlier on the environment.
All campaigns must have run between October 1, 2010 and September 30, 2011.
Deadlines: Deadline for early entries is Friday, December 30, 2011 and Monday, January 16, 2012 (and will be charged a one-time $95 late- entry fee).
Entries will be accepted after January 16 until Tuesday, January 31, 2012 (and will be charged a one-time $145 late-entry fee).
Fees: Basic judging fee to enter one campaign in one category is $295. Campaigns being considered in multiple categories will be charged $75 for each additional category. (Also see late-entry fees, above.)
After you click the submit button, you will be sent an email with your order confirmation and the link from which to upload your submission in PDF format.
Your confirmation email will contain a link and detailed instructions for uploading your campaign to our secure server.
Please note that if you are entering multiple campaigns you must register each one separately.
You have to be in it to win it: Go now to the Entry Registration Page.
For further information, call the Bulldog Reporter Client Satisfaction Department at 1-800-959-1059.
"As an agency that positions itself as a media relations firm, we view our Bulldog Awards as affirmation that we can do what we say—get our clients 'media that matters.' Clients, prospective clients, journalists and even prospective employees have taken notice of the Silver and Bronze awards presented on our homepage. No wonder our awards have become a central component of our marketing efforts. It's great to be able to call ourselves an 'award-winning firm!'"
Richard Dukas, President & CEO, Dukas Public Relations
