February 2020 Program Recap

The 2020 Image Awards: What’s Changed and How to Succeed
February 20, 2020 | 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
Hospitality Square, 200 W. College Ave., Tallahassee, FL 32301

Top Takeaways

  • 100 Possible Points
    • Two-page Summary Requirements (70 points):
      • Research/Situation Analysis (10 points)
      • Planning (20 points)
      • Implementation (15 points)
      • Evaluation (10 points)
      • Budget (15 points)
    • Support Material (30 points)
  • Specs for two-page summary
    • MUST be .75” margins, 1.5 line spacing (do not use double spacing or 1″ margins)
  • New requirements in the judging rubric:
    • Goals are asked to be identified.
    • Strategies and tactics should be provided.
    • Audience identification should address psychographic and demographic information.
    • Communication channels used to reach target audience should be included.
    • Sequencing of events (or timeline) addressed within implementation section.
    • Assigned responsibilities for plan execution should be addressed within implementation phase.
    • Inclusion of communication messages used to reach identified target audiences.
  • Submission deadline is 6 p.m. on March 11, 2020 online at fpraimage.org/capital.
  • Local Image Awards Gala: April 23, 2020 at Bricks & Brass

Recap

Last month, the FPRA Capital Chapter held a workshop to review changes in the 2020 judging process and the rubric for the FPRA Golden Image Awards and local Image Awards. Award-winning public relations programs require sound planning and measurable objectives, which are grounded in research and are evaluated for return on investment (ROI). The scoring matrix for the Image Awards follows fundamental principles of public relations programming as detailed below. Each entry will be reviewed by a team of three judges who will score each entry independently and then work as a team for the final award decision.

Click here for the complete submission rubric and guidelines.

For the first time in 30 years FPRA has made updates to the judges’ scoring process to provide more specificity and prevent inconsistencies. Because of the extra information asked to be provided by the entrants, additional space will be permitted in the margin (.75 inch) and spacing (1.5 inch) criteria.

A few tips that were offered at the meeting include:

  • Planning Section
    • Call attention to and clearly state what the goals of the campaign were
    • You can have more than one goal, but can’t have objectives that don’t tie back to your goals
    • Objectives must be smart
      • They are not necessarily a measurable objective
    • Include a time sheet
  • Strategies & Tactics
    • Identify your strategy and specifically state the tactics were used for that strategy
    • Example of strategy:
      • Will use social media to do XYZ
      • Tactics: Developed three Facebook posts, etc.
    • Audience Identification
      • Must include psychographic and demographic information
      • Talk about the interests of audiences being assessed
        • Example: If you want to have some toll roads funded, which groups would have an interest in that? ANSWER: The Florida Truckers Association
      • Identify the appropriate communications channels for reaching the target audiences
    • Implementation
      • Include a timeline and outline assigned responsibilities for each execution
      • Effectiveness of Plan Messaging
        • Identify all communication messages for each target audience
      • Evaluation
        • Specify whether all objectives and goals were met
      • Budget
        • Usually difficult to disclose budget information on behalf of a client, therefore, you can share percentages of the annual retainer used on the campaign
        • Budget Justification
          • Justify and demonstrate a real ROI
          • As long as you justify the budget, you should not have to worry about the subjectivity of having a big budget

Last year, the Capital Chapter’s own Sachs Media Group won the coveted Dick Pope All Florida Golden Image Award, the statewide organization’s highest honor. Representatives from Sachs Media Group and the City of Tallahassee spoke at the program last month and shared best practices.

  • Pay attention to the case study’s objectives. They play a big role in which category you should be submitting to.
  • Track all tactics from the case study and provide numerical values of all the results.
  • Make the supporting documents more consumable — comprehensive, but not too overwhelming. Do not waste space on supporting materials that won’t support the overall argument. Hyperlink all supporting materials to make the judging process more effective.
  • Judges will provide you feedback; if two judges give the same critiques, make the appropriate edits to your submission.
  • Some campaigns are composed of differing elements – it is OK to submit these different elements from the same campaign in different applicable categories.
  • Provide thorough and clear writing. Submitting a badly written entry can be detrimental to the submission’s candidacy for an award.
  • Include a table of contents in the support material section, and label all requirements from the rubric clearly in the two-page summary.

– Alexandra Pologruto, BowStern Marketing Communications (Member since 2019)