DARE Awards Categories

This award recognises work focused on services or brands targeted at the business or not-for-profit markets and relates to work that involves the promotion of products and services from one business to another.

This award recognises exceptional PR campaigns delivered by or on behalf of charities or social enterprises.

This award recognises work that involves the promotion of products or services to consumers, delivered by the private, public or charitable sectors.

This award recognises campaigns that use internal communications to engage staff, drive organisational change, deliver increased stakeholder value, or change an organisation’s ethos.

This category is aimed at establishing the best campaign or programme using reporting and measurement. You should detail how the reporting or measurement programme was innovative, how it was conceived, and the benefits gained. This could be a one-off campaign or for an ongoing programme.

This award recognises campaigns that include a large element of digital and social media work, whether on their own or as part of an integrated programme of PR and targeted marketing activity.

This award celebrates campaigns that champion diversity, inclusivity, and/or positive societal impact. This could be any internal or external campaign. Open to PR agencies and in-house PR teams, it recognises efforts addressing key issues such as representation, employee engagement, CEO activism, and/or links to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Entries must demonstrate clear evidence of the campaign’s impact and alignment with business objectives.

Entries in this category should demonstrate how PR has been effectively used to launch a new product or service, built an audience for an event or developed a relationship with the public to secure the reputation of the event, product or service.

This award recognises work that uses integrated communications, led by public relations, in order to achieve excellent results.

This award recognises a campaign on a budget of less than £10k that has been delivered to achieve excellent results.

This award recognises campaigns that use targeted media relations to achieve excellent results.

This award recognises public affairs campaigns that have successfully influenced policy, political decision-making, or stakeholder understanding at a local, regional, or national level.

This award recognises work by or on behalf of central government, local authorities, NHS trusts, fire authorities, police forces, executive agencies, and non-departmental bodies.

This category is open to any UK in-house private, not-for-profit or public sector PR and communications team. Judges will look for the role of PR and communications play in the wider organisation, effective use of resources, implementation of creative ideas and general contribution to the organisation’s objectives. Judges will mark your entry against the following criteria: people, financial, and innovation.

This award recognises outstanding PR consultancies, whether multi-discipline or niche, demonstrating excellence in performance, client delivery, people, and innovation over the past year. Entries will be judged within size-based groupings to ensure fair comparison.

South East England
Small Consultancy of the Year (up to 10 staff)
Medium Consultancy of the Year (11–25 staff)
Large Consultancy of the Year (26+ staff)

All other regions
Small to Medium Consultancy of the Year (up to 25 staff)
Large Consultancy of the Year (26+ staff)

Open to NextGen* individuals in both consultancies and in-house teams. The winner will be recognised for an outstanding performance within their organisation and to the wider PR industry. Nominations for this award can be made by the individual themselves, a colleague, or employer. Organisations can enter any number of entries.

*A NextGen individual is anyone under the age of 30 years old at the time of the final entry deadline on 27th March 2026.