Submitting for a Silver Spike Award is a chance to showcase the strategy, creativity and results behind your best public relations and communications work. A strong submission is more than a collection of great materials. It is a clear story about the problem you were solving, the research you did to support your hypothesis, the audience you needed to reach, the decisions you made and the results you achieved.

The strongest entries help judges understand not only what you did, but why you did it.

If you are preparing a Silver Spikes submission this year, here are a few ways to make the process easier and strengthen your entry before you submit.

Start with the story, not the attachments

It can be tempting to begin by gathering the campaign materials, graphics, media coverage, social posts, emails, videos or event collateral you created. Those examples are important, but they are support materials. They should reinforce your submission, not carry it.

Start with the two-page summary. This is where judges  read the narrative of the full arc of your work, from research to planning to implementation to evaluation. Think of the summary as the case for why your project deserves recognition. The supporting materials are the proof.

Before you write, ask yourself:

·       What was happening when this project began?

·       What problem, opportunity or challenge were we responding to?

·       Who were we trying to reach?

·       What did we want them to know, feel or do?

·       How did our research shape the plan?

·       What changed because of this work?

If you can clearly answer those questions, you are already on the right track.

Show the research behind your decisions

Research does not have to mean a large formal study. It can include surveys, interviews, media analysis, social media insights, web analytics, audience feedback, observations, field reports, complaints, community input or prior campaign performance.

What matters most is that you explain how the research informed your decisions.

Do not simply say, “We reviewed analytics” or “We conducted interviews.” Go one step further. What did you learn? How did that information affect your audience, message, timing, tactics or budget?

For example:

“Website analytics showed that mobile users were abandoning the registration page, so we simplified the landing page and adjusted our campaign call to action.”

That sentence does more than mention research. It shows that research influenced the strategy.

Be specific about your audience

A common mistake in award entries is defining the audience too broadly. “The community,” “the general public,” or “local residents” may be accurate, but they usually are not specific enough to demonstrate strategic planning.

Strong submissions identify the people who mattered most to the project's success. That may include donors, parents, business owners, policymakers, employees, media, students, visitors, customers, volunteers or other defined groups.

The more specific you can be, the easier it is for judges to understand why your strategies and tactics made sense.

Instead of:

“Our audience was the community.”

Try:

“Our primary audience was parents of elementary-aged children in Carson City who were seeking affordable summer enrichment options. Our secondary audience included school staff, youth-serving nonprofits and community partners who could help share registration information.”

Specific audiences lead to stronger goals, clearer objectives and better evaluation.

Make sure your objectives are SMART

Objectives are one of the most important parts of your submission because they connect your plan to your results. Silver Spikes scoring places significant emphasis on objectives, and all objectives should be SMART: specific, measurable, attainable, relevant and time-bound.

A goal is broad and aspirational. An objective is measurable.

Goal:

“Increase awareness of the organization’s services among local families.”

Objective:

“Increase traffic to the program registration page by 25% among users in Washoe County between April 1 and May 31.”

When writing your objectives, include the audience, the desired change, the measurement and the timeline whenever possible. If your evaluation section cannot clearly answer whether the objective was met, the objective probably needs to be tightened.

Also consider the difference between output objectives and outcome objectives. Output objectives simply measure what you did – how many press releases you distributed or emails you sent. Outcome objectives measure the changes to behavior, awareness or attitudes you are trying to influence with your campaign. Outcome objectives measure the true impact of your campaign, and judges look to them as the true success measure.

Separate strategies from tactics

This is one of the most helpful ways to improve your submission.

Strategies are the “why” and “what.” Tactics are the “how.”

A strategy might be:

“Build trust with parents by using peer voices and real program outcomes to address common concerns.”

Tactics might include:

·       A parent testimonial video

·       A social media carousel answering frequently asked questions

·       A blog post about program safety and structure

·       An email campaign to past participants

·       A media pitch to local family-focused outlets

Judges are looking for strategic thinking, not just a long list of completed tasks. Make sure your strategies connect back to your objectives, and make sure your tactics clearly support those strategies.

Do not skip the timeline, budget or resources

Even a great project can lose points if the submission does not explain how the work was executed.

Include a simple timeline that shows the major phases of the project, including planning, execution and evaluation. This helps judges understand your process and the pace of the work.

You should also include budget and resource information. If the exact budget is confidential, say so and provide context in another way. You can include ranges, staff hours, in-kind support, vendor roles, donated resources, internal team responsibilities or percentage breakdowns.

The goal is to show that the work was thoughtful, efficient and realistic based on the resources available.

Tie every result back to an objective

The evaluation section should not be a general celebration of everything that went well. It should directly answer the objectives you set in the planning section.

·       If your objective was to increase attendance by 20%, did you?

·       If your objective was to improve public sentiment regarding a recent crisis from 75% negative to 50% positive or neutral among key stakeholders within 90 days, did you accomplish that?

·       If your objective was to increase engagement among a specific audience, what metric shows that?

This is where your entry proves impact. Results do not have to be perfect, but they do need to be honest, clear and connected to the plan.

Include challenges and lessons learned

Strong submissions do not pretend everything went exactly as planned. In fact, explaining a challenge can strengthen your entry because it shows judgment, flexibility and professionalism.

Maybe the timeline changed. Maybe the budget was reduced. Maybe a key partner dropped out. Maybe the audience responded differently than expected. What matters is how you adjusted.

Lessons learned are also valuable. They show that the work did more than achieve a result. It helped build knowledge, improve future planning and strengthen your practice.

Keep the writing clear and direct

Judges are reviewing multiple entries. Make their job easier.

Use clear section headings that follow the scoring structure: Research, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation. Write in plain language. Avoid jargon. Be concise, but do not leave out the strategic details.

A good submission should be easy to follow even for a judge who is not familiar with your organization, client, region or industry.

Before you submit, do one final check

Before uploading your entry, review the full submission as if you are the judge.

·       Can you identify the situation?

·       Is the research clearly detailed?

·       Are the audiences specific?

·       Are the objectives SMART?

·       Do the strategies align with the objectives?

·       Do the tactics support the strategies?

·       Is the timeline included?

·       Are budget and resources addressed?

·       Are results tied directly to objectives?

·       Are support materials included in one PDF?

·       Is the file named correctly?

The best Silver Spikes submissions do not just document good work. They explain the thinking behind the work and prove why it mattered.

Once the hard work is finished, it’s time to celebrate! We can’t wait to see you at our 2026 Silver Spike Awards at The Depot Brewery and Distillery on Thursday, October 22.