The second annual Middle East Public Relations Association (MEPRA) awards will take place at the start of December, and Rebecca Hill, executive director of MEPRA, says there’s a lot to look forward to. “We are investing in our event,” she says. “It’ll be a few notches more professional than last year, and it’s a great opportunity to participate and to be celebrated. It will be an appropriate and fitting event for people to showcase their talents.”
Hill says the number of entries is up from last year, with a total of 95 submissions.”We have 85 best practice entries, five team entries, and five individual entries,” she says. “In 2009, we had 61 best practice entries and 12 individual nominations.” Judges from the 2009 event reviewed the judging process after the event, and agreed it is a formidable challenge for one team to judge over 60 entries. “We’ve split up the judges into teams this year,” says Hill. “There are 22 judges, and they are a mixture of agency, in house, academics, and media. Some are participating in two judging sessions, and some just one, but the idea is to ensure that no one person can influence the process. All of them have at least eight years of experience in PR, if not more.”
Hill says that the judges will be looking for campaigns that illustrate several points: “A good understanding of the issue, a strong strategy, research done before, during, and after the campaign to measure and evaluate results, clear planning and implementation, creativity, and good return on investment,” she says. “What we don’t want to see are AVEs (Advertising Value Equivalents – measuring the effectiveness of a PR campaign by comparing it to the amount of money it would cost to purchase advertising space) as a metric.”
The MEPRA is a non-profit member association, based in Dubai, and Hill says that hosting an annual competition is healthy for the industry. “They showcase best practice for a profession that is still developing in the region, and they celebrate excellence for those that participate,” she says. “Many still view the role of public relations as issuing press releases and having a one-way dialogue. PR practitioners manage relationships and conversations between organisations and their publics – listening as well as conversing, leveraging different channels. The strategic value of communications is not widely endorsed, but the impact of negative communications can have far-reaching implications for a reputation – whether that reputation belongs to a person, an organisation, a government, or a country. By having an awards program, and leveraging the case studies that are submitted, we can provide teaching tools for students and practitioners alike.”
While the awards shortlist hadn’t been finalised at time of press, Hill says that after a look at the submissions, she noticed a positive trend. “There are far more government submissions this year, which is great. We also have healthy submissions in all categories, so it’s going to be quite positive both for the judges and the people who have participated; they will see their submissions being reviewed by their peers, and in a very competitive environment.”
