Why regional PR awards matter for your business and our industry

Five ways award schemes can do more for our industry than simply celebrate success.

By CIPR Midlands

Hot on the heels of regional awards schemes in Northern Ireland and Wales, CIPR Midlands has launched a brand-new awards scheme to recognise PR excellence across central England. Why? Because celebrating excellence matters. With recent CIPR research highlighting barriers to entering the profession, we need to become more effective at sharing knowledge to attract new talent into the industry, not just in the major cities, but across the UK. Here's five reasons why regional PR awards are a great place to start.

1. Create a catalyst for case studies

When was the last time you paused to celebrate your work – or share it with your peers? The pace of work in PR means case studies are often limited to new business pitches, while evaluation and learning may not make it beyond the campaign team. But industry awards provide the impetus to assess our best work, capture the impact we have and demonstrate how we use evaluation to tailor and improve our work.

An award entry becomes a mini masterclass in how to do good PR - and a readymade case study for your organisation.

2. Boost team skills and morale

The newly published PR Population Report shows that 81% of UK PR professionals worked from home in 2021 and that 44% are aged between 16 and 34. Although hybrid working is becoming more common, post-pandemic, many people have more limited exposure to colleagues, even at early stages in their careers. This can make it harder to pick up on and learn from the skills and techniques developing elsewhere in the organisation. Collaborating on award entries and sharing these internally can help fill that void.

But it's not just about learning. Reduced informal office interaction makes morale-boosting, team activities even more important. There's nothing quite like the feeling of your team being shortlisted for an award - apart from winning of course!

3. Attract the next generation

The CIPR report, Choosing Public Relations by Caroline Spence identifies barriers deterring the next generation from seeking a career in PR. Its recommendations include the need for a teaching toolkit, including case studies to build awareness of the varied opportunities in PR. It's that variety that required us to establish 24 categories at the CIPR Midlands Awards to enable us to recognise the breadth of work taking place.

Award schemes alone won't address the barriers identified in the report, but they're a great starting point for a toolkit that celebrates the scale, geography and diversity of our industry.

4. Sharpen our skills

We work in a fast-paced and rapidly changing industry. Channels change and grow at a remarkable pace. New technology requires us to be fleet of foot in adapting to different ways of working and keeping our clients on top of the latest trends.

Innovative categories and stretching judging criteria encourage creativity and sharpen our focus on evaluation and impact. This year we've introduced 'best use of AI' as a dedicated category to help celebrate and learn from some of the most innovative, AI-enabled campaigns in the Midlands. But we've also recognised the enduring relevance of more traditional channels in categories such as 'best publication'.

Whatever the category, judging criteria typically make us think hard about the tools and skills we use, why, and the impact we have. CIPR-led awards bring the added value - and pressure - of peer assessment, as well as the credibility that comes with an accolade from your professional body.

5. Spotlight talent across the UK

Although national award schemes are open to anyone, regardless of location, regional awards shine a spotlight on the specific capabilities of PR practitioners based in different parts of the UK. They demonstrate how regional agencies, in-house teams and independent practitioners are increasingly involved in national and international campaigns as well as local initiatives. They also help build local networks that can lead to future collaboration.

If we want PR to become a career of choice for the next generation, we need to be able to demonstrate where the opportunities lie and showcase the best our industry has to offer, whether you're based in Scotland, Cornwall, or the Midlands.

Inspired to share your best work? If you’re in the Midlands region, enter the CIPR Midlands Awards now - or keep an eye out for the 2026 awards in your area. And if your region is missing out, why not consider launching your own scheme? We may not be short of award schemes in PR, but with up to 100,000 people working in communications across the UK, there’s a lot of good work that deserves attention.

About CIPR Midlands

CIPR Midlands covers Northamptonshire, Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire and Rutland; Staffordshire, Warwickshire, Shropshire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire, and parts of Gloucestershire and Oxfordshire. With so many in-house, agency and freelance practitioners in our area, we’re bringing regional PR awards back to the Midlands to showcase the incredible talent the Midlands has to offer.