The Leading PR Awards for UK's Regions and Nations!
The PRCA DARE Awards celebrate and reward the very best PR and communications professionals across the UK, with winners determined by a panel of highly respected industry experts.
The programme is organised into six regions and nations so entries sit alongside comparable work, judging stays focused, and celebrations can grow in each area. The regions are:
🏆 Midlands
🏆 North England and North Wales
🏆 Northern Ireland
🏆 Scotland
🏆 South East England
🏆 South West England and South Wales
If you are unsure which region to enter, read the regions guide for the six areas and a simple decision checklist.
The DARE Awards are a practical way to recognise strong teams, benchmark excellent campaigns, and meet peers from across the UK, backed by the Public Relations and Communications Association. When shortlists are published and the regional ceremonies take place, they mark work that delivered clear outcomes for clients, colleagues, or communities.
Entries are open to everyone who uses PR as part of communications delivery in the UK, including consultancies, in-house teams, digital agencies, marketing teams, and media owners.
Entry fees and deadlines
Confirmed pricing, VAT treatment, and deadlines for the active season are published in the English entry toolkit and Welsh entry toolkit. The figures below are retained as a quick reference from the 2025 season and may change when a new toolkit is issued.
2025 reference pricing:
Campaign and team categories
PRCA member early bird entry: £140+VAT
Non-member early bird entry: £225+VAT
PRCA member standard entry: £185+VAT
Non-member standard entry: £285+VAT
Individual categories
Professional of the Year Award: member £100 + VAT, non-member £150 + VAT
Rising Star of the Year Award: member free to enter, non-member £50 + VAT
Team Culture and Community Award: member free to enter, non-member £50 + VAT
| Key Dates: | |
| Early bird deadline | Confirmed in the annual entry toolkit |
| Final entry deadline | Confirmed in the annual entry toolkit |
| Finalists announced | Confirmed in the annual entry toolkit |
| Ceremonies | Regional events after judging each season |
What a strong entry looks like
Judges read a high volume of submissions, so clarity matters. Lead with the challenge you were set, the audience you needed to reach, and the constraints you worked within, including budget band where the category asks for it. If the correct DARE region is not obvious, say which one you selected and why in your opening lines.
Evidence should connect tactics to outcomes. Share the metrics that mattered to the client or organisation, explain how you validated results, and note anything unexpected you learned along the way. Screenshots, links, and short pull quotes can help, but the narrative should still read cleanly without them.
If the work ran across channels, show how PR led the idea and coordinated other disciplines. For team categories, balance client highlights with how the team runs day to day: development, retention, quality control, and a culture that supports good judgment under pressure.
Before you submit, cross-check names, dates, and permissions, then use the toolkit checklists to make sure the file format and word counts match the rules for your category.
Categories
B2B Award
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.
Best use of Data and Analytics Award – Sponsored by CARMA
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. Details of the campaign, including outcomes achieved and approximate budget, should be included in the submission.
Charity/ Not-for-Profit Award
This award recognises exceptional PR campaigns delivered by or on behalf of charities or social enterprises.
Consumer Relations Award
This award recognises work that involves the promotion of products or services to consumers, delivered by the private, public or charitable sectors.
Digital and Social Media Award
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.
Diversity, Inclusion, and Purpose Award
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.
Employee Engagement or Internal Communications Award
This award recognises campaigns that use internal communications to engage staff, drive organisational change, deliver increased stakeholder value, or change an organisation’s ethos.
Event/ Launch of the Year
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.
Integrated Campaign of the Year – Sponsored by OnePoll
This award recognises work that uses integrated communications, led by public relations, in order to achieve excellent results.
Low Budget Campaign Award
This award recognises campaigns on a budget of less than £10k (including agency fees) that have been delivered to achieve excellent results.
Media Relations Award – Sponsored by CARMA
This award recognises campaigns that use targeted media relations to achieve excellent results.
Public Sector Award
This award recognises work by or on behalf of central government, local authorities, NHS trusts, fire authorities, police forces, executive agencies, non-departmental bodies.
In-house Team of the Year
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. As with all team categories, judges will mark your entry against the following criteria: team performance, staff, financial, and innovation.
Small Consultancy of the Year
This category is open to any consultancy up to 10 staff, whether multi-discipline or niche. Judges will look for evidence of financial performance, staff and client retention/acquisition, innovation and implementation of creative ideas. More information can be found in our entry toolkit which you can download on the homepage.
Medium Consultancy of the Year – Sponsored by Reuben Sinclair
This category is open to any consultancy up to 11-25, whether multi-discipline or niche. Judges will look for evidence of financial performance, staff and client retention/acquisition, innovation and implementation of creative ideas. More information can be found in our entry toolkit which you can download on the homepage.
Large Consultancy of the Year – Sponsored by OnePoll
This category is open to any consultancy with 26 staff or over, whether multi-discipline or niche. Judges will look for evidence of financial performance, staff and client retention/acquisition, innovation and implementation of creative ideas. More information can be found in our entry toolkit which you can download on the homepage.
Team Culture and Community Award
A Culture and Community Award highlights the agencies and in-house teams who are going beyond serving their clients and customers. They’re serving their people and the societies they’re part of and trying to make a difference. More information can be found in our entry toolkit which you can download on the homepage.
Professional of the Year
This category is open to any individual, agency head, freelancer or independent consultant. The individual will have shown outstanding performance, made a significant contribution to the industry and to their organisations. Judges will look for an impressive client list, client retention, evidence of quality work and results, innovation and implementation of creative ideas.
Rising Star of the Year
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 at the time of the final entry deadline for the season, as stated in the entry toolkit.