Sarah Katz Shares Tips with Doug Simon Regarding Entries For PRSA-NY’s Big Apple Awards 2018!

DOUG SIMON: Our next guest is going to be Sarah Katz. Sarah is the senior director of the Big Apple awards and she’s going to tell us a little bit about what she’s working on in that role. So Sarah thanks so much for joining us.

SARAH KATZ: Thanks for having me. Excited to be here today. We have gotten up to a great start. The early bird entry period has ended but we’re accepting entries for Big Apple’s through March 16th so definitely get that in on the Web site we’ll be sharing that information later as well. And the gala is going to be as Doug mentioned at the Mandarin Oriental on June 11th. Tickets will be going live soon so keep an eye out. We’ll have early bird specials for that as well. And if you’ve entered the silver Anvil’s it’s a very similar process so you know you can basically replicate your entry a lot of the categories online. It’s the same platform. So very simple to get both national and local recognition from your communications peers.

DOUG SIMON: One of the things we’re really excited and we’re working with Kate Ryan of diffusion PR is helping to put the event together among many others for participating, is the idea that there can be opportunities for winners and sponsors to actually be involved in the program itself. I thought you came up with a great idea to divide the awards into separate categories, we’ll getting into that in more detail in a little bit, to create opportunities for sponsorships of specific awards to interest areas of specific interest or for the first time PR saying you’re going to be honoring New York media who will be able to enter for free given the pressure and stress that our media industry is under. We thought it’s really important to recognize some of those who are doing the best work in New York.

SARAH KATZ: Also because we have so many communicators in the New York market have great relationships with these media they are working with them, pitching them, collaborating on stories on a daily basis, so we wanted to honor them in their individual work and not just be constantly pitching them. So that’s exciting. We also have in-house communications team awards this year which are new and also free to enter and a slew of other new and exciting awards that align with all the great new tactics that we’re seeing, agencies, organizations, implementing with analytics and expanded video. So just a lot of great opportunities to reward the new work that people are doing as well as of course classic categories for entries as well. And just some things to remember with your entry: You know make sure we’re all storytellers in this field tell a story you don’t just list your tactics and results. Think beyond just the numbers. Results are more than impressions, do they match the goals and exceed the goals that you laid out at the beginning of the campaign? And not all the judges are esteemed and wonderful but they’re not all at agencies. So, think beyond jargon if you’re putting in a word from an agency don’t just use kind of your internal terms think broader tell that story make it a narrative and make it interesting. And don’t forget to proofread because you know we’re looking for the best of the best here. So, make sure to just look everything over with a fine tooth comb as well.

DOUG SIMON: Great if only you had some good tips considering entering. That was awesome. Really honored to be working with you. You’re doing an amazing job and that’s both for the PRSA New York Big Apple awards as well as working here at Simon Media with us so thank you.