Recognizing excellence in public relations and communications.
PRSA NJ established the Pyramid Awards in 1989 to recognize excellence in public relations and communications in New Jersey. The competition is open to all public relations professionals in New Jersey who implemented or completed qualifying public relations campaigns or exceptional single items such as annual reports, videos, etc.

Award Divisions and Categories
Winners for the following awards and scholarships will be announced at the next Pyramid Awards.
See what it takes to write a winning entry.
Visit the 2023 PRSA NJ Pyramid Awards website!
Community Relations: Programs that improve or maintain an organization’s relationship or image within the community (specific geographic location) in which it operates.
Content Marketing: Programs that effectively leverage articles, videos, infographics and other types of relevant and valuable narrative content to introduce and/or promote a brand or organization
Corporate Social Responsibility: Programs designed to contribute to sustainability and societal well-being by delivering economic, social and environmental benefits for all stakeholders.
Crisis Communications and Issues Management: Programs that deal with internal or external situations designed to detect, protect or defend an individual or organization facing a public challenge to its reputation, or to manage, respond to, or prepare for a crisis, disaster or emergency.
Digital and Social Media Communications: Programs that utilize digital and/or social media platforms, emerging technologies and/or new applications as their primary source of outreach to generate awareness, influence behavior and allow individuals/groups to collaborate and share knowledge/experiences online.
Diversity and Inclusion: Programs designed to reach multicultural or diverse audience groups, or to promote diversity by recognizing the perceptions, attitudes and behaviors of an organization’s cultural audience.
Employee Engagement: Programs that enhance an organization’s relationship with employees and/or publics directly allied with the organization, including members, affiliated dealers and franchisees.
Events: A single event or series of events that draw attention to an organization, product, service or a commemorative occasion.
Executive Communications: Programs specifically designed to build the personal brand of one or more company executives.
Influencer Campaigns: Creative, appropriate and effective identification, engagement and use of an ambassador or other influencer to introduce, enhance or promote and organization or brand message to key audiences.
Integrated Marketing: Programs that utilize a combination of marcom tactics — including but not limited to earned media, paid media, advertising, digital communications (website, blogs, email marketing, etc.), content marketing, social media and conference activities — to promote your client or organizations.
Investor Relations: Programs for both public and private companies that effectively communicate an organization’s financial story to enhance an employer’s or client’s financial standing, inform and attract shareholders, or otherwise improve and maintain relations with industry analysts, the investment community and local business community.
Media Relations: Innovative, engaging or other successful techniques that captured the attention of media and connected them with your organization or client. These programs should stretch the boundaries of traditional press release campaigns and showcase what media success looks like in our new, ever-evolving media landscape — spanning the realms of earned, paid and shared media.
PR on a Shoestring Budget: Programs and/or projects that were conducted with limited funds/budget. While a “shoestring” budget is subjective, winners in this category are those who have done more with significantly less and yielded outstanding results.
Public Affairs: Programs that create or enhance public/government awareness and/or support a social, political, economic, environmental or other public concern. This includes programs that create awareness for a specific issue or political candidate to affect legislation, regulations or political action at the local, state or federal government level.
Reputation Management: Programs that proactively introduce, promote, or enhance the image, profile and reputation of an organization to its key constituents. Note that this is not a category for crisis management.
Visit the 2023 PRSA NJ Pyramid Awards website for more information on the judging criteria, essay topic, and submission instructions.
Annual Reports: Creative print and/or digital representation of annual reports for businesses, foundations, academic institutions, organizations or other agencies that showcase organizational excellence to key audiences and the public at large.
Brochures: Print and digital
Content: Earned feature article, news article, blog or opinion piece.
Digital Communications: Video Communications – Creative content and/or innovative use of broadcast, streaming, b-roll, internal video, PSAs, satellite media tour, mobile, shared or social media, vlog, viral videos, etc. Websites – New or newly redesigned website that demonstrates exceptional content, design, navigation and presentation. Podcasts – Audio or video delivered as part of a syndicated series that can be downloaded or streamed online. Listeners or viewers must be able to subscribe to updates that are either delivered automatically or made available to the subscriber in some aggregated format.
Magazines: Print and digital
Newsletters: Print and digital
Visual Communications/Infographics: Single visual graphics leveraged externally or internally with superior results.
Visit the 2023 PRSA NJ Pyramid Awards website for more information on the judging criteria, essay topic, and submission instructions.
The Future Public Relations Professional of the Year Award Scholarship recognizes an undergraduate student who demonstrates a sophisticated understanding of and commitment to the public relations profession. The winner will receive a cash scholarship of $3,000, a Certificate of Achievement, and one-year membership for PRSA National and PRSA NJ ($360 value). Members of the Public Relations Student Society of America (PRSSA) attending a college or university in New Jersey are invited to apply. There is no fee for this entry.
The Rising Star Award honors public relations professionals under the age of 35 who have made outstanding contributions to their organizations and the advancement of the profession. A nominee does not need to be a member of PRSA NJ or have their Accreditation in Public Relations credential.
The Public Relations Pro of the Year Award honors excellence in public relations and those who serves as a role model to staff and practitioners in the industry. A nominee does not need to be a member of PRSA NJ or have their Accreditation in Public Relations credential. There is no fee for this entry.
Visit the 2023 PRSA NJ Pyramid Awards website for more information on the judging criteria, essay topic, and submission instructions.