Source: © Prism Awards Prism Awards The 25th Prism Awards will award 140 winners from 250 entires this year

“It is a huge scaling up of the Prism Awards, resulting in more winners this time around,” comments Tebogo Ditshego, president of event organiser, the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (Prisa).

“Our aim this year has been to broaden the democratisation of the awards, where first-time entries are winners,” he says.

Ditshego adds he is excited about the new Public Sector Award, which seeks to encourage PR and communications practitioners in government and state-owned enterprises to pursue excellence in their campaigns.

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Diverse judges' panel

He believes that the diverse and experienced 2022 judges’ panel adds a high degree of credibility to the Awards. The 2022 judging panel of 78 individuals comprised the cream of South Africa’s marketing, communications, and social media industry, including business, agencies, academia, government, and news organisations

Independent auditors were brought on board to ensure that the judging process was fair for all entrants and ultimately the winners. Entrants were also invited and taken through the judges’ and auditors’ reports in the interests of full transparency.

A judge this year, Caroline Smith, head of PR at Flow Communications says this year’s broad spectrum of diverse judges, including clients, media people, and practitioners, resulted in such a transparent auditing process.

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Setting a high benchmark

The chief judge of the 2022 Prism Awards, Willem S. Eksteen, CEO of Stone, and former MD of South African Tourism (SAT) for the UK, Ireland, Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden region, based in London, says the quest for excellence, value impact, and unquestionable integrity should always be guiding principles in the Prism Awards when recognising the achievements in the industry.

“The Awards must set a high benchmark to aspire to and should not be a mere confirmation of entry exercise. The Prism Awards provide a platform to contribute wider than our benefit. We must raise standards, empower the next generation of professionals, and continually add value to the society where we have the privilege to work,” says Eksteen.

Renay Tandy, the co-founder of Ngage, was a first-time judge of the Awards this year and says it was a good experience to be on this side of the fence and to experience the process from start to finish.

“Some of the entries this year showed exceptional creativity during a very challenging period which saw most companies cut marketing budgets and pull back because of the pandemic.”

A handful of entries stood out for her. “The most important aspect for me was bringing the results back to business and to show how the campaigns made a difference. Lots of coverage and creativity is great, but it is the actual business results that make entries stand out for me.”

See all the 2022 Prism Awards judges here.