Home

Services

Silver Quill Awards

• About SQ

• Tips

• FAQs

• Call for Entries

• 2008 Winners
  

Professional Development

Events

News & Articles

About Us

Minutes

Contact

International

 

Silver Quill Competition

Three Tips

First and foremost, address each requested item head on!  Work plans should clearly identify and address each of the following:

DIVISION 1: COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT AND Division 2:  COMMUNICATIONS SKILLS

• Need/Opportunity – describe the issues faced, outlining any impact on performance, reputation, image, profits, participation, etc. along with any formal or informal research findings that support your analysis of the need or opportunity.
• Intended Audience(s) – include the key characteristics (needs, preferences, demographics, etc.) that you took into account in developing your solution, including any research you conducted.
• Goals and Objectives – realistic, measurable expected outcomes
• Solution Overview – tell us what you did, how and why you did it. Identify key messages, tactics and communication media.
• Budget and challenges – include the project’s costs and describe any limitations or challenges that you faced, including special circumstances and how you addressed them.
• Measurement/Evaluation of Outcomes – how did you measure results?

DIVISION 3: COMMUNICATION CREATIVE

• Project summary – Give an overview of the project, including the business need or opportunity your creative solution addressed
• Intended audience(s) – describe the needs, preferences and demographics you took into account in developing your solution
• Objectives – what were the expected outcomes? How did they contribute to the business need or opportunity
• Key messages/themes – what did you hope to convey
• Creative Rationale – summarize your creative solution and the logic that supported it
• Results – in what way did you achieve your objectives? Discuss your budget, resources and schedule.

Second, don’t think your project isn’t glitzy or expensive enough. Au contraire! If you did the utmost with limited resources, and explain your project well, you’ll stand up against the largest of budgets.

Third, consider the judges. They don’t know you, your company, your market, your geographic area or your project.  Edit for utmost clarity. Focus on the critical items. Check your entry that one last time before you seal the box to make sure all the items you wanted to send are included.