So Why Enter the Cleveland Rocks Awards Competition?
Posted on Jun. 15, 2026 / Subscribe 0
By Chris R. Lynch APR, Fellow PRSA
Winning isn't everything, it's the only thing.” — Vince Lombardi
The annual PRSA Cleveland Rocks Awards nominations for excellence in communications are now open.
There are a lot of top-of-mind reasons to enter not just the Rocks competition, as well as any association or creative communications award: program. Personal, team and company/agency recognition; bragging rights; justification of ROI, planning and communication execution; and of course, there are some cool trophies.
But the fact of the matter, when it comes to entering, winning, and actually being honored with a PRSA Cleveland Rocks award for communications excellence, you and your team have achieved something truly worth recognition in your field.
Victory belongs to the most persevering.” — Napoleon Bonaparte
One very important reason to enter Cleveland Rocks is that these are awarded completely based on the campaign or tactical project’s ACTUAL RESULTS. Not pretty pictures, one-time slogans, or neat ideas, but the totality of the work’s research, measurable objectives and strategy, execution, and actual outcomes of what the project was designed to do – and what results it truly generated.
Also – the Rocks Awards don’t grow on trees. There’s only one gold, and one silver award presented per category – and oftentimes, some categories only honor one (or even none) based on the determination of the Rock’s Awards out-of-state PRSA leaders and APR professionals who are the independent judges. These are all very knowledgeable communication leaders, so when they give you a thumbs up, you know it’s well-earned.
“Winning takes talent, to repeat takes character.” — John Wooden
This leads to you creating better plans in the future; for example, as you’re writing up the entry – you and your team must reevaluate your goals – did you utilize S.M.A.R.T. objectives (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant and Time-bound)? What did we learn from our project? Did we achieve the results we targeted? What did we really learn from our research, and did we keep it in the forefront of the program’s planning and execution? If we did the campaign or the project again, what would we have done differently?
Another reason to enter Cleveland Rocks, is that winning an award presented by your peers frankly Increases your - and your team’s – credibility; within your organization, agency, marketing division, and the entire NEO professional communications marketplace. It makes you, your boss, and in agency settings, the client (and the client spend) look darn good. Not to mention – and heaven forbid – it can justify, and perhaps even Increase, your budgets. Because tracking successful results, which includes peer award recognition, demonstrates other factors to complement the project’s positive ROI.
“Alone we can do so little; together we can do so much.” — Helen Keller
People are drawn to and like to work for winners. They seek out to be in the presence of excellence, and organizations or agencies that win multiple awards – for multiple clients and/or in multiple categories – are ones that attract better practitioners who want to work among the best.
Recognition is important in the workplace. Especially these days where communications employers are looking for ways to keep their team members and associates motivated and inspired. Working on an award submission in and of itself is a good bonding exercise. And when the whole team goes onstage or smiles together for recognition on the ‘blue’ carpet for pictures… that’s the time for the boss to call out your staff for a job well done. And perhaps provide some additional compensation, benefits, or appreciation back at the office (time off, office party, out-of-office team building event, etc.)
“A champion is afraid of losing. Everyone else is afraid of winning.” — Billie Jean King
And finally, a couple of the obvious ones: for agencies, winning awards can sometimes create new business opportunities, and it can even position you against your competition if you can show off you’ve award-winning work in a particular category (ahem, obviously we’re talking about pitching against other agencies OUTSIDE of Northeast Ohio) …
And finally, winning and recognition for such visible awards builds up your personal, your team, and your organization’s brand. It provides peer acknowledgement, adds to your resume, allows some bragging rights on social media, around the ‘water-cooler’, as well as post-victory press releases.
And not to mention, damn, those shiny trophies sure do look good in the lobby, don’t they?
“You what’s better than winning? NOTHIN!” - Anonymous
Click here to learn more or provide entries: annual Cleveland Rocks Awards:
Early bird entry deadline: June 26 at 11:59pm ET
Regular entry deadline: August 11 at 11:59 pm ET
PRSA Greater Cleveland/Akron Members, CLE Press Club members entry fees:
-Early bird rate: $80
-Regular rate: $90
Nonmember entry fees:
-Early bird rate: $85
-Regular rate: $100
-PRSSA Student entry: $50
Cleveland Rocks Awards Presentation: Tuesday, November 17, 2026, The Aviator (American Contemporary Pub) 20920 Brookpark Rd., Cleveland, 5:30 p.m.
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