FAQ Entry #290

This is a respond to a previously asked question about the A' Design Award and Competition. The full list of frequently asked questions can be accessed here.

#290: I need verifiable information of PR actions being done. Verifiable cannot be vague; I need to be able to check and verify that PR actions have been taken.

For the PR Services, we communicate the results of the winners to thousands of magazines right after results announcement, we start this process by sending a press release or announcement email to our proprietary press list and design media database, and we try to follow and pitch all the magazines participants have entered and indicated through the magazine survey, we especially show a great attention to have the winners features as for us it is a win-win situation to have the award winning designs get published; this way we not only increase the awareness for the design competition as well as succeed in our mission of supporting good design, and you as a participant would gain publicity, which makes the competition more prestigious. We especially write and underline this outright to remind you that getting an award winning designer featured provides us prestige and publicity, thus our team is strongly oriented towards this. However we would like to once again state that we cannot push the editors to publish which design they would publish in their magazines, we send them literally everything, all winners with a few highlights to get them interested. Editors will choose who to publish. We cannot guarantee individual media appearances for specific entrants or works but we do guarantee media appearances of winners in general; i.e. thousands of our award winning designers and awarded projects get published each year, but it does not depends just on us; as aligned with our mission and vision, we will in any case pitch the media about all winners, yet media members have the free will to choose who gets featured and who does not at their own publications. In summary, it is a win-win for us to get you published, and we will do our best in this direction. We cannot share the list of contact information of editors, however at our Media Pages and International Media Pages as well as from the Publications section, entrants can see a list of our proprietary press contacts, i.e. list of magazines to which we send the winners' list of best designs. This list is our own list, we spend reasonable amount of time to gather and keep updated contacts information and to build a good database. We own the database rights to this design media list and we will not send it in an open form (where detailed contact information would be visible) to any participant; and entrants cannot request a list of email addresses and editors' names, however entrants can check each and every of their websites and gather this information themselves if it is absolutely required. In summary we cannot share the communication especially the list of editors' contacts, because this information is highly valuable, expensive and important and we spent significant time and effort to have our media database in a good condition, furthermore we also cannot share or sell contact information of editors as it would be illegal in many countries due to privacy laws. Furthermore, we also remind you that in addition to our own activities, we do outsource a significant portion of PR services to third parties. These providers have their own terms and agreements, and their own databases of press contacts. They do not share their own proprietary databases or press contacts as their core business is about having these lists to themselves; i.e. they invest most of their resources, like we do, to keep a good, relevant and updated database of press contacts, the third party PR services create value by facilitating communication and earning a revenue on this. We trust these PR services. These services provide us a proof in terms of list of publications (without proof of actual communication or emailing) and any successful article or media placements. When asked by participants, we are glad to share the list of publications that are contacted through third party services. Furthermore, as a part of PR we publish a winners book, organize an annual exhibition and a gala-night where designers and award winners can network. This is also a part of our public relations services. This is highly verifiable, even if you do not participate yourself individually or in-person, you will see the photos from the exhibitions, gala-nights as well as the yearbook as an award winning designer.

Keywords: verifiable PR, pr services, doubts on PR, proof of PR, proof of PR Service

If you did not find your answer, please feel free to check the faq pages for more questions and answers. You will also want to check our webpage for details; thanks to our transparency policy, we document and publish everything.