Videos, visuals and virtual events are essential when engaging busy—and often remote—audiences.

Videos and visuals have the power to connect with people on a uniquely emotional level. They captivate audiences and keep them coming back for more.

Virtual events are powerful platforms for engaging, educating and entertaining audiences, and keeping people connected, when in-person events are not an option.

Ragan’s Video, Visual & Virtual Awards will showcase your impressive visual content that told compelling stories and the virtual events that delivered results. Our awards program features 50 categories covering video, visual design and virtual event attributes and topics.

Share with us how your videos and visual designs grabbed audience attention—both internally and externally. What stories did they tell? How did they lead to success for your campaigns, projects or initiatives? What made them unique and special?

Let us know how your virtual events—internal or external—broke the status quo. How did you a deliver a unique experience to your audiences? What innovative features did you offer? What made your event stand out among the multitude of virtual events?

Enter more than one category to increase your chances of winning—and you’ll save on multiple submissions of the same campaign or project. 

HOW TO ENTER

On the entry form, be sure to include a thorough synopsis explaining the purpose and scope of your project. We ask that the synopsis be a maximum of 1,250 words and include the following sub-headings (when applicable):

  • Goals
  • Strategy and tactics
  • Execution
  • Evaluation: success, results or ROI

Be sure to follow the guidelines laid out in the category descriptions, as the judges will look for those elements when they select the winners.

You will be able to upload additional documents, links, videos and URLs to your submission. We encourage you to include press releases, design concepts, videos, analytics, testimonials and anything else you feel will give us a better sense of your project. Proprietary or internal information can also be attached and will not be shared with the public.

Supporting documents that can’t be uploaded to the system should be mailed to:

Brendan Gannon
Ragan Communications
10 S. LaSalle St., Suite 310
Chicago, IL 60603

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS

These awards are open to in-house, agency and independent communication practitioners in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors. Enter your work, the work of your organization or submit entries on behalf of your client.

Companies from around the world are welcome to enter as long as the entry is submitted in English.

Contact Brendan Gannon to find the perfect category for your campaign or project. You can reach him at 312-960-4407 or brendang@ragan.com

This year’s program is open to any work executed between May 1, 2019, and Aug. 21, 2020, inclusive.

ENTRY FEES

The fee for this program is $425 per entry.

Entry fee for Grand Prize categories is $475.

A late fee of $199 per entry will be added to all entries after 11:59 p.m. Central time, August 21, 2020.

Do you have a campaign or project you'd like to enter into multiple categories? Pay the original entry fee, and then only $199 for each additional category!

W-9 Form / Tax ID Number Request

CATEGORIES

FEATURED VIDEO CATEGORIES

 COVID-19

The pandemic changed everything—quickly. Video remained a crucial medium for communicating during COVID-19, and we want to hear about the videos you created for delivering engaging, informative and essential videos to all audiences—internal or external. What was the purpose of the video? What channels proved most successful? What were the results? We want to hear all about it.

 Diversity, Equity & Inclusion

We're looking a video that showcases how your organization champions its diverse employees and fosters an atmosphere of acceptance. Show us how diversity and inclusion are woven into the fabric of your organization. You've taken this beyond a statement and made it part of your organization's mission.

 Social Justice

Your video incited social change. What issue did you aim to address? How did your video bring this issue to the forefront of public consciousness? Why was video essential to educating your community about important issues?

VIDEO CATEGORIES

 Animated

With whimsical yet relatable characters and a fun and engaging storyline, your video attracted a broad audience. We want to see the methods, feedback and results of your outstanding animated video.

 Augmented or Virtual Reality

Your video helped viewers immerse themselves in an experience. What were the benefits of offering a virtual or augmented reality experience to your audience? Did it make viewers feel as if they were at an event or help them preview a product? Share the details and the outcomes.

 Documentary

Your nonfiction video captured the attention of audiences. Who or what was the subject of your documentary? What was the purpose of the video? Document your success by sharing the goals, channels used to deliver the message, tactics and results.

 Educational

Who was your audience? What were you hoping to teach with your video? How did you use the expertise of your employees, executives or outside influencers to add credibility to your message? We want to know your mission and, most importantly, the results.

 Internal Communications

We want to see how you delivered your organization’s news onscreen, offered holiday greetings to your workforce, announced a merger or new direction, boosted morale or communicated an executive’s statement. Share your success with us, and don’t forget to include employee feedback.

 Interview

Video captures human wisdom and emotion more powerfully than any other medium. Why did you choose video to bring a person’s passion or story to life? Did you interview an employee to share his or her experience at your organization? We want to know what made your interview video a success.

 Live Video

How did you use live video to drive engagement with your organization, event or campaign? Did you ask for feedback or participation from your audience? Tell us all about it.

 Low-Budget ($300 - $3,000)

It’s easier than ever to create stunning video without breaking the bank. Did you use a smartphone, digital camera or GoPro to make movie magic? Show us how you stretched every dollar and got more video bang for your buck.

 Nonprofit

How did you use video as a storytelling tool for your nonprofit or charitable initiative? Share the video you created to raise awareness about an issue, foundation, charitable service or nonprofit organization. Entries from nonprofit or for-profit organizations doing charitable work are eligible.

 Public Relations

What story did you tell in your public relations video? Was your video created to pitch a story to journalists? Did you want to generate a more favorable image of your client or brand? What did you achieve?

 Public Service

Was your video instrumental in raising awareness about social or health and safety issues? How did it inform the public or help change attitudes towards the issues in a unique and compelling way? Share the strategies, tactics and results.

 Recruitment or Employer Branding

Your organization would be nothing without good people. How did you use video to attract great candidates for your team? Share the video that touched the hearts and minds of a bright, demanding pool of potential new hires. What was the response?

 Shoestring (Under $300)

You didn't let little to no budget limit the effectiveness of your video. You may have even been thrust into the director's role with little or no experience. How did you make a powerful video using limited budget and resources? What message did you aim to deliver? What proved most successful in your video storytelling journey?

 Social Media

Video still dominates newsfeeds—and there is no shortage of video for audiences to consume. How did you stand out on a crowded, noisy online landscape? On which channel or channels did you successfully deploy scroll-stopping video that caught the eyes of distracted audiences? Share the goals, tactics and results.

 User-Generated Content

Your users add a new perspective to your brand story. User-generated videos can tell you a lot about how your products or services are viewed. Share the user-generated videos you collected and tell us how you used them to create a powerful video. What inspired people to create them? Share the videos and the results.

 Video Series

You told a rich, exciting story in many parts. Why was each video spectacular on its own and even better when put together with others? Tell us how you were able to make these interesting segments add up to more than the sum of their parts. How did your series increase engagement and keep viewers coming back for more? Don’t forget to share the results.

VISUAL STORYTELLING CATEGORIES

 Editing

Your visual design editing made for captivating images that captured audience attention. How did you help create striking visuals? Take us through the editing process and share the results.

 Illustration or Animated Design

Done right, animation and illustration provide straightforward explanations for complicated concepts. Why were animated characters the right medium for your message? Did your illustrations and animations grace a video, infographic or something else? Tell us about the story you created for your characters and how it met your goals.

 Infographic

Did you rise to the challenge when you were asked to turn intimidating data into an elegant infographic? Did you make boring statistics interesting with your creative and interactive design? Tell us how your infographic made overwhelming information engaging and valuable.

 Internal Communications Design

Show us how you inspired your workforce to act. Did you use interactive design to explain a new benefits plan? Did you use gamification to entice employees to complete a boring training session? Show us how you got messages noticed using visual design.

 Photography

Stunning photography displays the human experience from a new perspective. How did you use photography to portray your campaign, project or organizational message? What was your goal? How did photography affect your results?

 Print Design

Show us how you brought your message to life with your design of print materials. Why was print the best medium for your message? How was your print design displayed? Was it for an internal or external audience? We want to recognize your work in the industry’s most traditional design medium.

VIRTUAL EVENTS CATEGORIES

 Concert

Your musical event took the house down. How did you deliver an exceptional experience for a remote crowd? What special features did you offer? What was the response? Share all the details.

 Conference

Live events have been put on hold for the time being, and we want to know how you delivered an innovative virtual conference that offered a unique experience for attendees. Did you offer new features that added to the experience for attendees? Did you land an impressive speaker or speakers? Share the topic, goals and results.

 Customer Engagement

You met your customers where they are (for now, at least)—at home. What innovative online events did you offer to engage your customers? What was the goal of the event? What were the results? We want to hear it all.

 Employee Engagement

With employees confined to their WFH offices, wherever that may be, you created a virtual event that kept them inspired, informed and engaged. We want to know how. What were your secrets for engaging your dispersed workforce? What new engagement tactics have you found work best? Share all the details.

 Employee Meeting

Employee meetings, even in-person, can be a little, well, dull. How did you spice things up and create an engaging virtual employee meeting? What were some fun ways you delivered important news? How did you keep morale up while your workforce works from home? We want to hear all about it.

 Employee Recognition

A little recognition can go along way—especially when employees are cooped up in WFH offices all day. We want to hear about the virtual events you planned to show appreciation for employees. What special events were you highlighting?

 Executive Communication

It's important that employees hear from their organization's leaders, especially in such uncertain times. How did your leaders deliver important news and inspiring speeches during a virtual event? What did you do to help drive the message home? How did you ensure employees stayed engaged throughout the event?

 Health and Wellbeing

Health and wellbeing are top of mind, especially during these challenging times. How did your virtual event ensures that employees stayed active? Did you conduct an event that prioritized mental health? We want to know how you created a virtual event that kept employees physically and mentally healthy.

 Immersive Experience

You brought a 360 feel to your virtual event, when in-person gatherings weren't an option. How did you make your audience feel like they were at a live event while sitting at their computers? What was the goal of the event? Share how you made this happen and the results of your immersive event.

 Onboarding

It's essential that new employees still receive training and information to become effective members of your organization—even if it must be done virtually. How did you transition your onboarding process to virtual? What worked to make this a smooth process for new employees? We want all the details.

 Presentation

Whether your presentation was aimed at consumers or employees, it landed. How did you deliver an effective presentation virtually? What pieces were most engaging for your audience? What was the purpose of the presentation? We want to hear how your presentation worked for a virtual audience.

 Press Event

The pressure of producing a live event and engaging a virtual audience didn't get to you. How did you create a stellar press event that drew media coverage? How did you promote the event on digital channels? Did you kickstart social media conversations? We want to hear all about it.

 Product Demo

We want to hear about your innovative approach for demonstrating your product's benefits to a virtual audience. You didn't have the benefit of in-person interaction, but you still knocked the demo out of the park. How? What unique features did you use to deliver an outstanding product demo? We want to hear about the tactics and results.

 Recruiting

Attracting the industry's best and brightest talent takes work, and it's made even more difficult when you can't meet face-to-face. That didn't affect your organization, though. How did you create a successful virtual recruitment campaign? What virtual events did you use to showcase your organization's culture, perks, people and more? What channels did you use to promote this?

 Town Hall

It's important to keep your employees informed about organization news and updates. What were some fun ways you delivered important news? How did you keep morale up while your workforce works from home? We want to know how you delivered an engaging town hall meeting, even when you couldn't meet in person.

 Training

How have you provided beneficial training without meeting in person? Did your organization offer innovative employee training while they work from home? Did you provide customers with a unique, beneficial training experience to showcase your product or service? We want to hear about the virtual training sessions that delivered results.

 Virtual Fundraising/Volunteering Program

There are so virtual platforms available for raising funds for important causes or initiatives. How did you raise funds for the causes and initiatives your organization champions? Did you set up a virtual event for volunteering in your communities or across the country or world? You still made a positive impact on the world, even when in-person opportunities weren't an option, and we want to hear about it.

 Webinar

Webinars are seemingly everywhere right now. We want to know how you created a unique virtual experience that helped you stand out among the many webinars available. What was the topic? What set you apart from the other webinars out there? We want to hear about your innovative tactics and features and the results of your virtual event.

OTHER VIRTUAL EVENTS

 Educational

What educational virtual events did you offer? Was your virtual event educational for customers or employees? Did you educate internal or external audiences? We want to hear about it.

 Funny

What humorous virtual events was your organization a part of? Did you have a funny Zoom meeting, with, well, interesting background? Did your organization create a funny video to deliver news to its employees? Was a humorous visual design perfect for attracting attention?

 Inspirational

How did you use a virtual event to inspire your employees or customers? It's always important to keep up employee morale, but it's especially important when many organizations are facing layoffs and uncertain times. How did you inspire them and keep their spirits high? Maybe you inspired your external audiences with a powerful virtual event. Regardless of your audience—internal or external—we want to know how you inspired them.

 Outlandish

What quirky virtual events were you involved in? We want to know about the more peculiar events that lead to success or engagement.

 Surprising

People didn't see this virtual event coming—but it worked out in the best way possible. What surprising virtual events were you part of? What made them surprising, and how did you turn this into business success?

GRAND PRIZE

 Best Overall Video

We want to see videos that elicited an extraordinary response from employees, stakeholders and/or consumers. Your video can be about anything. As long as the story is great and the results are impressive, you’re in the running for the grand prize.

 Video Team of the Year

Your team’s creativity took center stage in its well-crafted visual storytelling. What video projects was your team part of? What were the messages you were delivering? We want to know how your team captivated audiences with its outstanding videos.

 Virtual Event of the Year

You made a splash with your virtual event this past year. We want to hear about the unique features, innovative tactics and impressive execution that delivered an outstanding virtual event for your audience—internal or external. What was the goal of your event? What made it so engaging? What were the results? We want all the juicy details.

 Visual Design of the Year

Tell us the story behind your stunning visual design. How did you use visual art to communicate an idea, cause or product? Was your design informative, powerful or humorous? Show us your top-tier design. What was the design for? What was its effect? Prove that you possess originality that instantly arrests attention.

Frequently Asked Questions

Why should you apply?
Our award programs help you measure the success of your work and prove the value of your contributions to your organization. You can set yourself apart in the industry as an expert, which will open doors throughout your career. As a winner, you’ll earn publicity for your brand across our websites and social media audiences, a custom write-up about your campaign and certificates for winning work.
Who can enter?
Entries may be submitted by organizations worldwide. The only requirement is that entries be submitted in English. The program is open to in-house, agency, independent communication practitioners and vendors in the private, corporate, nonprofit and government sectors.
What does it take to be a winner?
We look for top-quality work that shows clear, bold and creative ideas that benefit your business or client. Please provide metrics or media coverage that back up your claims, and share creative collateral such as videos, visual design or websites that were a part of your project. Please look at our past award winners to see what gets recognized and rewarded. We encourage you to submit the same campaign to multiple categories, if you feel they are relevant. Doing so increases your chances of winning. You'll also save on multiple submissions of the same campaign or project. 
Why are some deadlines extended?
We extend deadlines based on applicant needs and upcoming promotional opportunities.
When will I find out results?
We try to announce a list of finalists six to eight weeks after the close of the program. The announcement of the winners comes about three to four weeks after the announcement of the finalists. Each announcement will be made with a headline on our website, in our daily email newsletter and on our social media platforms. Emails notify entrants of these announcements. As deadlines are extended, so are expected announcement dates.

Additional Questions

If you have any questions about the program or problems submitting your entry, please call Brendan Gannon at 312-960-4407 or email brendan@ragan.com.

Sponsorship Opportunities

If you are interested in sponsoring one of Ragan Communications’ award programs, please contact Hannah Lavelle at 312-960-4628 or email hannahl@ragan.com.

Ragan Communications is not responsible for international shipping fees related to Winner trophies.