Medallion Awards and Paragon Awards Best Practices

Submitting an entry with video? Video submissions should include closed captions. Entries that do not include closed captions may be subject to disqualification.

Submitting a photography entry? See best practices here.

Submitting a campaign entry? Please make sure you combine all elements in a concise summary and combine all elements in a single document or URL/shared drive for ease of judging. See some best practice examples here.

Make it a great photo in use. We scour these entries to spotlight winners on social media and email communications. One way that helps us decide which entries to use? A great photo in use. Bonus points if there's a person there, for scale, or an artfully arranged image. See best-practice examples of photos in use for the print category here.

Submitting a Spanish-language entry? All Spanish-language entries in the radio, video and print categories require an English translation, a detailed transcript or English closed captions for video entries. Please indicate in your entry description where this information can be found. Failure to provide the required materials may result in disqualification.

Preparing a Strong Entry: A complete, well-organized entry helps judges fully understand your work. Missing required materials or failure to follow category instructions may affect an entry's evaluation. Keep these best practices in mind when preparing your submission.

• Clearly state your objective and intended audience.
• Explain your strategy and why your approach was effective.
• Demonstrate how the work met its stated objective.
• Include measurable results whenever the category calls for them.
• Ensure your supporting materials reinforce your entry narrative and address the published category criteria.
• Carefully review all entry requirements and include all required supporting documents before submitting.