There are 21 PR awards categories in The 2013 American Business Awards, the top business awards competition in the U.S.A., to help you highlight your PR successes. (Friday, November 16, is the first early-bird entry deadline for the 2013 ABAs, request your entry kit here and you'll receive it right away.)
The public relations awards categories for Communications or PR Campaign/Program of the Year include: 
- Community Relations
Campaigns/programs that aim to improve relations with communities in which the sponsoring organization has an interest, need or opportunity. - Crisis Communications
Campaigns/programs undertaken to deal with an unplanned event and requiring immediate response. - Events & Observances
Campaigns/programs that generate awareness of or document commemorations, observances, openings, celebrations, and other types of events. - Global Issues
Campaigns/programs that demonstrate effective global communications implemented in at least two countries, one of which must be the United States. - Internal Communications
Campaigns/programs undertaken to inform or educate an internal audience, such as employees or members. - Investor Relations
Campaigns/programs undertaken to communicate information to a company's investors and the investment community and/or to manage the company's relationship with investors. - Issues Management
Campaigns/programs undertaken to deal with issues that could extraordinarily affect ongoing business strategy. - Low Budget (under $10,000)
Campaigns/programs that cost no more than $10,000 to plan and implement. - Marketing – Business to Business
Campaigns/programs designed to introduce new products or promote existing products or services to a business audience. - Marketing – Consumer Products
Campaigns/programs designed to introduce new products or promote existing products to a consumer audience. - Marketing – Consumer Services
Campaigns/programs designed to introduce new services or promote existing services to a consumer audience. - Multicultural
Campaigns/programs specifically targeted to a cultural group. - Reputation/Brand Management
Campaigns/programs designed to enhance, promote or improve the reputation of an organization with its publics or key elements of its publics. - Public Affairs
Campaigns/programs specifically designed to influence public policy and/or affect legislation, regulations, political activities or candidacies. - Public Service
Campaigns/programs that advance public understanding of societal issues, problems or concerns. - Social Media Focused
Campaigns/programs designed to be implemented primarily through online social media.
There are a number of other communications awards categories including:
- Public Relations Agency of the Year
- Communications Department of the Year
- Communications Team of the Year
- Communications, Investor Relations, or PR Executive of the Year
- Communications Professional of the Year(for non-executive communications, PR, and IR professionals)
Looking for more ways to showcase your organization's PR triumphs? There are a number of other ABA categories that should be of interest to communications professionals, including many of the corporate literature awards, annual report awards, website awards, video awards, and live event awards categories.
