In search of message design best practices: The Silver Anvil Award winners archive

► Performed archival research of the annual Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) Silver Anvil Award (SAA). ► Sought to derive best practices that bridge industry with academic research and pedagogy. ► Found the archive of award winners does not provide definitive information about what defines any public relations discourse genre or why any genre as used is “excellent.” ► Explained why employing rhetorical, narrative, and linguistic theories fills the gap about criteria and characteristics of excellence left by the SAA, especially for proactive planning rather than only retrospective analysis. We investigated specific award-winning public relations efforts to derive best practices that bridge industry practices with academic research and pedagogy. The data for this project were the winning entries for the annual Public Relations Society of America's (PRSA) Silver Anvil Award, which is considered the top award recognizing excellence in public relations. We found, however, that the archive of award winners does not provide sufficiently definitive information about what defines any public relations discourse genre or why any genre as used is “excellent.” This archival research provides us with a key rationale for employing rhetorical, narrative, and linguistic theories prospectively to guide public relations message design and planning, theories which hitherto have been used to judge campaigns post hoc or retrospectively.