Nominations are now open for the third Nigeria Digital PR Awards, part of the wider Nigeria Digital PR Summit taking place this October. This year's theme, "Art of Influence," will headline an Awards Gala on October 16, 2026, held on day two of the 11th edition of the Summit at The Zone on Gbagada Expressway, Lagos.
For the first time in the Summit's history, organisers have commissioned an official theme song. Titled "Onye Bu Nwa Nnem," meaning "Who is my brother?", the track was composed by James Eze and blends the Yoruba talking drum with the Igbo Oja flute. The pairing is meant to symbolise brotherhood across Nigeria's ethnic lines, and organisers say it captures the same themes of connection, identity and influence the Summit has built its reputation on.
This year's awards span 27 categories, up considerably from previous editions, organised across six broad areas: Creators, Culture and Influence; Campaigns; Public Sector and Public Affairs; The New PR Playbook; Organisations; and Individuals. Specific awards up for grabs include Creator of the Year, Digital PR Campaign of the Year, Best Youth Social Impact Campaign, Public Sector Digital Communication of the Year, Best Use of AI in Communication, PR Agency of the Year (Digital), Digital PR Professional of the Year and the Industry Impact Award, among others. The expanded category list reflects how much the digital PR field has diversified in recent years, pulling in creators, AI tools and community-driven work alongside more traditional campaign metrics.
A five-member panel will decide the winners. Datari Ladejo, Founder and CEO of Fernhill Digital Consulting, returns as Chair for another year, joined by Oluwamuyemi Orimolade, formerly a Senior Business Program Manager for MarComms at Microsoft's Africa Development Center. Three new judges join this year's panel: Thelma Okoh, Registrar and Secretary to Council at the National Institute of Marketing of Nigeria, Adaoha Njemanze of NOVVA Media and Communications, and Jeremiah Agada, Deputy Editor at Brand Communicator. Segun McMedal, the Summit's founder, tied this year's category expansion directly to how the industry itself has changed. "Influence today goes beyond visibility.
It is about shaping conversations, building communities, earning trust and creating impact," he said, describing the awards as a way of recognising practitioners actively defining what he called the new PR playbook. He also pointed to the theme song as a milestone in its own right, thanking James Eze for the collaboration.Ladejo, chairing the judging panel, said entries would be evaluated on substance over surface metrics.
"We will be looking beyond numbers and visibility to the quality of the thinking, creativity, execution and impact behind each entry," he said, adding that the goal is to celebrate work pointing toward where digital PR is headed, not simply cataloguing past performance.
Eligible nominees span PR agencies, corporate communications teams, government bodies, NGOs, startups and individual practitioners, essentially anyone whose digital PR work over the past year shows creativity and measurable impact. The nomination window runs from August 17 to September 18, 2026, with winners announced at the Gala on October 16.
The Awards sit inside the larger 11th Nigeria Digital PR Summit, running October 15 and 16 under the theme "The Rise of Digital Influence: Culture, Creators and the New PR Playbook," an event expected to draw communication professionals, business leaders, policymakers, technologists, media practitioners and academics from across the country.
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