It’s easy to fall victim to the idea that awards are superfluous; if you’ve got a great company, a great team and a strong client list, does it really matter if you’ve got the shiny trophy to back it up? The short answer is yes. More than just a trophy on the mantle, winning professional awards is a great way to raise brand awareness, motivate your team, and be engaged in your professional community. And in the increasingly visual world of brand marketing, that shiny trophy doesn’t look too bad either!
The main problem with awards is that most brands don’t give their applications the attention they deserve. Although the requirements for awards are quite steadfast, it’s all about revolutionising the mindset behind the actual entry process. The truth is, most brands could probably be doing quite a lot more, and it all starts from the beginning.
After winning numerous awards in the PR space, here are our top tips to writing a stellar entry:
- Question everything from the outset
The most vital foundation is to have a clear purpose from the get-go. A post going viral is a great feeling, but unless it’s reaching the target audience and working towards a higher goal, the satisfaction is easily lost. When embarking on a new campaign, always ask yourself why you are doing this and what you are hoping to achieve. Before you finalise your list of campaign tactics and start to build a timeline, you need to be sure that you can answer these questions in complete confidence.
- Focus on quality over quantity
In entries, it’s no longer enough to just have a range of numbers that don’t necessarily represent anything. Ensuring results tie back to business impact is absolutely crucial. For example, if at the outset the goal was to increase sign-ups for an event, the data offered should state whether this was achieved, and how, and the process it took to get there. Also, think bigger picture. For example, our Buderim Ginger Pride campaign garnered over 10x the KPI for attendance, which led to hundreds of people sampling the product. However the more notable metric was that it led to the Buderim Ginger range being stocked in Coles and Woolworths – highlighting a significant impact on the business as a whole.
- Don’t apply for the most obvious category
Dedicating time to researching the categories within any particular awards is one of the strongest areas for improvement. If you enter your business or campaign in the wrong category, this could be the difference between winning an award and losing out. Although the larger categories always sound impressive, they come with significantly more competition and it’s easier to get lost in the herd. That said, our top strategy is to enter in more than one category. Enter the major category and then research to find the more niche areas that your business or campaign can excel in.
- Put someone in charge, and hold them accountable
This is probably the biggest mistake that companies make when entering awards; they make it a quick task on a to-do list a mile long, and it gets only a fraction of the attention it deserves. Mistakes can be made, deadlines missed, and fine print goes unread. The easiest way to avoid this is by making it someone’s project to own from the beginning. If you don’t have anyone in-house to take on the responsibility, you can also hire experts like us to take over the process and give you the best shot at winning.
If you’d like more information on how to enter a winning award submission, or if you’d like us to do it for you, contact us at info@agent99.wpengine.com.
Agent Nic