Industry awards might not boast quite the same glamour as the Oscars, but nothing motivates teams more than official recognition for their efforts. And there’s no pride quite like that of being able to parade rosettes in front of new customers. Yet, with the plethora of awards available to choose from, there’s a knack to targeting the right ones to apply for, to maximising your chances of winning and making sure you derive the best possible results if you are lucky enough to take home a gong.
1. Choose your awards carefully
Creative marketing agency Mason Zimbler scooped two major awards in 2006: ‘B2B Marketing Agency of the Year’, and ‘CNET Technology Marketing Campaign of the Year’. The company specialises in the technology sector, providing a full range of marketing disciplines so it made sense for the company to enter a high-profile award geared specifically towards B2B marketing and also one concerned with marketing in the IT industry. These highly relevant wins have given the agency a stronger, more targeted message to take to their existing clients as well as helping them when pitching to new clients.
Winning the ‘B2B Marketing Agency of the Year’ award was fantastic recognition for us and has provided a real boost to both the team and the business,’ says Fran Laws, marketing manager at Mason Zimbler.
Many of the awards in the marketing sector focus on consumer campaigns, so it is really refreshing to have the opportunity to enter an award that celebrates the innovative thinking and creative work that is thriving in the B2B sector.
2. The process of entering
Once you’ve identified the awards you want to target, you’ll need to consider the application process, which ought to be lengthy if you’re doing it properly. Heather Westgate is chair of the DMA Awards committee, and MD of direct marketing agency TDA, which has won various B2B-specific awards. She says companies must allocate proper time and resources when compiling their entries. “To stand a serious chance of winning, you need to spend up to a year planning your entry,” she says. “Where some entrants will complain that it seems to be the same companies that win time and again, there is usually a reason for that – namely that those are the ones that have put the effort in and really sold themselves.”
3. Who to involve
An effective award application will harness contributions from right across the company. As well as making more people feel included, it will ensure that the application is more rounded and includes aspects of the business that are less immediately obvious to the marketing team. For example, what about the teams that develop the products or services? Or those that keep customers happy after the sale – the support teams?
This is something that Claranet, an Internet service provider, has found when entering awards. Its main target is the ISPA Awards, which seeks to identify best-of-breed service providers in a cluttered and highly competitive market. Claranet has won the title ‘Best Business ISP’ three times now and is entering again this year because it has proved so beneficial for the company.
Clare Abbam, the company’s marketing manager says that it is important to take entering an award seriously, suggesting that the process should take about three months. “I put a whole team together to do it – testing for the broadband DSL category for example, means having dedicated computers assigned as well as attention from IT personnel,” she says. “And completing the questionnaire itself can take about a week.”
Abbam doesn’t begrudge this investment, believing the high standards are what makes winning the award so valuable and that the process of putting the business under such scrutiny is in itself a useful learning experience. “It gives newer team members an opportunity to get to know the business in depth,” she adds.
4. What are the judges looking for?
You will need to consider the calibre and experience of the judges on the panel, as well as the number – and more importantly quality – of competing entrants. If you stand to beat many of your biggest-name competitors by entering and can count some well-respected names amongst the judges, you’re probably on the right track. Keeping these judges in your focus, consider what will impress them – and what they will have seen and heard many times before. Can you really say, hand on heart, that the qualities you’ve listed are substantially different from or better than anything on your nearest rival’s entry? Are you providing sufficient evidence and specific enough examples, along with the facts, figures and references to support these?
Accurate spelling, impeccable grammar and a well-written entry form is sure to count in your favour, but if the story isn’t there to make the judges read on, your application just won’t make it to second base.
However, it is still very important to check and double-check your application before you submit it. “You’d be amazed at how many entries we see still with notes such as ‘Add Q2 figures’ left in the text,” says Westgate.
5. Attending the awards ceremony
Don’t, whatever you do, miss the awards ceremony if you’re shortlisted, or think you have a good chance of being. For the organisers, there’s nothing worse than a no-show, while for your business, the event itself is a great way to reward hard-working team members (of any level) with a great night out, another chance to do some all-important industry networking and the first chance for PR on the back of your success.
6. Exploiting your award to full effect
Assuming you’ve won one of your target awards, be sure to exploit it to maximum potential. In addition to the obvious PR opportunities – firing off press releases and placing logos over your marketing collateral and website – this may also include other, more indirect avenues. Claranet for example, needs to differentiate itself from the competition because many Internet service providers compete primarily on price. and Claranet charges slightly more for its services. So it needs every bit of ammunition it can muster to help ‘prove’ its quality is superior, and therefore worth the extra money. As a repeat holder of the prestigious ISPA award, it has exactly the evidence it needs. The company is also using the awards proactively as a launch pad for its recent diversification into broader IT service provision.
7. Measuring the results
So, how do you measure the RoI on the effort put into your awards marketing activities?
If you’ve been selective about the awards you’ve entered, then hopefully you’ll feel that the process of entering alone has been a highly valuable exercise and given you the opportunity to step back and consider your achievements. Choose your awards wisely and win, and your company stands to experience a whole host of both tangible and intangible benefits.
When graduate placement agency FreshMinds won Best Agency in the Research Excellence and Effectiveness Awards 2006 for example, it received a call the next day from a global drinks brand, commissioning a large research project purely off the back of this achievement. In addition to boosting your standing in front of customers and prospects as well as congratulating staff across the company, your firm’s value could rise, and you may also find it easier to attract weighty new recruits.
The thing to remember too is that if you don’t enter, you can’t win and by throwing your hat in the ring, you really don’t have anything to lose. Taking time out to reflect on where you’re going as well as your achievements over the last 12 months can only be of benefit to the business, whichever way you look at it.
