Awards programmes go beyond adding glassware and gongs to the boardroom cabinet. Melanie May reveals best practice advice to leverage these potentially lucrative opportunities
When it comes to awards, the marketing world is spoilt for choice. The DMAs, The Marketing Society Awards for Excellence and the Cannes Lions are all popular events in the industry’s calendar, as are the many individual publication and sector awards. While they may be popular, entering awards takes a significant amount of time, effort and money, so what is it that drives so many B2B brands and agencies to enter every year?
Ask a marketer why they participate and the answer comes back loud and clear: Because it is worth it – both from a reputation and a new business perspective. Drew Nicholson, joint managing director at DNX says, “We enter competitions for four distinct reasons: Recognition, reputation, reward and reference. The recognition of our peers, the reputation of the industry, the reward for our clients and those that worked on the campaign, and for new business references.”
It is a similar story client-side, as Anne Snelson, marketing director at Colbalt Telephone Technologies, developer of phone parking payment service RingGo (and runner up in the ‘Best use of social media’ in the B2B Marketing Awards 2011) explains. She says, “We regularly enter awards, mainly because of the increased profile that can be gained. It’s extremely important our services have credibility and nothing compares with the recognition offered when an independent panel of judges for a high profile national award selects our campaign, solution or service as the best.”
Why enter?
Participants list a whole gamut of reasons for entering awards. The writing process itself holds value as a form of self-review that can lead to improvements in future activity. “It’s like holding up a mirror to your marketing strategy, creativity and the campaign’s overall performance. Creating an award entry forces you to objectively assess a campaign and work out its improvements,” says Mark Runacus, chair of the DMA Awards Committee and senior partner at Crayon.
For brand marketers, award wins validate the time and money invested in a campaign to the board. Winning an award is obviously also good from an external point-of-view, increasing awareness among competitors and customers. For the individuals involved, it can boost their reputation and demonstrate a range of professional capabilities. “On a personal level, awards help you develop your career, while ambitious people use them as a means of researching a brand and seeing if they’d like to work there,” says Runacus.
Beyond the intitial win
Awards also provide valuable opportunities to meet specific business objectives, such as profile-building for smaller or newer brands and agencies. “The ultimate prize is where comparisons are made across all business sectors, all company sizes, and by implication across all levels of marketing spend. Small companies, such as our own, are recognised alongside world-leading companies,” says Snelson.
And for an agency, the attention a win can garner can help it meet that universal business objective of increasing their client-base. “Awards get you on the radar, and are looked at a lot by the people we want to speak to,” says Chris Wilson, MD at B2B agency Earnest (winner of six categories at the B2B Marketing Awards 2011). “If you get awards, you get client interest. It’s hard to say you’re good unless you’ve been independently validated, so awards wins are an important part of your own marketing.’
In fact, according to Rob Morrice, MD of IAS B2B, there’s a direct correlation between award wins and new business, “Our research shows that over a period of 10 years the most awarded agencies were winning the most business. If you’re not at the top of the awards parade when someone draws up a pitch list, you’re likely to miss out,’ he says.
But with all the effort that goes into entering awards, a valid question is whether it is possible to measure a return on investment. It can be done on a very blunt level, says Wilson. “You can ask new business enquiries where they come from and count the ones that approach you after seeing you win an award,” he says. For Earnest, this has proven the cost of entry is repaid many times over.
Selecting the right awards
This all makes a strong argument for entering awards, yet with so many out there, how do you choose the best awards to enter? Go for those with a strong reputation that are firmly rooted in your sector or industry, and are judged by people and brands you want to get in front of, say the experts.
“The main benchmark is to look at the company you’re keeping, what brands have previously won these awards and do you want to be ‘in’ with them?” says Nicholson. “We carefully choose the awards we enter. They must be recognised in the industry and have a good reputation. However the categories are varied for it is the quality of the work that matters. We like winning awards in a number of categories because it shows we have a well-rounded offering.”
It is a similar story on the client-side. Snelson says, “We select awards based on the relevance to the work we’ve been doing, and to highlight our new and innovative achievements – so when we launched a green initiative, we looked for a suitable, green award to enter; and when we carried out a social media marketing campaign with Birddog, the B2B Marketing Awards were the obvious choice. Most of the time, because we want to influence our particular market, we focus on our own annual industry awards.”
Once the decision has been taken to enter, how should you ensure the best possible submission? There are a number of areas to focus on, says Hugh Burkitt, chief executive of The Marketing Society, which holds its annual Awards for Excellence. Top is having the results in the first place (see boxout, left). “If you don’t have these, you’re kidding yourself,” he says. Clarity is also key so it is vital to ensure entries are crystal clear around the strategy, the objectives, and the results, and are easily readable.
Ceremony and sponsorship
Of course, it doesn’t all end with a well-crafted entry. Awards ceremonies provide a fantastic opportunity to network, as well as a good night out among peers and thought leaders. They also provide an opportunity for valuable relationship building and hospitality opportunities between agencies and clients. An awards ceremony is a chance to bond with clients socially and at the same time promote the agency’s work, be it for that particular client or another.
After the event itself, shortlisted and winning brands can capitalise further on their success by sharing their story via PR, social media and email to prospects and customers, as well as stakeholders and the wider media.
Awards don’t only provide opportunities for the entrants but for the sponsors too. “Sponsorship is about aligning yourself with the best-in-class performance,” says Runacus. He advises would-be sponsors to choose categories they want to be seen as experts in, either where they already have this reputation or in an area they are aiming for in the case of brand repositioning.
It is vital to work with the organisers to find out what the opportunities are for amplifying your sponsorship, rather than merely adding your logo to the category. “Primarily, sponsorship is about leadership and responsibility, and backing what you fundamentally believe in,” says Ian Cooper, commercial director at Birddog. “If handled correctly, the PR opportunities are huge. They should spotlight who you are, what you do and be a badge you are comfortable wearing, providing an insight into how you operate, and with whom.”
To get maximum benefit they should also be more than a one-off – repeated sponsorship should serve to reinforce an organisation’s expertise and leadership.
After the show
There is also the wider perspective to consider when it comes to awards. One of the biggest benefits is sharing lessons with the rest of the industry. Winning entries are innovative or prime examples of a job well done, and sharing the story of a winning campaign can only serve to influence the industry and help other players up their game.
At the end of the day, it is a case of nothing ventured, nothing gained. As Morrice concludes, “Don’t be afraid to lose. Believe in the quality of your work, and put it out there. It’s an old adage but true, you’ve got to be in it to win it.”
Winning formula
Seven steps to putting together a winning award entry by Hugh Burkitt, chief executive, The Marketing Society
1. Results count. Make sure you have a combination of strong results and high standards.
2. Quantify your results. Too many entries merely describe their results as ‘fantastic’. Quantify as much as possible, from return on marketing expenditure, brand awareness and trends, to profit, and marketshare.
3. Work together. Seventy-five per cent of winning entries come from a client/agency team.
4. Don’t hold back. Remember data can be kept confidential so don’t be afraid to include all details.
5. Learn from past winners. Case studies of the winning entries are usually published by the awards organiser. Study them and take note of how they put their entries together, the details they included, and the kind of campaign and results that win.
6. Make your entry easy to access. Judges may have hundreds to read. Include any graphs or charts.
7. It is never too early to start. As a general rule, the good agencies think ahead about how to win and act accordingly when planning campaigns, setting up programmes that will demonstrate results.
