Entering credible industry awards is a superb way of raising awareness of your agency, showcasing your amazing team, and celebrating with your clients. There are even a number of agencies that quote it as their most valuable source of inbound leads.
I’ve been on judging panels for awards for over a decade now - Why? That’s for another post.
With that in mind, here are a few tips I want to share from reviewing hundreds of entries.
- Make sure the objectives are measurable. SMART objectives or OKRs are great.
- …and avoid using too many percentages. An apparently impressive 1,000% uplift could represent a less inspiring increase from 1 to 11.
- Make sure Objectives match Results. It's amazing/disappointing how often this doesn’t happen. For example, if your campaign’s objective was “to drive 1,000 more customers”, don’t put your result as “increasing prompted awareness by 15%.”
- Embolden key stats to make them stand out for skim reading judges. We have lots of entries to review and it’s in the entrants best interest to highlight the most important facts in the entry.
- No fluff. Tight editing is important. Often awards will have word limits, but that doesn’t mean you have to pad them out with unnecessary words. Time to re-read Strunk & White.
- Client Testimonials - an agency is obviously going to say good things about its work, but you’ll get higher scores for including a client endorsement/testimonial. I know how hard they can be to obtain.
- Don’t be a one trick pony ... .unless it’s an amazing trick. It often takes more than one trick/technique to secure a winning entry.
- Complete all sections of the entry form. I know this sounds obvious but I come across lots of entries where a section has been left blank.
- If you’re asked for examples (plural) of work, then include more than one example.
- Include supporting documentation for the more conscientious judges, but don’t rely on it.
Hopefully, this will help you complete your next batch of award entries and secure the recognition you deserve.
Photo Credit: Don’t Panic events.