How to be a Winner

Who doesn’t love to win an award, right?

Awards are great tools to boost your company profile, as well as rewarding staff and thanking clients.

Although it’s probably safe to say it’s too late for you to bask in your peers admiration this year, now is the time to start planning for success in 2025.

People usually underestimate how long entering awards can take, so if you are serious about entering awards, then it’s vital you plan and prepare.

Here’s how:
1. Start by researching which awards you’d like to enter - they should be popping up on your social feeds and websites this quarter, so spend time investigating which ones are available and which ones are worth entering (not all awards are created equal - do they have independent judging panels or public votes?).

2. Look at previous winners - there is probably a review of the winning entries so see if you can decipher why they won and what the judges may be looking for.

3. Shortlist your favourites in a spreadsheet with deadlines, categories, criteria, costs (to enter plus the cost of the award night table and any travel or hotels - these can be expensive so you don’t want to run out of budget before the big night)

4. What is the judging process? Some of the bigger and more prestigious awards may have a live judging round so ensure you and your team are available plus have a winning slide deck with images and videos.

5. Pinpoint several clients or projects you think kick the criteria out of the ballpark. Generally they need to have been started and/or completed within the past 12 to 18 months and need to demonstrate tangible ROI or social value in some way.

6. Finally don’t leave your submission to the last minute. Awards should be a serious part of your marketing strategy. People buy from people they trust, and there’s no better way than holding that trophy high to prove it.

If you’d like to enter any awards but don’t have the time or resources, or have entered but not yet won any, then book a chat with me and we can discuss a winning strategy for 2025.

In the meantime, I’d like to thank my Mum and Dad for the Best Daughter Award - I knew it would come in handy one of these years! (not sure I'll win any awards for my photography and filtering skills though!)