How to Be Smart About Industry Awards
By Rylie Miller
Published June 14, 2023
Industry awards are like modern art.
Some people love displaying them and find value in them, while others turn their heads sideways wondering: “What does this even mean?”
People question the rising costs associated with awards. For others, it’s the time and effort it takes to apply, and if they’re anything more than a vanity play disassociated from business goals. And some question all of the above.
We’re here as a team to say questioning is good, but being strategic is even better. When it comes to awards – researching, applying, and winning – we all need to be smart.
Here, we’ll take you through why awards still matter and how to approach them in a way that supports your business objectives.
5 Reasons Why Awards Are Important
On the surface, awards are an opportunity to show the world what sets your brand or product apart from the competition. You know how hard you and your team worked to get results, so why miss the chance to share your success?
But there’s more to it. Awards are great for:
Credibility: An award serves as an endorsement for products and services, legitimizing the quality and value of your work. When potential clients and customers come across a third-party stamp of approval, they feel more comfortable saying yes to a partnership.
Building a Relationship with a Key Publication: Awards can be an entry point to building a relationship with an important outlet and securing coverage. For example, the CEO at Contentstack, Neha Sampat, was named one of Austin Business Journal’s 2022 Best CEOs. They then featured her in a standalone piece, highlighting her focus on tech equity and building amazing work cultures.
Built-in Marketing: Every organization markets its awards program, some better than others. If you win – sometimes even if you’re a finalist – your brand can benefit from being included in press releases, websites, social media, and more.
Maximizing other efforts: Take attending an industry event, for example. You’re already investing the time and budget. If you win an award tied to that event, your brand will have a moment to shine.
“At a conference, you want to make the most of your presence and the money you’re spending to be there. One of our clients, OWC, won an award at the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) show. Even though they weren’t highlighting their sustainability efforts at their booth on the show floor, the win inserted them into the sustainability conversation and added an extra layer of visibility to their brand,” said Nicole Brief, Carve’s Senior Director of Consumer Accounts.
Employee Morale and Recruitment: People like to work for and with winners. It’s the truth.
Overall, winning an award can open the door to a variety of opportunities. But before you get lost in the daydream of your win, you need to determine which awards work for you.
How to Evaluate Industry Awards
There is a non-exhaustive list of opportunities to apply for awards: media outlets, industry organizations, brands, non-profits, government agencies, and events and conferences. This means too many awards, not enough time, and not all of them are exactly worth it.
Before you begin evaluating which awards fit in your wheelhouse, you need to be able to see the forest through the trees.
“A big factor in choosing which awards to apply for is keeping your brand and colleagues honest,” Chelsea Horn, Carve’s Senior Account Supervisor, said. “For example, we’ve had some clients come to us and say ‘This is our dream award win, let’s do it!’ But when we looked at previous winners, we noticed they were huge name brands, like Patagonia, L’Oreal, IBM, and other businesses at that status. We want our clients to invest in something that will come to fruition – not just apply for the sake of doing it. Sometimes the biggest brands win, sometimes insanely creative initiatives win.”
It definitely helps to take a magnifying glass to the fine print.
“Sometimes organizations sneak in hidden fees on top of the award application cost, and these extra costs don’t give you any extra value. If there is an extra cost just to accept the award, then it’s probably not all that credible and not really worthwhile. However, some carry licensing fees to make the most of your win, like being able to use the entity’s logo or award badge on your website, social channels, and marketing collateral – those can be worth the investment because it demonstrates trust and credibility to the customer decide if they’ll click ‘purchase now,’” added Nicole Brief, Senior Director of Consumer Accounts.
An overarching misconception about applying for industry awards is the cost itself. Some refer to it as pay-to-play and refuse to participate. And while cost should be a determining factor, it ultimately comes down to the clout the award organization provides/has, your budget, the strength of your initiatives, and if you can manage to squeeze enough juice from your win (or nomination).
“Awards are a new revenue stream for a lot of media outlets and publications. They’re mostly for-profit businesses, so it’s reasonable that they would charge something for the entrance fees to cover the work that goes into it on their end,” said Scott Goldberg, Carve Managing Director, and EVP.
After doing some self-evaluation tied to the questions above, if you come to the conclusion that an award is right for your brand, then you better start drafting that award application!
For our toy client Educational Insights, the 2022 Good Housekeeping Awards were an overwhelming “yes” awards play. Why? Because it's a marquee program backed by a household name publication, which covers its winners in a round-up with a UVPM of 39 million.
The round-up included three Educational Insights Best New Toy Awards and links to purchase the toys, making checkout simple from GoodHousekeeping.com. Good Housekeeping also amplified the winners across social, hitting the target toy-buying audience multiple times.
What it Really Takes to Apply for Industry Awards
Applying for awards takes time. Submission forms vary from asking several open-ended questions with lengthy word requirements to requiring portfolios, case studies, financial information and multi-platform assets. Some require CFO sign-off and others customer references and approvals.
In general, the process includes:
Researching which awards to apply to and creating a yearly calendar
Vetting all the awards to make sure they are legit (Tip: if it feels shady, then it is shady)
Choosing awards based on the overall budget and business objectives
Drafting the required entry award applications
Creating additional assets for the award application
Getting client approval
Applying and waiting
Maximizing the win!
It can be a time suck for internal communications and marketing departments, which is why many brands have their PR agencies handle the work.
Industry awards hold a lot of power when approached strategically. It’s all about picking the right ones and using an eventual win to your advantage. Or, skipping an opportunity overall and using that time to uncover your brand’s next award-winning idea.