Gavin Peters, ESA Awards Committee member and Chief Strategy Officer at Wi5, gives us his thoughts on writing that killer awards entry…
We all know how easy it is to de-prioritise an awards entry to the point where it’s seen as a bit of last-minute admin to get to a day before the deadline. Because not only are all the senior people tied-up in project delivery, pitching and marketing, but that great campaign you did speaks for itself anyway, right?
Unfortunately not. No matter how good your campaign was, without giving the award entry a bit of attention, it’s almost certain you won’t be doing all your phenomenally hard work (and potentially era-defining creativity) justice. And although it’s impossible to believe after you’ve lived and breathed it for the last 12 months, many of the judges will only be getting to know about the ins and outs of your campaign for the first time via your entry. And there are a LOT of entries to get through.
So if you want to make sure your work isn’t lost in the noise, here are some tips for getting that entry right.
Get internal buy-in to the awards process
Award wins can provide a huge lift to the business: they boost morale across the team, get senior client stakeholders engaged, provide vital validation in pitches and are invaluable for company marketing. And, of course, most importantly for your CEO, they annoy your competitors. So make sure the company recognises the business case for writing a good awards entry and carve some time out to do it properly. Whilst it doesn’t need to be too onerous, treat it like a genuine project and plan in enough time for all the stakeholders required to properly contribute. You wouldn’t leave an intern to quickly knock-out a campaign strategy at the last minute, so definitely don’t do that if you are trying to gain that strategy some industry recognition.
Think carefully about the category you are entering
No matter how good the work is, you are almost certain to lose important marks if it’s not seen as relevant. Every entry is judged according to strict criteria for each category, so just being smart or creative in its own right is highly unlikely to be enough to see you standing up on stage and basking in the “admiration” (OK, furious jealousy) of your peers.
Read – and follow – the guidelines
If you take just one thing out of this blog, make it this one. If the awards entry guidelines tell you to “clearly state the objectives in Section 1”, it’s usually a good idea to clearly state the objectives in section 1. As a judge, there’s nothing more frustrating than seeing what was probably an excellent campaign, but not being able to score it well because key information is missing, difficult to find, or just impossible to compare with other entries. And even if we can’t all be creative geniuses, we can definitely get in a few of the easy wins: fill in all the sections, don’t ignore the word limits, supply the supporting materials and get it in on time!
If you aren’t sure, ask
OK, so this is in danger of bordering on primary school-level advice at this point, but it’s amazing how many times an otherwise strong entry has been let down by a complete misunderstanding of one of the instructions. If you aren’t 100% sure how to write SMART objectives, look it up, or go and check with someone – it could make all the difference.
Be clear… and creative
Following guidelines and making things easy to understand definitely doesn’t mean you should just submit a bunch of facts in bullet points. What it actually means is, you need to take care at every stage to be clear, concise and still stand out. Every word counts, so make sure you really do all your amazing work justice and get your own personality across. Don’t forget that your short video is the chance to bring everything to life.
Back it up
This is pretty much guaranteed if you’ve taken care of the “follow the guidelines” advice, but always include evidence to back up your work. Judges love a stat, because, quite simply, without that it’s just a lot of marketers saying that their work was a real “game-changer” that “moved the dial” and “created a new paradigm” for the industry. Document what the strategy was, how it was implemented and crucially, what it really achieved.
So there you go. If you’re entering a sub-standard piece of work, doing the above won’t be enough to win you an ESA Award. But following these tips might ensure your potential winner gets the recognition it deserves. Good luck!
Find more information about our ESA Awards here.