Entering agency awards: is the juice worth the squeeze?

Our lecturers continually drilled into us the prestige and illustrious career awaiting any student that won a coveted D&AD Yellow Pencil. Bar set; challenge accepted. Despite being shortlisted for my work, my excitement and aspiration were short-lived as the now all-too-familiar disappointment ensued when somebody else’s name was announced.

But aside from acidic feelings of rejection and disappointment, what other factors prevent organizations from putting their work up for industry review?

Over the years, I’ve come across numerous articles and tweets, and had lively real-life conversations with fellow creatives, marketers and techs, who simply ‘don’t enter awards’, their reasoning sounding similar to “not every agency enters, so how can the winner be the best?” or, “it’s expensive to enter and attend”, or “we can’t compete with larger brands and agencies”.

While I can understand and entertain any of these objections, over the last few years as an agency leader, I’ve learned just how valuable awards can be for agencies. Through building an exceptional team and business, our agency has been blessed with some brilliant award wins, and it’s easy to overlook the business impact of our efforts.

It’s no secret that agencies are generalized as not having the best working conditions. In my experience, creatives, developers and marketers want to work with great clients alongside talented people that they can learn from. Agencies that win awards demonstrate an opportunity to work on exciting projects with experienced mentors.

As a practitioner – winning an accolade for your career journey or a client project is huge. Validation from industry peers for something you or a team have been a part of takes you from the internal echo chamber and takes it to another level.

I’ll never tire of seeing a colleague share their award-night achievements on their personal social media, or confidently build on their work afterward, whether that’s turning their results into an industry talk, webinar or conference. From writing and submitting to being shortlisted and attending the ceremony itself, the whole process creates a camaraderie beyond pixels and performance.

Agency partnerships are reciprocal; in exchange for great services or tools, you work together to win clients, push creativity, and drive results. Award nominations and wins that leverage partners can forge even stronger relationships, spawn joint case studies and reaffirm the ability of your agency for new business referrals.

When crafting a case study, I draw parallels with the awards writing process. You clearly state the brief and objectives, embellish your strategy and creativity, highlight the results and tie the impact back to the objectives.

Hallmarking a case study with an award shortlisting/win adds an additional layer of social proof. An independent panel of respected industry peers has collectively decided that your work is the best and, used subtly, enhances a case study.

Sharing your agency’s journey on social media can sometimes feel like an activity falling on deaf ears. But along with your other marketing activity, sharing awards success on social media is passively seen by a large, hidden audience of both new and existing clients and talent.

In turn, award accolades make it easier to confidently charge for work; they show that you’re an established team that knows how to deliver great work to tight deadlines.

The commercial and marketing advantage of the awards process is obvious: the B2B process of appointing an agency presents a risk to the decision-makers. Awards and case studies that demonstrate you’ve done it before mitigates that risk.

An award-winning agency or an award-winning case study can accelerate the decision-making process and be the deciding factor in a tendering scenario. Also, chief marketing officers frequently research, discover and approach agencies directly from reputable awards bodies.

When it comes to the question, “how did you find our agency?”, it’s often a simple answer. Awards.

I have proof.

Our agency is regularly invited to tender for opportunities that originate from our award shortlistings and wins.

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While awards remain at the heart of agency marketing and new business development, they can play an equal role in the retention, relationship and growth of existing clients too. An award-winning partnership makes your client look good.

It validates their appointment of your agency, justifies the strategy and plays a role in building a long-term relationship.

In summary, awards can be a pivotal part of any agency’s marketing strategy. Being shortlisted or winning isn’t a given, but it’s a journey that I believe all agencies should strive to adopt, strive to perfect and develop with their teams. Walking home empty-handed from consecutive efforts can breed cynicism, but perseverance and the rewards greatly outweigh the time and cost that goes into it.