This time of year is awards season for the television and film industry. That got me thinking about industry awards… why do we feel the need to submit entries to them and what is the benefit to our organisation for doing this?

Sit back, Fans of Plans, open the popcorn and take a read of this latest working well blog all about awards. 

Why awards? 

Industry awards are important for several reasons. I’m sure you’ll be familiar with the following:

• Company credibility and validation as an industry leader
• Demonstrating best practise and standards
• Exposure and promotion to new stakeholder groups
• Credibility when recruiting new colleagues 

Before entering an industry award, think about what benefits you want to get out of it. It could be one or all of the above. I’d say that if it offers you none of the above, then question why you are going for an award in the first place. 

Industry awards are generally not free to enter, and they can also be quite time consuming to put together a decent award submission. This is why you need to think carefully before deciding to enter for an award.

Writing an award submission

Once you have decided on which industry award/awards your organisation would like to enter, there are a few things you need to think about including:

• Who is best placed to write the submission?
• Who needs to help contribute towards the submission (including proofreading)? 
• What are you timelines? 
• Who needs to have final signoff?

Putting together a plan will help you to meet the deadlines and hopefully not be searching around at the last minute for additional information to bolster your submission. You are more likely to be successful in winning the award if your submission is well put-together and meets all the criteria set out in the submission requirements.

Successful submissions 

Much like exams, award submissions are very much based on answering the question. Don’t second guess what information they need, or indeed try to mess with the format. Remember, your submission could be on of tens, or even hundreds they receive, so they all need to be in the same format for ease of judging. Anyone going outside the parameters may be instantly dismissed. 

Stick to the word count, document formats and allowed attachments. Going outside of any of these may indeed void that part of your submission. 

Don’t assume knowledge – even if you think your using terminology that everyone in that industry may understand, always keep jargon to a minimum. 

Winning submissions 

It’s always brilliant when you find out you have been shortlisted for or even won an award. Now is the time to look for the best ways to promote your win. Think about where you’d like this recognition to be shown.

• On social media – create posts on your own social media pages, making sure you tag the award provider, or perhaps even give a name-check to those who were also nominated in your category. Look out for posts by others – it might be your colleagues accounts who attended the award ceremony or it could be the event sponsors. Either way, this will amplify your reach to more people about your organisation.
• On your website – perhaps you are an organisation that has won a few awards now and you’d like to set up an awards page on your website. Or you might create a blog/news article about the award. Don’t forget to ask the award provider if there are any digital assets you can use as a winner/runner up/shortlister. 
• Local press – if your local organisation has gone for a national or international award, then this is something local news outlets might want to cover. We always like to hear about local businesses doing well. This positive news coverage can also go some way to positive promotion for potential new employees. 
• Internally – it’s always great to promote the great work your colleagues have done and let them know that they have helped the organisation to win an award. A thank you to those involved can go a long way. Or you may wish to celebrate in a bigger way, it’s up to you. Needless to say, an award is a great way to boost colleague morale. 

There can be so many benefits to entering for an award – as long as you have got all your ducks in a row for the submission requirements. If you’ve got all of this right, there is only one more thing you need to remember… your award acceptance speech!