Our little company landed the top award at the Hoosier Chapter PRSA event – a statewide competition that draws from ad and PR agencies, social media shops, corporations and associations and solo practitioners in all avenues of communication.
The award was the 2013 Pinnacle Best of Show. Of more than 70 entries, peers and colleagues in the same line of work in New Orleans selected our project as the best of all entries.
Some people pooh-pooh awards, others stack them up like sardines on lit office shelves, and some keep them wrapped up in old newspapers in fraying storage boxes.
I’m in the middle somewhere. I keep my recent awards on a shelf and the other 30 plus for media and public relations work stashed in the box.
But here’s the thing about awards – you don’t land them without first having a client. For the client, you should be doing your best work every day. For your best work every day, you shouldn’t be thinking that an award will be the end result.
In our case, the Best of Show entry was a last-minute entry (meaning we almost didn’t enter it for no other reason than lack of time to prep it for submission). Preparing contest entries takes time, especially if you do the research, track results and detail your budget and expenditures. Documentation is critical as are results.
We also like to tell stories in our submissions – ones that clearly highlight the work that was done. After all, storytelling is what we do – and client narratives are our specialty.
As a result of our efforts in 2012, we won three awards in 2013 – a hunk of engraved acrylic for each piece of client work we entered.
No doubt, clients succeed when they allow you to do work that lands awards. If they can unleash your potential, they also reap the best results from their customers and members. All said about winning, here’s a shout out to good clients: Keep us doing good work for you.
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