Award Ceremonies

We've just been to an amazing Awards Ceremony with one of our agencies and I couldn't help be struck by the buzz on the run up to the awards. This time round it was the Prolific North Awards, held at the excellent Lancashire County Cricket Club venue. The room was full of various shortlisted companies, all striving for recognition amongst their colleagues, clients and peers. Sadly most will go home empty handed, wondering what exactly the winning criteria was and what they can change in order to make the podium next time round. On the other hand a small selection were winners, proudly sharing what the winning formula was to the room for their gong.

So what exactly is behind the phenomenon of 'awards'? How and when do we come across these in our career? Can you be expected to get involved in them in your current or future role? Well it depends on the drive and attitude of the company that you've joined. It may be an ego related issue with the employer's management, a client driven initiative for an outstanding piece of work or it may be something that they have entered to give their staff the recognition which they deserve. By understanding the awards that are available for your company sector, you can steer decision makers towards entering them. Unfortunately entering them can take a considerable amount of time and effort and in today's world of efficiency and results, the time for creating strategies etc. for award entries can be limited. Many likely award winners never get the time to actually enter in the first place.

How exactly do companies go about winning awards? Well the key to a successful business is untimely in the service or product which is produced. For this alone awards can come streaming in, but for some businesses and namely agencies, awards are the ultimate target and business development and pitch successes hinge on them. Agencies are known to have pushed campaigns with the agreement of clients in order to win awards. There are PR agencies which are hired and fired solely on producing silverware on the cabinet. Creating a great campaign around a fantastic product usually produces great results. Whatever the reason, it brings great satisfaction to the agency or client involved and makes them strive for further success.

There are a wealth of awards to enter across the Northwest and as the marketing industry in the area continues to grow, as do the popularity of the awards. Here is a list of some of the biggest ones in the area:

-          Prolific Marketing Awards

-          Big Chip Awards

-          Roses Creative Awards

-          Made In Manchester Awards

Regardless of how things turned out, on this occasion the fantastic Clint Boon was on hand to provide the tunes that would provide the more energetic of us the rhythm to dance the night away. Congratulations to all the winners at this year's awards and we wish you all the luck in the world for those on the horizon.

Results for the Prolific North Awards can be found here.