How to make awards shows more rewarding.
The Connecticut Ad Club asked me to serve as a co-chair for planning the Club’s annual awards show. So I’ve been thinking a lot about awards and what makes them valuable. Or not. I’ve written on this subject before. And anyone who read that blog post knows I have an on-again, off-again relationship with awards. I love how they validate a creative person’s hard work, and how they give us something to shoot for, and how they bring an entire community together for one night of fellowship and card-swapping. I am more than a little unsure about almost everything else about them.
As someone who has won nearly every award you can name at one time or another, awards are something of a non-entity in my life. At one time, I thought awards were cool and worthy of my energy, but over the long haul, I have come to beleive that they are just north of irrelevant. For me, at least. If I never win another award (and I’m pretty sure I will win plenty), I’d be fine with it. The only award I still prize, and would never part with, is the tiny trophy my grandfather won in the 50s for bowling a perfect game. Pictured here:
Trust me, the irony of asking a Creative Director who is publicly ambivalent about awards to co-chair an awards show committee is not lost on me. I can’t back out now. So I’m going to move forward with my secret plan to save our local ad community and make this show great. And here are the ideas I’m bringing to the table.
1. Don’t let one or two ideas dominate a show.
I recall more than a few years ago, when Mullen launched its amazing and fun creative idea for the snack brand Smartfood. It was truly award-worthy. The problem was, that year, they entered the same idea (and it was one idea executed five or six different ways) into every category in the local Boston show. And it won. In every category. Including best of show, as I recall. I can’t remember a single piece of work from that year that wasn’t Smartfood. Okay, great ads. But, come on guys.
2. Give the show clear goals and a reason for being.
Awards shows need a hook. A why. The people entering and attending need to know why they should invest their time and entry fees in the endeavor. “Celebrating creativity,” is not good enough. Here’s a reason for being: to make other creative people jealous. To make clients sit up and drool. To put real cash in the best-of-show winner’s pocket. To position Connecticut as one of the top five ad meccas in the US. To bring clients and great creative minds flooding into the state. Any of those sure beat “celebrating creativity.”
3. Make the award worth winning. Not worth paying for.
I think we can all agree, if everyone wins an award, no one really wins. We are not a peewee soccer league. We are an industry of professionals. Let’s act like it. I’m a pretty competitive guy. I want to write the best headline. I want to win the coveted pitch. I want to approve the work of the brainiest writers and the coolest art directors (which I do, so there). I want to have the bragging rights for the following year. But when I go to an awards show and the number of awards given out is directly correlated to the amount an agency spends on entry fees, I have to conclude that the awards are more likely to have been purchased than won. Awards should be paid for in blood and sweat and flying spittle. Not cash. Now, I’m no dummy. I know that awards shows are money-makers for the organization, but that does not mean that money has to be the reason to hold the competition. Make the award the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Too many shows put the pot of gold up front.
4. Keep the fake clients in their own category.
We all have pals who own dry cleaning and butcher shops. Some of us have friends who started a microbrewery. (Some of us decided to stop drinking because we were spending way too much time with our friends who started a microbrewery.) Anyone can walk into the local pet store and offer to create a poster for free as long as they hang it in their window. The bar is pretty low in these situations and any creative team worth their salt can jump over it and come up with an idea that is award-worthy. Cool. Enter it. Win. But it is professionally dishonest for that idea to be judged and measured alongside a campaign that had to go through the proverbial Dutch oven of research, several rounds of creative and approvals all within the crucible of a stated budget and looming deadline. So, go ahead and create a low-budget/no-budget category and let the posters for your uncle’s travel agency duke it out with my awesome spot for the Boys and Girls Club of Nantucket (But be warned, I was lucky enough to work for free alongside Danny Driscoll of September Productions on mine, so my production values are freaking killer).
5. Make the award itself something worth displaying.
I have awards so ugly, they never made it to my shelf and went straight to a box in my basement. Yeah. Don’t do that.
6. Select judges who know their shit.
This is critical. Bring in hack judges and they will reward hack work. “Good try! Have a chip!” [Face-palm.] The judges you want to bring in are the industry’s most heartless bastards with impossibly high standards. If you bring in awards show judges who are not known by the great work they’ve done, then you’ve hired the wrong judges. When you get great judges, give them clear criteria to use in judging. “Is this an idea you would approve?” “Is this an idea you would push for with a reluctant client?” “Is this an idea that makes you wish you came up with it?” Here’s an (admittedly unworkable) suggestion to try only for the bravest organizations: if you are using the poker chip system for judging, give the judges some black chips so they can vote for the ideas that are so blah, they have no right to be in the show. And award a “Worst of show” prize. That would weed out the drek the following year. Or at least make the judging and participation more interesting.
7. Make the show entertaining for the folks who are not winning.
I’ve been to shows where I have not entered a thing. I go because they are fun events where I can see my friends and talk shop. If the show itself is a snooze-fest, however, I think twice about buying a $75 ticket. I can stay home and watch the Home Shopping Channel for free.
8. Use a good PA system. And large video screens.
We are there to experience the work. We’ve paid a lot of money in entry fees and ticket costs to attend. Make it seeable. And hearable. Spending less on AV because it keeps the profit for the show up is a losing proposition in the long run.
9. Make it unusual — a night to remember.
Some awards shows are the same every year. They blend, one into the other, over a span of a decade or more. And that’s fine if the work is consistently amazing and inspiring. If it’s not, well, you better make the show worth attending, make it creative, mix it up a bit, change the venue, try new things. Add a cool theme, interaction or strong anticipation and interest to the event. At least that will make the show itself bearable. I was at an awards show (Top places to work in Connecticut — we placed in the top five, not too shabby!) and part of the night involved a test of teamwork: building the tallest teetering tower using only spaghetti and mini marshmallows. Simple, but memorable and fun!
10. Create a way for the winners to leverage their awards.
Okay, so we have a bit of hardware. What now? How about using social media to let the world know who won and to broadcast it far and wide? How about posting videos of the winners. How about creating a creative showcase online where others can go to drool? How about zapping an email to every client organization in a 200-mile radius? Use some of the entry fees to hire someone who can boost social media shares and press involvement. Make it easier for the winners to make hay and gain recognition and they will be back with more entry fees the next year.
11. Eliminate the show altogether.
Here’s the most radical idea. Hold a competition, but simply put the winners online. Skip the big, expensive event. Pocket the entry fees. My agency has won several awards this year, but some of them have been industry-specific shows in other states and we have not been able to send a group of people to attend all of them. We found out we won many of these awards on the web, or in an email. And then the award arrived via FedEx a few days later. Which, in a lot of ways, was better than putting on grown-up clothes and going to a show. It’s a great way to make these events worthwhile for those of us who would rather be at home watching the Home Shopping Network.
Are these ideas worth rewarding? Let me know your thoughts.
Grant Sanders is the Creative Director at Mintz + Hoke Advertising, Avon, CT. He also wins the longest commute award by living on Nantucket Island with his school-teacher wife and emotionally challenged dog. Connect on LinkedIn.
