Are Industry Awards Still Relevant in a social media dominated age?

The short answer is YES and I would say especially in the age of social media. More than any other moment in our history, there are ever increasing numbers of beauty and wellness brands coming to market. Social media has granted access to the consumer for all whereas traditional marketing techniques kept the doors closed to smaller brands who couldn’t afford the expensive campaigns on billboards and in magazines. It’s great that there is more choice for the consumer and more opportunity for entrepreneurial founders to share their brands with the consumer. 

However, new entries into the market are all jostling for the attention of the same customers and the begins a new arms race, not of advertising spend but of influencer and media gifting, sponsorship and advertising opportunities are getting more varied and harder for the consumer to spot what is editorial and what is sponsored content.  

For big brands with big budgets, it isn’t an issue and I 100% advocate supporting our media and influencers who support us so brilliantly with thoughtful, targeted sponsorship and spend that can be so effective at sharing brand message and direct sales. It keeps the wheels turning for everyone, fosters working relationships and can really make a campaign, a new release or put a brand on the map. 

For new brands to market award wins can really make a huge difference. Expert opinion counts, more than ever. In a busy and noisy world of recommendations and person to person social media marketing, expert opinion is increasingly sought out as a way to select the right brand or product for you. For smaller brands or new products to market choose awards that have an independent panel of expert judges. Save some budget to enter these, if you are too small to be able to sponsor your chosen media in any other way this gives you visibility to your chosen title and says to magazine or trade body that you value them enough to put time, effort and money into supporting their awards even if you can’t stretch to advertising or other kinds of sponsorship just yet. 

There is also business value for businesses of all sizes in the awards process. It helps to drill down on messaging and deep dive into your strengths and spot any potential weaknesses in your messaging and offering that may have been missed. It’s a process, as a PR of 20 plus years, I know the value of this. It’s not always my favourite job as I know it takes time, serious  concentration but there is a huge amount of value when you get the messaging right, not just from obviously a win which boosts brand visibility within your target media and wider, increases employee engagement and pride in the brand but also gives customers confidence in their purchase as it has expert independent endorsement.  Even if you don’t win,  spending that time to really think about the brand, its strengths, how we can help improve brand communications and unify message across all touch points. Don’t be put off by a loss, every loss is a learning and a step closer to a win next time. The winners in awards are the brands that don’t give up that treat any losses as lessons and keep entering.  Every time we enter awards for our clients, we get more successful,  messaging gets tighter and sharper and we win both awards, coverage and market space.  

As for the practicalities of the entry process, give your PR agency the information but allow them the space to use their skills to make your entry award winning. A PR’s experience and press specific communications means a seasoned PR knows what an award winning product and entry looks like, take their advice – marketing communications are different. If you pay for expertise, use them to your business advantage. Our most successful clients are those that are willing to take advice and allow us to share our learnings with them. 

Last but not least enjoy your moment in the spotlight, you deserve a moment to reconcile where you started and what you have now achieved. We rarely sit back and take time to smell the roses and believe me seeing a client on stage (or more recently virtually) glowing with pride from an award win is like nothing else. We love seeing you succeed.