A List Of The Top Advertising Awards & Why Winning Should Be Part Of Your Business Development Program
Note: This advertising awards list gets updated. Most recently on October 5, 2019. I updated The One Show listing and added the Ad Stars Awards. Let me know if I am missing an award.
Note, Note: The only way to add the right new accounts to your agency is to run a 24/7 business development program. Let’s get real and call it what it is…it is a sales program.
This sales program should be driven by a marketing plan, be supported by management and it should use the latest, smartest sales techniques – including winning awards so your future clients receive some third-party proof of your excellence.
Need the best plan? That’s where I can help. I am the most experienced ad agency business development consultant.
OK, the award list and a bit of advertising awards objectives and strategies
Why Enter Award Shows? Do You Have Business Objectives And A Strategy?
Winning the right advertising awards is good for business and agency and client morale. Just make sure you know why you are entering. Too many agencies don’t approach the award process with a plan or objectives beyond the search for ego fulfillment. This can make the whole effort a bit too C R A Z Y. But, you know that. Or, do you? Go here to hear an advertising award judge on his less than optimal experience reading agency entries.
I have a memory about the power of awards from my first day at Saatchi & Saatchi London way back in the 1990’s. I walked through the creative floor and noticed a tall glass case randomly stuffed with lots of creative trophies. This haphazard display delivered two messages: 1) Saatchi wins lots of awards and 2) they don’t take these too seriously. Of course, the second point was bull shit. Saatchi was always about looking like a winner and the award case proved that point in a cheeky manner. It worked better than the usual and obvious shelf of awards that sit behind the ad agency receptionist’s head.
I have always had mixed feelings about advertising awards. On one hand, they are, like winning an Academy Award, i.e. ridiculous. No one ad, digital program or actor is the “best.” On the other hand (the one with the wallet), they are way expensive. As an agency owner, I often cringed when a creative director came to me with his hand out asking us to spend hundreds on award entries.
However money aside, advertising awards have some very big advantages for agencies, clients, and creative-class workers:
The awards celebrate creativity itself. Creative strategies, art, copy and the media platforms that deliver the work.
They help our most talented people get noticed.
They help smart well-designed agencies get noticed by occasionally confused clients who need second party confirmation when selecting an agency. To me, this is a very important point and one that makes writing those increasingly expensive entry checks worth the cost. Awards should be a big part of an agency’s business development program – not just an ego stroker.
To put all of this go-for-it into context, I wrote about the Portland agency Pollinate a few years back that has done very well (!) by hammering Advertising Age’s Small Agency awards show. The blog post, “How To Win The Ad Age Small Agency Award? Twice?” is a demonstration of the value of entering and winning an award that has meaning for prospective clients because it is delivered via an industry-leading publication. Check it out.
Last point before the list. Award judges have told me that around 30% of agencies do not know how to create an entry that is designed to win. Poor copy, poor strategy, even typos. Many agencies rush through the process at the very last minute. Do you? Do you have an annual award plan? Who is in charge?