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Want to improve your win rate in awards
competitions? Want to know why the campaign you poured your blood, sweat and
tears into didn't win? Want to turn a current campaign into an award-worthy
effort?
Research matters.
Great campaigns begin with insight and insight comes from research. Lack of
research was the most pervasive challenge for the entries I judged. With the
proliferation of online surveys and second-party data, every campaign can be
based in research. Research needs to be connected to the objectives and the
campaign results. Agencies and clients have to become more accustomed to using
research, both qualitative and quantitative to improve their campaigns. Excuses
about deadlines and budgets didn't do much to sway the judges' opinion on the
importance of research.
Media impressions alone aren't results.
In PR (and, increasingly, in general ad campaigns), media coverage can be one
result, as well as the tone or content of the coverage. Award-worthy campaigns
deliver a business or an organizational impact. This is where research can help
with pre- and post-campaign tracking. Working with clients upfront is essential
to determine the campaign metrics and how they'll be gathered. Most clients are
clamoring for real metrics and will be delighted to have their agency come to
them with ideas on how to measure business impact. One thing I learned in
judging is that our industry should spend more time focused on measuring real
results and less time calculating convoluted ad equivalencies.
You can't win on execution alone.
It's evident in reading award entries, both those I've judged as well as those
written at Capstrat, that public relations professionals are hard-working and
passionate about tactical execution. We love our war stories detailing the
volumes of media materials, the multiple market complexity, the early morning
interviews and the logistical hurdles we overcome. Most campaigns today
integrate multiple communications channels including media relations, events,
collateral materials, social media and even advertising. Almost every entry has
great execution, so you can't differentiate your campaign on execution,
especially if you are entering on behalf of a smaller campaign or smaller
client.
Ideas over tactics.
There is no substitute for a big idea -- a big idea derived from an insight into
your audience that is linked to strategy. Is that too much to ask? A tactic,
like a microsite or a social media campaign, is not a strategy, nor is it a big
idea. Sometimes the idea is there, it's just not connected to strategy or
packaged well. I think that's why campaigns with a catchy headline or clear
theme rise to the top. Look at the entries for agencies who excel in awards.
They understand the power of an idea and how to package it. I imagine that's how
they get their clients to see the value of a big idea.
It's tempting to be cynical about awards entries. What really matters are the
results we deliver for clients. And that's where I believe awards can be
helpful. There are many ways agencies can use the judging criteria to improve
the quality of their work for clients and the quality of their results. As
you're planning your next campaign or thinking through your client's top
objectives, pull out some awards criteria and think about how they might help
you create a better campaign.
Source:
Advertising Age | March 25, 2010 |