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Chris Robinson, MD of Boost Awards, shares tips on how to write a successful awards entry
So, you think you deserve a CN Agency Award? You quite possibly do. But standing between you and the recognition you deserve is the (not so) small matter of the written submission.
Your written entry (in this case a Word document that you must download and complete) is the one and only chance you have to get your case across. There is no second-stage, face-to-face presentation to give you the opportunity to elaborate. With this in mind, you really do need to ensure it does you justice.
Here are some important pointers from us here at Boost Awards, the world’s first and largest award entry consultancy.
We have put our heads together and distilled a huge list of suggestions and top tips into just three vital ingredients.
The three vital ingredients
The scoring for these awards is quite simple in principle: you have four to five questions to complete, and each question carries up to 10 marks. The highest scoring entry wins.
So, with this process in mind, what can you do to maximise your chances of earning marks and winning?
People often think that the judge will be able to spot the worthiest winner even through the most rough and ready application. This is simply not true. Deserving a CN Agency Award and winning a CN Agency Award are two entirely different things.
It is not enough to deserve the award, winning requires three key things:
- Meeting the judging criteria with clear, well-evidenced responses in each and every box.
- Having a ‘wow’ factor, including a strong reason why this year is the right year to enter. This makes the judge want to award you high marks.
- Telling a compelling story.
The evidencing challenge
Being ‘well evidenced’ is the tricky part here. You need to quantify every single assertion you make with suitable data; data that doesn’t just say “we achieved X” but instead PROVES “we achieved something truly exceptional”.
You don’t have to write your whole entry today but do try and find an hour to map out what you will say and where. The vital thing to do here is to organise the data you need to back up your key points. I can almost guarantee that you will find a substantial list of data points that will require a fair amount of searching before you find the relevant content. Only by starting early will you have enough time to gather a strong body of evidence.
Top tip: make the evidence balanced. Not just happy conference visitors or just financial performance, but a blend of low- and high-level metrics, and provide evidence of delight from as many perspectives as possible, such as visitors, sponsors, owners, and colleagues. In each case, don’t use just free-standing metrics – give them some meaning through a suitable comparator (e.g. previous year, target, ‘norm’ etc.).
The all-important ‘wow factor’
While you can get a high mark in each section with well-evidenced responses that answer the questions, you need to also bear in mind that this is not a box-ticking exercise. To maximise your chances for a win, you also need to attempt to induce a ‘wow’ response from the judges.
Sometimes stories are so strong or ground-breaking that this ‘wow factor’ is almost handed to you on a plate. However, while the extraordinary aspects of your achievements may seem obvious to you, you cannot leave it up to the judge to spot the miraculous from the mundane. For example, a potentially standout story can all too often be so diluted by ordinary good practice or, worse still, weakened by a lack of evidence: it simply fails to pack a punch. If something is unique to your business, or the industry as a whole, spell it out confidently.
Your job is to ‘find the wow’ and focus your precious word count on emphasising this. For most companies, especially larger organisations with an abundance of stories on the table, this is easier said than done. There is no one-size-fits all approach here sadly, because by definition each ‘wow’ has to be unique. However, if you simply accept that you need this as a vital ingredient to your entry, then that alone has made reading this article worthwhile.
Tell a story
One final piece of advice with which to conclude: tell a story. Yes, of course meet the strict judging criteria and do answer all the questions, but ensure that in doing so, you tell a story with a dramatic opener with a clear challenge or vision, an engaging tone throughout, and a happy ending.
Doing all this within the word limits of the mandatory questions is far from quick or easy, you can guarantee that the winning entry will have done exactly that. This year, wouldn’t it be great if that entry came from you?
About the Author
Chris Robinson is MD of Boost Awards, the world’s first and largest award entry consultancy. Boost has helped its clients win over 1,300 awards. Contact Boost for a free informal chat about awards, sign up to free monthly deadline reminders or visit their popular UK Awards List website to view over 3,500 awards to enter.
About the CN Agency Awards 2021
The CN Agency Awards is scheduled to take place in June 2021, with the exact date and location expected to be confirmed shortly.
The awards are judged by an independent panel of corporate event organisers and are free to enter. Download your entry form here.
