Let me hit you with a hard truth: Award judges don’t care about your product, business, or exceptional company leaders. What they do care about is your ability to tell a compelling story—and that is how awards are won.
I have served as an awards judge for various programs, analyzing submissions from industries both niche and broad. And working at a PR agency for over 15 years means I have read (and written) hundreds of award submissions on behalf of my clients. Think Stevie Awards, Fast Company’s World Changing Ideas, Inc 5000—I’ve seen it all.
Here’s what does (and doesn’t) make for a winning award submission:
1. TELL A STORY
This is hands down the most important. Make the award submission fun to read. When I’m serving as an awards judge, I typically read submissions in the evening after a long day at my 9-5. I’m tired and hungry. You could have the most life-changing product or the sexiest campaign, but if the submission is boring to read, it’s not going to be a winner.
Winning storytelling is all about showing not telling, and it has to be compelling. For example, a make-up brand talking about its lipstick shades used language like “a match made in makeup heaven”; a crypto company told a story about exhausted investors staying at the office until 2 a.m. to comb through financial information because they didn’t have a tool to automate the data. Don’t tell me your product or campaign was incredible—show me what the world looks like with (or without!) your product.
2. NOTE THAT EVERYDAY WORK IS NOT AWARD-WINNING
Sometimes when I read award submissions about people (CEO of the Year, Most Innovative Leader, etc.), it reads like a laundry list of their day-to-day tasks. The fact that Joe Schmoe manages five successful brand partnerships or that Sally Smith is running a profitable company is just them doing their job. A campaign explaining how you rebranded or launched a cool new product isn’t exceptional—companies do it all the time.
So, what is award-worthy? Some of the recent award winners I’ve selected include: a company that took a damaged brand reputation, admitted its failures, and regained consumer trust; and a brand that took an outdated, struggling product and turned it into one of the most popular products for the TikTok generation. Common themes of award winners include overcoming significant challenges, changing consumer behavior, creating products that fill a gap in the market, and leaders who are unlike anyone I’ve read about before.
3. DON’T GET INTO THE WEEDS
Things that don’t matter to an awards judge include nitty gritty details about your product’s functionality, every tactic you employed in a campaign, the chronological sequence of events (first, we did X; and then this happened; next, we did Y.), and other details like dates (on Nov. 10, we hosted a video shoot for the campaign). Unnecessary details do not win awards and bore the judges reading them.
4. DON’T ASSUME JUDGES UNDERSTAND YOUR INDUSTRY
As I judge, I can’t name you a winner if I don’t understand the product or campaign at the most basic level. Complexity is not impressive—it’s frustrating. Use plain English, avoid all industry jargon, and explain your product or campaign so it makes sense to your grandma. This is usually impossible for companies to do without seeking outsider input. What feels obvious to you may not be obvious to the typical awards judge.
5. PROVIDE CONTEXT ON THE RESULTS/METRICS
In other words, how will the judges know if this is good? Saying, “We sold 1 million units of the product” or “Our campaign led to 20 media placements” sounds impressive—but is it?
Instead, say, “We sold 1 million units in 1 week, compared to last year when we sold 1 million units in the entire year” or “Our two-week campaign resulted in 20 media placements—that’s more than one per day.” Some award submissions will include vague platitudes like, “We received a positive reception from customers.” This tells me nothing. Prove it with specific quantitative and qualitative results.
To add context and answer the question of “Is this good?” consider: Are household name brands using your product? In what time frame did you obtain these results? Are you the only company that offers this product or service? How do these results compare to last year? How impactful are these results in the face of economic challenges? How do your results compare to the industry average or your competitors? What is your company leader doing that no one else is?
THE FINAL WORD
I know companies work hard to put together time-consuming award submissions. Make it count: Cut the unnecessary fluff, write it so an 8th grader can understand, show don’t tell, provide context around your results, and ultimately—tell a story.
If you can execute on these tips, you just might see your award-win rate increase.