By Katrina Olson, Best of the Best Judge
Especially for newbies, the Best of the Best categories can be a little confusing. How do you know what to enter and in which category? The good news is, there’s usually more than one correct answer—and sometimes there are multiple correct answers. These four steps will help keep you on track to put your best foot forward.
- Review your previous year’s work.
What campaigns worked well? What efforts or programs were well received by target audiences? What activities created the most buzz for your company or products? Don’t get too caught up in the categories—if you want to enter something, we can help you find the right category or categories. Were there individual pieces within a campaign or program that were especially outstanding? You can enter these independently as well as entering the entire campaign.
- Ask yourself, is it marketing or public relations?
Of course, it has to be a marketing or public relations effort. Ask yourself these questions to determine if you should enter it in the Best of the Best Marketing competition:- Did you get exposure with your customers or other key, external publics?
- If you held a training seminar or workshop, how did you promote and market it? What marketing opportunities took place before, during, or after the event?
- If you held an event, how did you promote it? Did you get or create media coverage, either traditional or on social media?
- If you participated in (or better yet created) a community event, did you promote it? Did you get media attention or create social media engagement?
- If it was an internal communications effort, was your goal to secure engagement or participation, change attitudes or behaviors, or elicit a response? (If so, it may fit in the PR-Corporate category.)
To be considered, it should involve communication with a specific target audience that moves product through the channel, changes awareness or perceptions, or causes a desired response on an internal or external audience.
- Choose the best category or categories.
Let’s take a quick look at each category, what it means, and what should be entered in each.
Brand Awareness
Branding is about what your company or product stands for and how customers perceive you. This category focuses specifically on such applications as changes or updates to a company’s visual identity, increasing awareness of the company in the marketplace, and other brand-building activities. For distributors, branding campaigns are usually company-focused rather than product focused. For manufacturers, it could be either.
Digital/Social Media
For this category, enter a specific campaigns, a related series, or limited-time digital/social efforts. Don’t enter all of your social media activities for the year or all your activities on a specific platform. Entries may include a blog, digital newsletter or series, podcast or series, product launch, PR effort, or other digital effort to educate, inform, or persuade customers about the organization, its products, or services. You can enter internal (employee communication) digital/social media efforts, but they will likely have a better chance in the PR corporate category, which is highly underutilized.
Event
This category is for one-time or short series of occurrences built around a common purpose or theme such as an expo, hosted trade show, customer appreciation activity, counter day activity, or workshop series. Include all pieces used to market the event such as invitations, press releases, advertisements, or display materials, especially if they’re mentioned in the statement of purpose. Attending a trade show is generally not considered an event, unless the activities or marketing associated with your booth were particularly outstanding.
Integrated Promotional Campaign
This is where you should enter a campaign that’s a focused effort to promote a product or group of products, and executed over a specific, limited time period. It usually includes three or more complementary yet different marketing pieces with a single, unified theme or purpose promoting one product, service, event, or activity. Different campaigns should be entered separately so each is judged on its own merit.
Print Ad (or Series)
This highly underutilized category is for an individual or series of print materials promoting a product, service, event, or activity. Your entry could be an ad or series of ads in a printed publication like a magazine, newspaper, or other publication. You could also enter a billboard or series of billboards.
Product Launch
A product launch is a strategic effort, usually consisting of many components, not a single piece. It may include direct response efforts, social/digital media, print advertising, video, website/landing pages, brochures, displays, counter displays, digital ads on counter monitors, and other media. Be sure to include all relevant pieces. Judges don’t necessarily need to see entry forms and note pads if they clutters the entry or you run out of room. If you’ve launched several products throughout the year, enter each product launch separately.
Public Relations–Community
PR helps enrich relationships with key audiences by connecting the company’s mission, philosophies, and practices to other (usually nonprofit) organizations, groups, or the public, enhancing the organization’s reputation as a good corporate citizen. For this category, focus on how you leveraged your good deeds to gain positive media attention among external publics. Include articles, newspaper placements, press kits, press releases, social media screen shots, radio/TV stories, and other evidence of exposure. Limit each entry to one activity or event, event; do not submit a compilation of all of your PR efforts for the year. Entering each separately allows it to be judged on its own merits and increases your chances of winning.
Public Relations–Corporate
Corporate PR is designed to promote mutually beneficial relationships with key publics; provide information, education, and/or interaction; develop mutual understanding, goodwill, support, and trust among key publics and/or changes attitudes or behaviors.
Entries in the PR–Corporate category should focus on how you used non-paid media, social media, and/or internal or external communications to advance a company effort, viewpoint, or goal. Include employee communication programs, a customer newsletter, government or public affairs programs, publicity, media relations, articles in publications, press kits, press releases, newspaper placements, radio/TV stories, and digital media—that serve to benefit the company.
Examples are a free safety workshop for customers, a “how to” blog with educational information about lighting, a series of videos with tips for using your products, a free code seminar for customers.
Limit each entry to one activity or event, event; do not submit a compilation of all of your PR efforts for the year. Entering each separately allows it to be judged on its own merits and increases your chances of winning.
Selling Tools
The selling tools category is for individual entries, or for coordinated and similarly themed pieces. Entries may include a brochure, website/mini-site/landing page, video, or any tool created to promote a company, group of products or services, or an individual product or service. If you created an outstanding selling tool as part of a product launch or integrated marketing campaign, by all means, enter it here!
Video
Here’s where you enter a single video or related series of videos created for a specific marketing or public relations purpose to promote your company, its products or services.
Enter videos that tell a story, solve a problem, address a customer need, or serve a specific purpose. This may include company or customer profiles, new product introduction, specific branding effort, product-focused how-to video, or public relations video. (No internal training videos, please.) A holiday greeting might fare better in the PR–Corporate category which is very underutilized.
Website
Whether you launched a new website or redesigned an outdated one, be sure to explain your marketing strategy, goal, or what you were trying to accomplish from a marketing or customer perspective. Drone video, employee or customer interviews, or corporate anniversary videos are welcome, but they must be part of a overall marketing effort or designed to achieve a specific marketing goal. Share this information in your statement of purpose. If a specific promotional site, landing site, or mini-site, is no longer active, consider hosting it temporarily on a private site for the purpose of judging. Be sure to provide a login and password.
- Enter by Monday, March 4.
Go to tEDmag.com/best where you’ll find links to FAQs, blogs, podcasts, and more information for preparing your entries. You’ll also see big red “ENTER NOW” button which links to the online portal where you can log in with your existing credentials or register as a new user. And remember:
- Entries received by Monday, March 4 will be $150 per entry.
- Any entries received between March 5-March 31 will be $200 per entry.
As always, contact tED Editor Misty Byers at mbyers@naed.org with any questions about the “Best of the Best” awards. You can also contact katrina@katrinaolson.com with questions about the statement of purpose, categories, or what to enter.
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Katrina Olson is a marketing consultant, coach, trainer, and writer with more than 35 years of experience including 20 years in electrical distribution. She has been a Best of the Best judge since 2006 and lends her expertise as a regular contributor to tED magazine and tedmag.com.
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