The Importance of Awards

Awards can contribute to successful public recognition in the following manner:

• Visibility. Awards can help garner a significant amount of visibility in a certain market or industry, and attract new customers, investors and donors by giving an organization an edge over its competitors.

• Validate. Awards speak volumes about a company’s products or services and substantiate their credibility. Even an award nomination can be helpful because it validates a company’s leadership in its given market and proves it is ahead of the curve.

• Testimony. Winning an award or even being nominated serves as testament to a company’s work ethic, dedication and unique specialty. New customers will likely consider a company or organization’s work over another if it has won an award. Furthermore, current customers may view the award as a good thing, reinforcing their loyalty and willingness to share information about a product or service.

• Reputation. An award can improve the perceived reputation of a company to the general public, new customers, donors, investors and the like. Recognition may transform a company’s reputation from “pretty good”, to excellent.

• Differentiate. An award sets a company apart from competitors and differentiates the quality of its achievements and services from others. An award helps a company stand out for excellence over and above many other agencies and suppliers in the same industry.

Given the contributions and impact awards can have on employees, customers and the company itself, it can be important to make submission for awards a critical part of any marketing or public-relations plan.