Loser (How to Throw an Awards Competition)

ADDYs. Silver Anvils. Tellys. A Lion or two. Winning awards sometimes seems to be an agency discipline unto itself. I know of at least one large firm who employs a full-time awards coordinator. It’s serious business (well, in the minds of some, at least).

I have one question: With all this firepower, with all of this creativity, with all of these resources, why in the name of all things good and great are the majority of awards entries so lackluster?

OK, you’ve caught me climbing onto my soapbox. But stick around for a moment; as a long-time judge for a number of global, regional and local competitions, I’m trying to help.

Just yesterday, I had the opportunity to serve as a judge for a national competition focused on a conservative but somewhat creative industry. The first few entries were duds — the luck of the draw, we figured. As we dug deeper, the entire lot turned out to be just mediocre or less. This marked the second time in recent months where my fellow judges and I deemed no entrant worthy of an award. There was a trend afoot.

Ignore best practices — no one seems to care. Instead, how about I share a few ways to guarantee that your awards entry is tossed aside? With real examples included, yet masked to protect the not-so-innocent, here we go...

Intrigued? Read my full column at AgencyPost.com, which launched today to to equip communications professionals with information and insights that allow them to innovate and drive their own success.