Are we more concerned with industry awards than results? |

Are we more concerned with industry awards than results?

Thu, Feb 24, 2011

Go ahead. Take a spin through your LinkedIn contacts sometime. Look at people’s summaries and descriptions. What do you see? Is the focus on results people have achieved on behalf of clients and organizations? Or, is the spotlight on awards and self-recognition?

Visit your favorite agency’s Web site. Sift through the biographies. What do you see? How they made a business difference for the clients they counsel? Or, do you see a long list of EFFIEs, WOMMIEs, Silver Anvils and other industry accolades?

I tell you what, I see an awful lot of the latter. And, I might add, I’m among the guilty (to an extent).

Sure, accolades and awards build credibility. And, we need that credibility as consultants to earn new business and establish trust out of the gate. But, at some point, we need to hold ourselves accountable. We need to be able to promote ourselves based on the results we’ve achieved–not the number of statues we’ve won.

Look at it this way. If a potential client is visiting your site or LinkedIn profile in an attempt to research you or your firm, what would they find more useful? The number of Silver Anvils you’ve won? Or, the number of leads you helped drive last year? The increase in Web traffic that came as a result of the campaign you spear-headed? Or, the uptick in share of voice online you helped facilitate while working for your last employer?

You tell me.

Note: Photo courtesy of armatoj via FlickR Creative Commons.

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JGoldsborough

Solid points, Arik. I think there's something too what you are pointing out here. Going to play devil's advocate for just a sec :). Shouldn't any industry award you've won indicate that you delivered significant results? I know that the results portion of award entries is the most scrutinized when we do our IABC awards.

That said, I agree you still wouldn't know exactly what results were delivered. Some of the obstacles I see in sharing those results are explaining all the context around a campaign in a short space and client permission to share results. Thoughts on best ways to avoid these hurdles? Because I think the results themselves would definitely speak to people.

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Peter MacKellar

Great post, and I agree that results should matter more than the awards. That said, there are some clients, from the big to the small, that gravitate to agencies/individuals that consistently win the awards. Just a guess as someone who never has been responsible for selecting an agency, but awards may help the client sell the agency to their internal client providing the funding.

Arik Hanson

That's a valid point, Peter. But I might put that one on the clients then. If awards mean more than results, you may have a problem from the get-go.

Krista

Great assessment, Arik-- I might add that I also have a slight distain for awards, but that just might be the modest Minnesotan in me ;)

I think sometimes the hardware gets in the way of results and actually making a difference with the work we do. I've heard of clients asking for strategies specifically designed to win awards. How ridiculous! Rather than keeping your eyes on the prize (because it's nice to have shiney things to put on our desks and add to our resumes), I'd rather we focus on the work and tangible results. If it works out, it might also garner the recognition.

You know what's ironic, Krista? Many of the folks who win these coveted awards--they didn't win them by accident. They won them because they generated outstanding RESULTS for the client. Yet, when you look at their bios/summaries, they lead with the awards, not the results. Could be, they can't publicly disclose the results. I get that. But, that can't be true all of the time, and I think we see much more leading with awards than leading with results type bios/summaries out there.

Thanks for weighing in!

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Tweets that mention Are we more concerned with industry awards than results? | -- Topsy.com says:

February 24, 2011 at 10:53 am

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by O'Dwyer's, Robert Schwartz. Robert Schwartz said: #PR Brief 2/24: @arikhanson on how #PR has become overly obsessed w/ #industyrawards rather than achieving results (http://bit.ly/fBU0Tg). [...]