Delivering Award-Winning Work All Year Long

As many of you know, on April 25th, we hosted the South Carolina PRSA Mercury Awards in Greenville.  As always, the event was a fun-filled night showcasing great work, catching up with colleagues, and celebrating our industry's professionals.

Every year, hours of hard work go into combing through our best work, preparing entries, and for some on the committee, prepping an exciting night to celebrate the final winners.  Every year we get excited about the process, but soon after, the excitement fades away and we get back to getting the job done at our own companies and organizations.  But there is a reason we get excited about these awards.  We should keep that excitement going and think about award entries throughout the year.

Winning awards is great for your organization.  Of course it's nice when you get the recognition, but the award means much more.  If leveraged the right way, an award could mean new business opportunities, increases in the budget for your communication efforts, local and regional awareness for your company, and the ability to show a record of delivering great results.

Of course, there are considerable costs and time investments involved with these awards so many times we may limit what we are entering.  The important thing to remember is that you can't just think about these awards once a year.  Think about awards when you are in planning and even execution stages.  You should always ask:  Is this award-winning work?  If not, how can it be improved and brought up to the next level?

Professionals in our industry work hard on a daily basis.  It's hard to imagine asking anyone to do anymore than they already are, but it's also the nature of a communications professional - we will always take on more!  Taking a step back from a communication strategy, plan or execution can mean the difference between good and great.  It can be the difference between Award of Excellence and Award of Merit at the SCPRSA Mercury Awards!

The lesson to take away: Challenge yourself and others every day.  Act like every campaign or tactic you think of could be the possible winner at next year's Mercury Awards.  By the time award entries come around again next year, you won't be asking if you should enter....you will be asking how many categories you will be entering!