How To Leverage Advertising Awards for Marketing and New Business

Winning at one of the advertising industry’s many awards shows is no mean feat. After all, winning an award should be tough, right? 

So, picking up a shiny statue - whether it’s winning at global competitions like Cannes Lions, D&AD or The Immortal Awards, at regional shows like Eurobest and Dubai Lynx, or at local favourites like Creative Circle or Kinsale Sharks – should be celebrated and the success used to its fullest.

Above (left to right): Awards directors Emma Wilkie and Paul Monan at The Immortal Awards 2023

Not only will the trophy look great on a shelf in your reception, but it can be used for marketing and new business benefits. The award can be a tool for positive PR exposure in the months (or even years) that follow.

“There are many benefits to entering advertising awards,” believes Steph Leal, VP of marketing at Company 3 in New York. “One of the main ones being that it gives you exposure to potential new clients and businesses. Other benefits can include extra publicity, attracting new talent, growing the business's reputation, and more. Although winning is great, receiving a nomination is also a huge achievement.”

Above: Steph Leal, VP of marketing at Company 3

Whether you’re an agency, production company, post house (or anyone in between), winning an award will generate positive PR exposure if used correctly. I caught up with experts from all three company types to find out how best to utilise winning at advertising awards for marketing and business purposes…

For a history of advertising industry award shows and tips on how to enter, check out ‘The LBB Insider’s Guide To Advertising Awards 2024.’ If you want to learn more about LBB membership in order to enter the Immortal Awards click here or buy membership here.

How to make award wins work for your business

If you do have the honour of winning an award, firstly you’ll have some people within your company to thank for their early mornings, late nights and long weekends working on projects.

“After shouting it from the rooftops, thank everyone involved,” says Cassie Bodaly, creative excellence manager (EMEA) at DDB. “To make amazing work is a team effort and never easy. There will be blood, sweat and tears that have gone into the campaign from several teams and everyone deserves to feel good about a great result. It takes a village!”

Above: Cassie Bodaly, creative excellence manager (EMEA) at DDB

Celebrating a win can be a way to boost morale and forge a happy work environment internally, whilst being broadcast to the world externally across your company’s marketing channels. Steph adds, “First and foremost, it is essential to notify and congratulate the teams involved on the win. This will help create a positive and motivated work environment. Following that, you should ensure that you have a tight marketing plan, which can involve social media, email marketing, and press, and then begin sharing the news across media channels.”

The sentiment is shared by Framestore’s global marketing director, Steph Bruning, who says that firstly, “we want to celebrate and share the news internally: with the team who worked on the project, their peers and across departments. We’ll often arrange group or individual photos with the award itself for the entire team, since only a few will have been credited on the entry and many, many more will have contributed. It is also an opportunity for our leaders to applaud their team's performance and success across the wider company.”

Above: Steph Bruning, global marketing director at Framestore

They will celebrate wins across their own marketing channels, finding that sharing externally is great for their team and the company, and can really help to attract and retain talent. “Positive PR exposure comes with benefits, including boosting employee morale, credibility, and trust and establishing a reference for potential new business partners about the brand’s creative excellence,” says Steph Leal.

How to get maximum PR exposure after the event

Having a plan of action should you win an award is important, as the news is only new for a short span of time. “Businesses should ensure that wins are promoted strategically to maximise impact,” says Steph Leal. “This could include posting across media soon after the announcement, creating a campaign that dives deeper into the projects, giving the audience context as to why you won an award, and ensuring key people within the business are aware. Social media is an incredibly useful tool to ensure you are getting a broad reach; however, press like LBB is critical as you share it with a key targeted audience.”

Whilst the window for PRing a new project is short, winning an advertising award gives you a second opportunity to talk about a project and the people behind it. “Awards can help in terms of reach: some of our most challenging and exciting projects can be niche, so entering and being shortlisted can lead to valuable exposure to judges and different markets,” says Steph Bruning.

Be prepared to talk to new people, as the positive PR exposure can open conversations with new audiences as well as extend the shelf life of an advertising project. “The life of a project can be massively extended too,” adds Kai Hsuing, global MD of RSA, “Make sure the PR story around the win can then be expanded to be able to talk about the project to a wider audience. You can bring more elements into the story around the production, creative, director etc to ensure it is talked about long after it comes out on air.”

Above: Kai Hsuing, global MD of RSA

Winning an award in a certain discipline can bring an increased level of status to a company or individual, adding to your credentials as leaders or experts in your field. “We might pitch or be asked for a thought leadership piece on the back of a win, which can be a great messaging opportunity,” explains Steph Bruning. “Campaigns like these can also spark conversations, stories and news pieces beyond your regular ‘beat’ - the innovative technology and techniques used for both ‘Field Trip To Mars’ and ‘Long Live The Prince’ continue to develop and have such wide applications that your company can find itself back in the limelight months or even years after delivering the work.”

Above: The Kiyan Prince Foundation 'Long Live The Prince'

There will also be opportunities to be covered in advertising industry trade publications, particularly the likes of Little Black Book which guarantees coverage for its members and garners a huge global audience. “It’s a great way to celebrate and get international press for people in our network that might otherwise go unnoticed,” says Cassie. “Last year at Cannes we had two offices in my region win Lions for the first time – DDB Romania and DDB Budapest. Our Finnish office (NORD DDB, Finland) won the most number of Lions for a single piece of work (McDrip) in a decade. All three of those offices are made up of incredible talents and to see them get global recognition is brilliant.”

Winning an advertising award often leads to being asked to judge the following year, which can be useful for networking and boosting profile.

“The ‘Field Trip to Mars’ campaign for Lockheed Martin really captured global imagination. It garnered a lot of press at the time and led to many speaking requests,” says Steph Bruning, “The reach of the project was in part due to the number and calibre of awards that it won. The project really tested us and pushed us across all of our capabilities, and reinforced our reputation for delivering the most challenging, complex projects combining creativity and technology.”

How awards play into new business pitches

As well as gaining you column inches, awards wins can go towards boosting your bottom line. Working with an award-winning company is an enticing prospect and for good reasons: you’ve been endorsed by a third-party awards body as operating at an elite level in your field. 

“Awards are an extremely useful tool for businesses, particularly in the pitching stages,” explains Steph Leal “If a business wins an award, it helps it stand out from the crowd and increases its credibility, so it is important to showcase this in any communications with potential new clients.”

Although, Steph insists, it's essential to use advertising award wins strategically in new business pitches. “For example, you should highlight recent wins and notable nominations, quantify their impact, and tell the story of their impact, which could include how the win helped increase sales. What you shouldn't do is rely solely on the awards or misrepresent them.”

“Awards are definitely something we’re asked about in pitches: it can give real confidence to a new partner on a challenging project, to know that they will be in very capable - and highly creative – hands, concludes Steph Bruning. “As well as the final, standout piece of work, a campaign like this means you can really go to town with a case study that brings the creativity behind the work to life. This lets future partners and collaborators see behind the curtain at Framestore and shows them the importance of finding the right partner.”

For a history of advertising industry award shows and tips on how to enter, check out ‘The LBB Insider’s Guide To Advertising Awards 2024.’ If you want to learn more about LBB membership in order to enter the Immortal Awards click here or buy membership here.