Media Industry Awards: A Necessary Evil?

The MediaShop is one of South Africa’s most award-winning media agencies (yes, many, many MOST Awards~ Ed), and we are very proud of our impressive track record. Last week we received a finalist in the Marketing Achievement Awards for our amazing client, Debonairs Pizza, well done to the team!

It got me thinking though, in all the chaos of our daily lives, what value do rewards add and why do we participate in them?

You know how it goes, you’re on the deadline for a massive campaign, the client is in pursuit, the media owners are in pursuit, your boss is in pursuit… The hunt list is even in pursuit ! And now you get a notification that XYZ Prizes is open for registration.

So senior management starts chasing the rewards we can participate in, and your never-ending to-do list just keeps growing. You’ll be forgiven for thinking awards submissions can wait – we have priorities for our customers, don’t we?

But I don’t think we should underestimate the importance of participating and winning prizes – the benefits are so valuable.

First of all, it’s great for our customers to see that the hard work and effort we put into their business pays off. Gone are the days of the creative agency briefing in a 3×5 B&W press ad in the Diamond Fields Advertiser (is the DFA still there?) so they could enter the Loeries.

Today rewards have so much more substance and most of the time you need a thorough justification proving the ROI and impact of the campaign. So what that says to our clients is that their campaigns have had a very real impact on their business deliverables, and we’re doing a great job with their marketing budgets.

This then has a ripple effect on the internal team, giving them a real sense of purpose, leading to a boost in team morale. Now more than ever we need to increase our level of motivation – the past few years have been challenging, with extraordinarily high expectations and an incredibly intense work environment. Nothing uplifts the spirit more than a strong sense of accomplishment and a sense of achievement.

It is also essential to build a culture of healthy competition – I live by the motto “Good is the enemy of excellence”, and we must constantly strive to be and do better. This continuous cycle of learning and improvement strengthens the whole ecosystem and creates a much more positive and productive space to be the best you can be.

But that sense of healthy competition is not only important within the agency, but also between agencies. We’ve had a busy pitching season lately, with a seemingly endless pitching “season,” but how else could potential clients gauge an agency’s level of expertise and excellence?

Yes, it’s in the hard work and detail of responding to a brief presentation of case studies and committing to a certain level of delivery (and at a certain price), but one of the most obvious is an agency’s award-winning award. track record. The competition is really tough – we can argue that the agencies deliver the same “stuff” and it’s really just in the execution that we stand out, but for me it’s about doing exceptional, award-winning work, which gets results.

So before deciding if making applications is worth it, I can safely say that it is a necessary evil… And if it is a necessary evil, how do we get the most out of it and ensure our teams take the time and effort required to enter? After all, you have to be in it to earn it, right?

I would say celebrating wins is the number one priority – we really don’t celebrate enough these days. And celebrate the small victories too… every little bit counts.

Second, we need to ask ourselves if we are motivating our teams enough. Again, self-motivation can only get you so far, especially after such a difficult few years. Incentives could be a bit of a bonus, extra free time, public recognition and acknowledgment (who doesn’t want to be famous or just heard?), or even an opportunity to share your success and learnings with others and pass on your knowledge.

Finally, we need to provide support and assistance – client deliverables won’t disappear while you’re writing an application for an award, so is there someone who can lighten the load of your day-to-day commitments to give you time and space to reflect?

But on this point though, a helpful tip to all strategists, while a campaign is in progress, write your case study, collect your support material, run your post-campaign analysis and collect your data – it will save you huge amount of time and energy when it came to going public.

So, yes, rewards are a necessary evil, but it’s worth thinking about the benefits of winning and imagining all the positives that come with being great.

Claire Herman is Head of Media Operations at The Media Shop.

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