Winning Awards is good PR

Winners are grinners!

Everyone likes a winner and it’s important as business owners that we celebrate our victories. It’s also important that we constantly search for where those victories are going to come from.

Driving customer traffic and increasing sales is the number one KPI, especially in retail. In franchising, we all want to grow our networks and constantly strive to find any and every opportunity to be able to achieve that.

Marketing is a key driver in achieving all of these KPIs. Traditional advertising, such as television, radio, print and online are the mediums that are most commonly used.

It shouldn’t be forgotten that Public Relations (PR) also plays a very important role in helping your business become ‘a winner’.

PR helps you to provide your business with credibility. An article in the newspaper or magazine, a radio interview or an online story holds a lot more weight than any advertisement you pay for across all of these mediums.

However, to achieve the credibility you are looking for, a ‘good news story’ needs to be told.

Is there a better story out there than your business winning an award?

Maybe, however, we all want to know who the winners are; we all want to know how they became winners and we all want to speak with and listen to winners.

So start winning!

There are many awards out there that you can enter. Awards for enterprising business owners at state and national level, awards specific to your industry, green awards, local government awards, newspaper and magazine business awards and in franchising, the state and national Franchise Council of Australia Awards.

Of course, at franchise level, there is the opportunity to work with your franchisees in order to take advantage of the many newspaper, local council and local chamber of commerce awards, all of which provide outstanding PR opportunities for your brand.

With a little bit of research and a conversation with your PR consultant, you can put together a database of awards.

It’s then a matter of planning the awards: Where do they fit with the business plan? Who manages them? Who writes the submissions?  Do we have a budget to support them?

More times than not, these are questions that are placed in the ‘too hard’ basket. There’s too great an opportunity for your business to take this ‘too hard’ attitude.

There are many, many benefits to entering awards.

Preparation

You don’t need to be a Rhodes Scholar to understand that planning provides you with the best opportunity to win. Winners prepare better than any of their competitors. Entering awards is no different.

1. Put someone in charge of managing the awards for the business.
2. Put a list together of the awards that you want to enter.
3. Develop deadlines to ensure that the process is seamless.
4. Ensure that awards submissions are prepared and presented in the absolute best way that your time and budget allows (winners don’t cut corners!).
5. Prepare an internal and external public relations plan to take advantage of the result.
6. Prepare a company spokesperson to speak with the media.
7. Execute the PR plan following the result.
8. Track the outcomes of the execution of the PR plan. Maintain a portfolio.

The award

The opportunity to promote your business is the greatest reward.

Whilst the silverware, money or glass trophies are all great to display in your foyer or reception to remind you and your team of your efforts, make no mistake that it’s the opportunity to let the nation know who you are and how you achieved your award that is the greatest opportunity.

Promotion

Preparing a media strategy is integral in achieving maximum exposure for the opportunity.

• Who is your audience? Put together a database (names, organisation, telephone number, e-mail address, deadlines), of media, business and industry leaders.
• How will you communicate it? Prepare a media release, any supporting information and photographs in preparation of the result.
• Execute. Make contact with all on the database and work with them to ensure you get the exposure you are looking for.

Whilst winning is the best outcome to achieve PR exposure, you can achieve coverage should you not go all the way.

There is a myth that if you don’t win the ‘major’ award, then it has become a wasted opportunity to promote yourself.

That is not necessarily the case.

You can create a media release announcing your entry into the awards and the fact that you were a finalist if that was the case. If winners aren’t good at promoting themselves, then the window of opportunity opens up for you.

Other benefits

• Reaching team goals. Entering awards can give you and your team something to work towards. If there's a particular award you'd like to win, you can set specific annual goals which can help to achieve this.
• Building confidence, reputation and trust. If you do win your award, it's a great way of increasing that level of trust between you and your customers and prospects. It also acts as an endorsement and it reflects on your reputation.
• Networking. Awards are a wonderful way of networking and meeting new industry members, peers and getting an understanding for what your competitors are doing.

Example one

In August, 2006, I started at Clark Rubber as the National Communications and Public Relations Manager.

Clark Rubber had been notified that it was a finalist in the FCA Franchise of the Year award, to be announced on the Gold Coast in October.

I spend the next six weeks focussing on developing a PR Strategy that would support the brand should it win, or simply remain as a finalist. This included development of a strong media database and speaking with everyone on the list in preparation.

Clark Rubber was announced the winner of the FCA top award. Media Releases with photographs (taken minutes earlier) were sent to all on the database that same evening and articles appeared in the press nationally in the following days.

Radio and television interviews were arranged over the ensuring months and feature articles appeared in industry magazines and in-flight publications and radio.

The Managing Director was positioned in the industry and within the business community as an ‘expert’ in the sector and subsequently was invited to many events as ‘guest speaker’.

The branding for the business was huge.

Sales reached a peak during this period and network development opportunities soared.

Public Relations value during the next 12 months, on the back of the award win, was estimated at almost $2M for the brand.

Example two

An opportunity was presented in October to ‘look over’ a submission for a business on the Mornington Peninsula, After-Care Australasia, who was interested in entering a ‘service provider’ award in their local council business awards.

FC Business Solutions Public Relations spent a number of hours strategically preparing the submission, manipulating the information from raw, dot point material, into a glossy, bound  presentation, featuring logos, photographs and existing marketing material. Interviews were conducted with key personnel to bring the document to ‘life’.

After-Care Australasia won the Outstanding Service Provider category, before going on to win the overall Best Business award.

Articles in the newspaper followed, while the business was also featured in council publications circulated throughout the local area.

The ongoing marketing opportunities are endless.

Awards are a winner!

Whether it be national exposure for a national brand for winning an industry award, or whether the local outlet wins their local council business awards, the outcome is that there is a great news story to tell.

The key is to make sure that you have someone to tell it!

Andrew Kelly is the General Manager, FC Business Solutions Public Relations Services.

FC Business Solutions provides fully-integrated PR Services, including marketing-communications strategies, media strategy and media relations, media coaching and training, professional writing (including Annual Reports and Corporate Plans), event management (including product launches & conferences), sponsorship management and issues management. A member of the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA), Andrew has almost 25 years experience working in newsrooms and managing franchise public relations, marketing and communications. Contact Andrew on (03) 9533 0028 or visit www.franchisecareers.com.au.