5 Tips to Win a Coveted 2019 PRO Award
Brand activation marketers have always busted boundaries. From unleashing eye-popping experiences to activating campaigns on a massive global scale, disrupting and intercepting the norm has always been the linchpin of the promotion marketer. With that in mind, it’s time to put that hard work in front of a panel of 2019 PRO Awards brand-side judges.
The 28th Annual PRO Awards has opened the call for entries. It is the most prestigious awards program for brand activation marketers, showcasing the most innovative promotion campaigns created and executed by top brand and agency professionals.
To ensure the best outcome, we have put together five helpful tips to guide you through the process so you can wow those brand-side judges.
1. Before You Begin
A hastily written or incomplete entry appears that way and will be reflected in your score. You worked extremely hard concepting, developing and executing the promotion you are about to submit. Take your time, organize your thoughts, and speak with the program leaders to flush out all the details. Chat with the client, and review all of the creative components and results. Take a look at the 2018 winners to get tips from the write-ups about what made them standouts.
Ask yourself a few questions: What elements of this promotion make it worthy of winning a PRO Award? Why did you choose this particular campaign? Was it the creative? The results? The theme? What’s different or unique about it? What made it successful? What will impress the judges?
Carefully read the category descriptions and then decide which category (or categories) best fit the overall promotion. Enter in as many categories as possible, but make sure it’s a good match.
2. Getting Started
DO NOT include the name of your agency in the write up, samples or video; you will be disqualified. The entrant should be anonymous to the judges. The one exception is if you are a brand submitting an entry, then it is fine to mention the brand name.
3. Filling Out the Entry Form
Answer all the questions completely. Be concise and specific and adhere to the word counts. Your entry will lose the judges’ interest if they have to search for the important details or get bogged down trying to get through too many unnecessary words. A shorter explanation is sometimes better. Provide a clear picture of what the goals/objectives were. Take the judges from start to finish, add color, interesting facts and other tidbits. This should be a powerful story. By the end of this paragraph, the judges should be shouting, “WOW!”
4. Results Matter
We can’t emphasize enough the importance of submitting results. If you skip the results portion of the write up you will certainly lose points. The key here is to make sure the results match your stated goals for the program. This is your only chance to give the judges enough information to gauge the effectiveness of your promotion. Campaigns can sound and look terrific, but the results need to stack up. State in your entry if the results are proprietary or not for public view.
5. Supporting Materials
Creative helps tell the story. Upload images and video that support the details in the campaign. (Specifications can be found in the entry form).
Good luck!
