During my brief stint as an agency bod, I was fortunate enough to be part of a team that won a FEVO Sport Industry Award back in 2020 for DHL’s sponsorship of MotoGP, so I know what it takes to win.
Flex out of the way, perhaps more importantly, I’ve sat as a moderator on the judging panel for multiple award categories over multiple years.
During this time, I’ve picked up on a few things that either irk or delight the judges in equal measure. Often these small details (the inches in life are everywhere) can be the difference between, making the shortlist or not, winning or losing.
Hopefully this guide can help you steer clear of some of the pitfalls that reoccur every year and assist with delivering some marginal gains that will ultimately help you write an award-winning entry.
Good luck!
Plain English rather than marketing speak
It can be tempting to set your best copywriter to the task of making your award entry ‘engaging’ but in reality, this often just confuses the judges, who would prefer to read information clearly laid out in bullet points. Remember that the judges have to read a lot of copy, so clarity is always preferred over jargon.
Clarify names and other work-related terms
Assume the judges are idiots, I always do. But seriously, you may have been repeating the name of the latest product launch or hashtag for the past six months and you may have done a brilliant job of communicating that to your target audience as well, but don’t assume the judges have any prior knowledge of your work. Any time spent establishing what certain names or phrases mean, is less time spent discussing the merit of your entry.
Less can be more
Don’t feel obliged to write up to the word count. Some of the most impactful entries are succinct.
Make sure your results correspond to your objectives
This is a surprisingly common error that we see year after year. If you’re stating that the overarching goal of your work was to engage a local fanbase, then make sure your results don’t speak to selling shirts to an international audience. And if you have multiple objectives listed, I recommend ordering the corresponding results so nobody has to go digging for evidence of success.
Don’t try and ‘hide’ anything from the judges
If your campaign achieved some eye-watering numbers, the judges will want to know how you got there. Every year there is a slightly bemused discussion around how exactly X campaign reached twice the population that exists on Earth. There’s no harm in admitting to running some paid activity, or enlisting an influencer for help, but if that’s not clear and there’s doubt in the judges mind, often that can be the difference when choosing one entry over another.
Business impact
There’s been a dramatic shift to purpose-driven projects in the last couple of years and while it’s great to see so many organisations in sport using their budgets to tackle societal issues, a great campaign should deliver on multiple fronts. Sport sponsorships are only sustainable if they continue to be signed off, meaning ROI can never be ignored. To borrow the turn of phrase from one of the judges this year…
“Great entries loosen purse strings AND pull heart strings!”
Matt Rogan
Show me the money
Many organisations are rightly sensitive about revealing financial information, but it’s one of the very clear cut metrics we use in determining the success of an entry and achieving a like for like comparison with others in the same category. Aside from a few identifying bits of content (title, logo, imagery etc), the information you supply on the entry form is treated as strictly confidential and never leaves the room.
Use your supporting evidence
Yes, the judges do have to get through a lot of entries in a short space of time. But a short deck that calls out the key information in your entry or a well-put together video that gives a flavour of your campaign can really help your points hit home.
Don’t put all your eggs into one basket
If you think you’re onto a winner, enter it into multiple categories and give yourself a chance to pick up multiple awards. Equally, it’s possible to be unlucky on the day and there’s a degree of subjectivity in every judging session.
If you are entering multiple categories…
Make sure you re-write the entry to match the award. There’s some overlap across the categories when it comes to judging criteria but submitting an identical entry into two categories won’t deliver the results you want. It’s obvious when this has happened and the words never quite read right, so make sure you’re tweaking as appropriate and only submit relevant content.
Sustainability
I can’t pretend to be an expert on how to answer this section, which is new for 2023/24, however, we do have resources on hand to help. If you didn’t make it to the recent Meet The Categories events in London and Manchester, there’s a write up of the event here which details how to tackle the new criteria.
The point of introducing these new questions is not to try and catch anyone out, but instead to encourage the industry to consider their actions and, for organisations who may not be completely buttoned up in this area, to start their journey towards sustainability.
Ask questions
The SIG team is very approachable, and we want you to write the best entry possible. So, if you have any questions, reach out to one of us and we’ll do our best to help.
Membership
All SIG Members are entitled to a free award entry every year, a ticket to the night itself, plus tickets to our other events series (Dining and Socials), ad-hoc invites to networking opportunities, some editorial coverage on our site, plus discounts and offers.
It’s a great deal and, given the cost of an award entry, hopefully it’s a no brainer. So, if you are an organisation that’s entering this year but aren’t a member, think about becoming one and hopefully I’ll see you at one of our events in the near future!
NICK KELLER ON THE CHANGING FACE OF THE FEVO SPORT INDUSTRY AWARDS
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