Following the recent Oscars broadcast, plenty of social media commenters bent over backward to throw shade on an event that will be most remembered for a slap in the face. In a year when most moviegoers were avoiding indoor spaces like movie theaters, the mood was painfully, “Oscar, we’re just not that into you.”
The online grumbling also took aim at Hollywood needing to pat itself on the back for a job well done. Please FORGET ALL OF THAT when you consider entering your most effective recent work in the competition for WHPRMS’s Prestige Awards!
Why take the time to enter for a Prestige Award? There are at least six important reasons:
- Personal satisfaction, a.k.a., the dopamine rush. Who doesn’t want to feel more validated, excited and happy about the fruits of their life’s work? Even writing the entry will reinforce the quality of your work, and you’ll also get back written feedback from the judges.
- Morale boost for your team: All those who had a hand in the work you enter will earn a share of the recognition. Even the idea that their work is worthy of an award entry can brighten someone’s year and help them feel energized and engaged in all they do.
- Awards strengthen your credibility and professional profile—whether that’s with your own organization or with your agency’s health care clients. Let’s face it: We are all in this profession because we know the value of positive attention to a worthy cause. It is both satisfying and strategic to shine in front of your peers, leaders and other professional contacts. You can bring well-deserved, objective recognition to your team and show that you know your stuff.
- Brand authority, visibility: Promoting your award externally is a chance to reinforce the quality of your organization’s brand via the excellence of its people. This is especially true for agencies seeking health care clients.
- Building your personal brand: You may hope to stay at and retire from an organization where you’re doing award-caliber work, but it never hurts to have objective evidence of your success on your LinkedIn profile.
If Midwest modesty deters you from entering for awards, remember the most valuable reason of all:
- Knowing the effectiveness of your work. This is more than a beauty contest. A vital aspect of the Prestige Awards is your ability to articulate your goals, describe an objective process for measuring the effect of your work and demonstrate the degree to which you achieved those goals. It’s easy for us to forget to build in measurement criteria, but it’s an essential function in determining whether we’re doing the best work for our organizations!
Now’s the time to ensure that your single-asset or multi-channel campaigns done between July 1 of last year and June 30, 2022, are being measured for how well they are changing minds, changing behavior, drawing attention to a risk, raising funds, attracting new patients or boosting business.
There’s more to come in the months ahead about the Prestige Awards. Be ready to enter—for dopamine and more—by ensuring your best work has a tool for measurement in place before the award window closes.
Monica Cicci
Senior Editor, Agrace
