They say the neon lights are bright on Broadway
By Claire Watson, ABC, APR, past Gold Quill Chair
Are you pondering whether or not to enter the 2008 Gold Quill competition? Fret no more. It might just be the best investment of time, money and effort you make all year.
When your work is judged by a team of Blue Ribbon Panel experts to be among the best in the world, it builds reputation, looks good on your resume and opens new doors to elusive high-paying jobs. Even better, winning a results-based award demonstrates the value of strategic communication and builds reputation for the business. Whatever you’re thinking, entering the 2008 Gold Quill competition is a terrific growth opportunity, well worth the investment of time and money. Practically perfect in every way, putting together a Gold Quill entry leads you to think strategically and sharpens your focus.
Is Gold Quill challenging? Absolutely! Is it achievable? You bet! Winning a Gold Quill is a mark of excellence in our profession and participating is a mark of your commitment to strive for excellence.
Here are a few inside tips that will help you score more points.
- Pay attention to how you describe the needs of the organization and how your program made a difference. Imagine the judging team as your key audience. Chances are they know precious little, if anything, about your organization, the market you operate in, your customers, your employees or your business agenda. Provide the context so judges can see the situation from your perspective.
- Simply listing your audiences is not enough. Go beyond the obvious and show the judging team that you know your audience by describing their mindset and characteristics, linking your solution directly to your understanding of the audience.
- Make sure you state your objectives in measurable terms that are clearly linked to the business needs. Piece of cake, right? Apparently not. A great majority of entries never make it past first tier judging because entrants confuse objectives and tactics. Hint - holding a special event is not an objective.
- And finally, make sure you report the results against the objectives. You need more than a few e-mails from senior executives to demonstrate results. What was the impact on the audience?
Now you’re ready to start. Boot up the 2008 Gold Quill website at www.iabc/awards/gq. Start with the work plan.
List the following information:
Entrant’s name: |
The name of the person who was responsible for and directly involved in the development, management and execution of the entry |
Organization’s name: |
List the name of the company or organization. If you are no longer affiliated with the organization or represent an agency or a freelancer, be sure to include the organization’s written approval at the front of your work sample. |
Division and category: |
List the division and category. |
Title: |
Choose a name that describes your entry. |
Time period: |
Entries must be produced for primary use or have been measured in 2007. |
Brief description: |
Summarize the project in two or three sentences. |
Answer the following questions:
What was the need or opportunity?
Judges look for clear alignment with the needs of the business. Give us the background. Tell us why you did what you did and how it supported the business needs or the organization. Share any formal or informal research that you took into account in developing your solution.
Who is the audience?
You will be rated on your ability to identify the audiences and describe their characteristics and mindset. List your primary, secondary and tertiary (if any) audiences. Briefly describe the key characteristics of each audience. What are their needs, preferences, demographics, psychographics? What do they think? What do you want them to think?
What were the objectives and are they measurable and relevant?
State your objectives in measurable terms that support the business need. Your objectives should be realistic and measurable by outcomes such as quantity, time, cost, percentages, quality or other criteria.
What was the solution? Is it strategic and does it make sense?
Summarize the project and outline why you did what you did. Let the judges in on your thinking and describe your approach to problem-solving. Share the tactics and the audience response. What communication vehicles and channels did you use? Be sure to include your key messages. What did you want the audience to know, feel, understand or do? Be brief and to the point. Describe how you involved stakeholders in the project and identify your role. You will be rated on your approach and tactical implementation.
What challenges or limitations did you overcome?
Describe any limitations or challenges that you faced in terms of budget, time and other resources in selling and implementing your idea. Summarize the project budget and provide enough detail so judges can evaluate value for dollar. You will earn points for using the budget and resources effectively and being flexible in the project implementation.
How did you measure success?
What measurement tools did you use to determine whether your project was successful in meeting the objectives? Describe formal and informal research methods. If you haven't measured the impact of the program yet, save your entry for next year when you have evidence that the program met the objectives.
How well were the objectives met?
Make sure the results match the stated objectives. Results must be legitimate, convincing and valuable to the business. Measurement must support project outcomes, not outputs. If your media relations strategy supported a product roll-out, your measurements must be tied to sales targets, the number of qualified sales leads or other bottom-line outcomes, not to the number of clips and impressions or advertising value equivalent.
Review your work plan carefully
It must cover all topics listed. Edit it to ensure it's clear and concise. Use bullets, tables and lists to keep it focused and simple. As a final check, ask yourself if this work plan could be used to show others what works.
On to the work sample.
Your work sample will be judged against the following criteria:
- Does the sample demonstrate that you understand the target audience?
- Is it aligned with the objectives in the work plan?
- Is it technically and professionally of high quality?
- The degree of creative appeal, imagination and innovation
- Does it live up to the expectations described in the work plan?
This is where judging often becomes subjective. It's worthwhile to prepare a work sample that's easy to navigate, well-presented and showcases the elements of your program as if you were preparing a briefing book for your CEO. Presentation counts!
Plan ahead. Pay attention to deadlines and give yourself enough time to put your best foot forward because our stage manager is downright handy with wires and bulbs and if you win, the spotlight will follow your dancing, exuberant self to centre stage at the Gold Quill celebration June 23 in New York City.
Help us grow the 2008 Gold Quill competition beyond the wildest imagination of any double-dog-dare-you, communication professional. And that's pretty wild. We're looking forward to a bumper crop of entries!
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