Gold Quill Awards: Judging
Entering Brand Communication? Tips from a 2008 Gold Quill Judge
by Paul Mlodzik, ABC, MC, The Co-operators, Ontario, Canada
It’s encouraging to see more and more communicators getting involved in brand-related projects for their organizations. The integration of marketing, communication and public relations is critical to the success of most major initiatives. However, when you submit an entry in the Brand Communication category, you must pay special attention to the following sentence from the Call for Entries:
“Winners in this category demonstrate the research used to shape brand changes.”
Measurement is important in all Gold Quill Award work plans, but it is the absolute foundation for an entry in this category. A large percentage of entries in this category never make it to the Blue Ribbon Panel due to inadequate benchmarking and lack of tangible results. At the Blue Ribbon Panel, some work samples that look terrific do not receive rewards because their objectives and/or results are not measurable.
Here are a few tips for anyone wanting to enter the Brand Communication category:
- Brands serve the business; not vice versa. Make sure you describe what business problem/opportunity you are addressing with your initiative.
- If you want to measure an increase in awareness or recognition of brand attributes, do a baseline study in advance. Set specific objectives and then measure your progress (after implementation).
- Other organizational statistics are often affected by improvements in brand communication (e.g. customer satisfaction, employee engagement, sales volume, customer retention). These can sometimes be included in your measurement plan.
- Make sure you define and segment your target audiences. Describe how your strategies or tactics vary from one group to another.
- Include samples of your research methodology and results in your work plan. Judges want to know where the numbers come from.
Start preparing your Gold Quill Award entry today! The early-bird deadline is 27 January 2010, and the final deadline is 3 February 2010.
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