Gold Quill Awards: Judging
Signs of a Winner
by Ryan Williams, TWI Surveys Inc., British Columbia, Canada
As a judge for IABC's Gold Quill Awards, I want to find winners. The first sign of an award-winning entry is adherence to the Gold Quill Awards formula. The more entries I read, the more I appreciate the basic but effective planning model that is the entry form. A winning entry must be strong in the first two categories of the work plan or your entry will not hold together. In this section your definitions of your organization's business needs and target audiences must be clearly laid out.
The first category to consider is the business need. This might seem self-evident to you as you create your work plan, however, the Gold Quill Awards judge may have no previous knowledge or understanding of the business you are in, so you must state clearly what your business is, what need existed and how communications fits in. You may also note what stage of the business cycle you are in, what opportunities communications can create or what risk they will mitigate. Explaining how communication provides the solution to the business need will set the stage for the rest of your entry. Who do you need to influence? Do you have a new product, an unhappy customer base that is eroding, or a safety issue that is risking lives?
With the business need well defined, the audience can now become a rich and informative section to describe. This is the second category. The audience is much more than location or generational labels. In this category describe your audience's demographics, attitudes and behaviours. What changes in attitudes and behaviours are you seeking? Connect the audience back to the business need and set priorities. Which are the most important groups, who are they and what do they do? The more focused your description the better for defining your strategy and creating your ability to measure.
Now the rest of the entry should become clear. The goal is to connect the business need to your audience. The objective becomes measurable experiences that will shift attitudes and behaviours. The tactics are picked with the primary audience in mind and the ability to help deliver on the business need. Measurement will indicate where you started (benchmark) and allow the judge to know how well the business need was met in the post measurement.
The process of judging has been a great learning experience. Much of the time I think through this process but do not articulate my assumptions. The Gold Quill Awards program forces us to articulate both processes and assumptions. And we can not leave the math out. The judge needs to see your strategy and check it against the evidence you provide. Space in your work plan is limited. Be precise and concise. This Gold Quill Awards formula makes me a better communicator and a better planner. It will do the same for you.
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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