Two Rules For Award-Winning Award Submissions

In the public relations agency world, submitting award nominations is part of the job. We submit award nominations for ourselves for many of the same reasons that our clients do: We want to be recognized for the hard work we do, salute our employees and demonstrate their creativity, and gain visibility. This visibility is not only to attract clients but also to increase our presence and “brand buzz” in the industry for recruitment and retention purposes. Plus, the awards process promotes a sense of community and camaraderie in the industry, and it gives us an excuse to have an occasional celebration!

In the years that I have been submitting awards — and winning many — I’ve learned a lot about what it takes to prepare a successful communications award nomination. Of course, it begins with identifying your firm’s best, most creative and successful programs and campaigns and then making sure the nomination materials are gathered and organized correctly, per the award organization’s requirements.

But what is also important in the realm of awards is to save documentation around programs, including plans, creative work, press clippings and videos. In the old days, that meant hoarding extra copies of plan documents and press kits, chasing down physical press clippings, storing extra collateral, getting videotapes dubbed and more. However, since almost everything is digital these days, it is an easy task — and a best practice — to set aside a digital archive of campaigns in motion and to remind account teams to copy their best work over to that archive on a regular basis.

Winning Submissions Should Be Unique

When it comes to writing award submissions, uniqueness is key. The people who are judging your submissions are readers just like you and me, who want to be entertained and engaged by the content they’re reviewing. That’s why the best answers for award submissions are the ones that don’t sound like anyone else’s. An engaging narrative is conversational in tone, and the writing should be funny, irreverent or even both. One can still articulate the problem, the solution and the results of a given PR program and remain entertaining — that is what I seek to do with every submission that Bospar sends to various award programs.

For example, one can take a humorous approach and cite Princess Leia or Yoda from?Star Wars or?perhaps work in a few choices from?Star Trek’s Spock,?or maybe Kenny or Cartman from?South Park! I have even used phrases like, “Don’t watch princess movies!” Ideally, your metaphor or your joke resonates with the theme of the campaign that you’re highlighting or has some sort of compelling tie-in to the awarding organization, its interests or its stakeholders.

Make ’Em Laugh?

But whatever the metaphor or narrative vehicle for your submission, it is best to start funny. That way the readers (judges) will know from the first question that the remainder of their journey through these sometimes lengthy award submissions will be pleasant. Making these documents pleasurable to read will help set a positive tone and have the judge in a good frame of mind when the narrative leads to the serious stuff, like reports and metrics, at the end. But when you’ve started with a memorable theme or metaphor, the judges are more likely to remember your firm’s submission and its humor and risk-taking, as opposed to the other look-alike presentations.

In addition to starting funny and ending seriously, some best practices for award nominations include using short sentences with lots of spaces and making your submission easier to read. The bottom line is that no part of your award submission should read like a boilerplate or be generic. Cutting and pasting information from one award submission to the other is a recipe to fail, and strong visuals (including the ones saved in your digital archive) and design are a must, as is giving your agency plenty of time to complete and review the submission before the deadline.

Memorable and interesting award submissions aren’t that hard. They require a bit of planning and internal prioritization, in addition to some real creativity and attention to detail. By delivering a serious message in a lighthearted way and focusing on the interests and preferences of the awarding organization, your chances of taking home the accolades greatly increase. Good luck, and I hope you will be celebrating soon!

This article originally appeared in Forbes.