Why do we build awards programs in the cannabis industry?

In the earlier era of my career I had the opportunity to develop and produce several awards programs from the ground up. One was produced for many years in New York City and evaluated journalism standards. It was before the era of alternative facts and click bait headlines. Truth actually had a place in evaluation. The other had a ten year run looking at influence in multicultural communications and media. That program was based most of it's existence in Miami, Florida and we were fortunate to attract heads of state as keynote speakers because whether you agreed with every winner or not, you knew everyone had earned their right to be there and deserved respect.

Working with painfully recruited panels of judges and professionals to ascertain how to evaluate truly impactful and important work while also ensuring that potential honorees couldn't effectively hack the system and somehow sway the program took months. Long before anyone ever submitted an application or a single vote was cast, simple and clear evaluation criteria was established so everyone inside and outside the program knew how victory was defined. It was critically important to the honorees, attendees, sponsors, and us to really know that it wasn't about popularity. It was about excellence in your work, influence, and impact regardless of who you were or how much political or monetary sway existed for a certain company or individual. There was always a wall between the honorees and the money and the two would never mix.

In addition to really encouraging truly great and impactful efforts that highlight the best in a profession; awards programs can be fun. Who wouldn't like to be celebrated for their efforts in front of their peers and give friends and colleagues a chance to celebrate? They are exquisite marketing tools when used effectively and a huge morale boost to the teams that win them when actually earned. It's why we do it.... or did it.

In the cannabis industry, there has been a surge in awards programs lately. Perhaps we should call many of them what they are: "live sponsorable content." While this has happened forever, the ease of social media vote harvesting has made many of them practically useless in terms of any real value. Only a handful have identifiable judging from experienced professionals with actual measurable and tangible criteria those judges can work from. Most are pure pay to play and "honors" are given by how many votes a company can secure via social media and have actually nothing to do with the company or person's contribution or even success really. It's a shame because while there are a lot of good companies that work hard and are "winning" recognition, but the ability to discern the truly excellent from the merely popular has become nearly impossible. Just like the "hype era" in early cannabis stocks, the hype era of awards needs to end. It is to the detriment of the industry as inferior products or less than the best are getting recognized when someone clearly more deserving when analyzed from a product quality, perseverance, business profitability, or a societal impact or influence standard would typically be better suited.

I always have liked a good award recognition program or dinner honoring groups of people who have truly made an impact. And I have gladly supported them as a judge or participant when criteria is clear and my particular expertise warrants it. But as an industry, I think it's time we selectively support those programs that truly promote excellence, impact, and tangible success metrics with criteria that is published and trackable. The industry and margins are too tight right now to be throwing good money after popularity contest programs. Debating winners under an honorable and measured system is fun and worthwhile as there is truth in the statement that even being nominated is an honor, and winning is truly honorable. But, if the best we can do is evaluate people based on how many likes they can get or who can tell the most employees who report to them to vote every day, then all we are doing is championing mediocrity and laziness. We can do better.

#cannabis #awards #excellencematters #marketing