Waikato Business News May/June 2018

WAIKATO BUSINESS NEWS May/June 2018 35
Entering industry awards:
maximise the PR value
Have you ever thought about putting in
an application for an industry award or
competition?
It can be a little daunting if
you haven’t done it before.
What should you write?
How can you tell your story in
a way that will connect with the
judges? Why bother anyway?
From a public relations
point of view, applying for
select industry awards can be a
great part of your business strategy.
They can help you build
your brand’s reputation as an
industry leader and build your
credibility among customers
and peers.
Being a finalists or winner
also gives you an opportunity
for publicity and a chance to
talk about your business, your
brand and what you do in a genuine,
non-salesy way. Winning
an award can help attract repeat
business and new customers -
people are attracted to leaders
in their fields and will make a
beeline for you.
However, applying for
an award does take time and
thought. If you decide this is
part of your communications
strategy, you need to put the
time in to do it well - or don’t
do it at all. That means taking
the time to do a great award
application and taking charge
of your own publicity.
What makes a great
application?
Remember to read the application
carefully; answer the
questions being asked. You
need to address them specifically.
This is not the time to be
shy! Talk about the great
things you have done. Whatever
you are saying you’ve
accomplished, back it up
with stats and facts. Show the
proof.
Make sure it is well-written.
Remember the judges are
busy people. A sloppy application
is not going to make a
good impression. The content
is one part of the application
but the way it is written is
extremely important.
Make sure there are no
spelling or grammatical errors,
make sure it’s succinct, use
simple language, headings and
bullet points are important.
How can you make the
most of entering awards?
Remember that you need to
take charge of your own publicity.
Don’t ever assume the
organisation doing the awards
will do enough to highlight
your finalist position or win.
The lead organisation will
often do one big release stating
all finalists or all winners.
They are not concerned with
getting each and every organisation
involved the maximum
amount of profile. Only you
can do that.
If the organisation
announces finalists, that is a
trigger for you to announce this
yourself. If you are a finalist,
ensure you prepare your communications
before the awards
take place. Have a media
release prepared, social media
posts, website news story, even
an advert developed and ready
to place.
Think about how you will
maximise the announcement
of an award win - if it happens
- on your earned, owned and
paid channels available to you.
Why prepare all this beforehand?
Because it has most
‘news legs’ the morning after/
day after an award ceremony.
Talking about it a few days or
weeks later will not gain as
much cut through and media
pick-up.
If you are doing a media
release and you win, pick
your target media outlets and
email it to them the night of
the awards ceremony (ideally
minutes after the award
announcement) or first thing
the following morning. Follow
up with a phone call to key
media, offering a spokesperson
for interviews.
The photo
This is incredibly important:
get a photo on the night that is
media worthy.
If you need to get a group
shot of the winning team at an
awards dinner, get a close-up
of one or a select few smiling
PR AND COMMUNICATIONS
> BY HEATHER CLAYCOMB
Heather Claycomb is director of HMC Communications, a
Hamilton-based, award-winning public relations agencys.
faces. A group of twenty people
holding the award does not
work for media.
You only get one chance
to get a great media-worthy
picture, so think ahead of time
about what sort of photo(s) you
require and put someone on
your team in charge of ensuring
it happens (or it won’t).
Consider things like lighting,
composition, and ensure
the file size is at least 1-2MB
(for good print reproduction).
Put it on the calendar
So, now that you have the
information you need to get
you started, look around and
see what industry awards are
coming up and get prepared.
Make a calendar of key awards
you or your staff want to enter
in the coming year.
Put this in your communications
strategy for the year
and be sure to enter - and give
yourself enough time to do it
well. It can take time but the
results of receiving an industry
accolade or acknowledgement
is worth its weight in PR gold!
Software makes the world go round
Software is boring, I heard
someone say recently.
Naturally, as director
of a super-fast-growing
software specialist, I disagree
wholeheartedly. But not
because I make a crust through
developing and deploying
software.
Most of us interact with
software most of the time
without even realising it.
You wouldn’t get out of bed
without the software that controls
the systems that deliver
electricity to your home and
powers your clock radio or
your charging smartphone.
The radio station would
not be able to produce its programs
without software. Even
if it could, it certainly could
not broadcast them over the
airwaves or via the internet.
Without software the world
would return to rising and
sleeping with the sun, or simply
sleeping in.
If you’re connected to the
local council’s water reticulation
system, software enables
water to be piped into your
home as and when you need it.
There would be no hot
water for your early morning
cup of tea, or flat white, nor
any chilled milk to add flavour
or pour on your cereal.
Without software you can forget
a slice of crunchy morning
toast.
We’d have to go back to
factory sweat shops making
clothes, without software,
and we’d need one in every
town. Trains, planes, and
automobiles would grind to a
halt without software, so you
could also forget widespread
distribution of products.
Personal travel would
be limited to walking and
cycling, or you could get a
horse, so most people would
be confined to working in the
town that they live. Most people
would have to retrain, as so
many job today involve booting
up a personal computer
and either running a process
with it or using it to manage
business critical information.
They would have to return to
manual jobs, as there would
be no software-controlled
TECH TALK
> BY DAVID HALLETT
David Hallett is a director of Hamilton software specialist Company-X,
design house E9 and chief nerd at Waikato Need a Nerd.
machines to pick up the slack.
The information age, without
software, would be over.
The world would be thrown
back to the days of Caxton’s
printing press for the distribution
of data – fact or fiction –
limited to as far as your horse
or bike can carry your printed
material.
You get the idea.
Without software, things
would be grim.
Far from being boring,
software makes the world go
around.