A major focus in recent days has been drafting, revising and finally submitting entries for KDS and London Executive Aviation for the Business Travel Awards.
Not everyone enters awards, or necessarily appreciates that this is a role for the communications team. However, we’re strong believers in awards as effective marketing and reputational tools.
Targeting and winning a respected industry award scheme isn’t just about lots of backslapping on the evening of the ceremony, nice though that can be. The real value can be extracted over a full 12 months (or more), by highlighting repeatedly to new and existing customers that you have been singled out as an industry leader. Through press releases, newsletters, amended email templates (used daily), advertising, events and other means, there are ample opportunities to shout about an award and turn it into a lasting competitive advantage.
As keeper of ‘the corporate story’, the communications department or PR agency is probably best qualified to prepare award submissions for a business. By preparing compelling entries that reflect corporate messages and – critically – answer the questions on the entry form, we aim to give clients the strongest possible chance of claiming a gong.
The downside is that they are a lot of work. To our general delight, yesterday was the closing deadline for Business Travel Award entries and our entries were submitted on time. Now we can think about something else for a while…until the next awards come up.
