The pandemic has transformed the way we live, socialise, work and do business. Over the last few weeks, adland has been rife with layoffs, marketing budget cuts, salary reductions, Zoom pitches, remote productions and more – and the industry will have to adjust to these changes as part of the new normal.
It’s also given us time to pause, take stock and reevaluate what’s important and what’s not. This inevitably extends to every business decision we are currently making. With priorities shifting, one thing to consider is the way you conduct your public relations both externally and internally as a company during this time, as it is vitally important for your reputation.
Increasing brand awareness, marketing and generating PR coverage doesn’t have to mean constant visits to the money tree (which we know isn’t exactly blooming at the moment). There are many cost-effective approaches that not only raise your profile, but also shine a spotlight on the calibre of the work you are creating.
One such way of developing a marketing and PR strategy is something we happen to know a fair bit about, and it is entering awards. Success occurs within companies all the time but regularly publicising these achievements often isn’t a consistent part of a business’ strategy. Being shortlisted and winning awards provides a fantastic opportunity to produce cost effective marketing, which can be included across company channels to amplify your success, attract and retain talent and help win new business.
But, of course this is a two way street. At Festival of Media – we are in this line of work as we want to champion the very best work. For instance, every week in the run up to judging we feature one or two campaigns that have been shortlisted in our marketing. We continue to amplify the reach of campaigns by showcasing imagery, videos and quotes from campaign creators on our social media channels. We are also more than happy to provide you with free marketing collateral such as graphics with your logo on that showcase the amount of times you’ve been shortlisted and email signatures, and anything else that you might need to help you let as many people as possible know you’ve made the cut.
There’s a lot of PR and marketing mileage you can get out of being shortlisted or winning a prestigious award at a fraction of the cost of spending on marketing campaigns in the old world. Who doesn’t want to keep their current clients happy and remind them of the great work they produce? And who doesn’t want to try and win business in this current climate? There’s plenty of reasons to smile when entering an award and in such bleak times we will take every opportunity we can to beam from ear to ear.
Click here to find out more about our awards programme
