Many industries and companies have an annual awards programme to recognise the service and achievements of businesses or individuals in their particular industry or business. Putting on live awards ceremonies to celebrate achievements is an excellent way of escalating the status of the awards programme in the eyes of the entrants and the industry.
Award Ceremonies that take place annually will generally build in popularity and credibility over the years. In order to ensure this happens, here are some key points to remember about putting on these Award Events.
It’s not all about you
Whilst it’s important that there must be a return on investment for such events, (see later paragraph on ticket price) your business (and indeed your sponsors) will need to take advantage of the exposure to the industry. The true measure of your event’s success is the happiness of your winners who step onto your amazing awards stage, collecting your fabulous trophies.
These are the true stars of the night. They are the ones who will post video and photos to social media, who will display their trophies in prominent places and who will talk about your event for weeks and who will most definitely enter again next year.
Integrity of your awards
The integrity of your Awards Event relies not only on your happy winners, but also on the quality of your judges and the judging process. Award judges must be available to collaborate and make clear decisions based on unambiguous criteria – it can be a very confusing and time consuming process, so make sure they are willing to commit to this.
The judges
Your judging panel must be made up of people who are highly respected in the industry and who are strong minded, fair and able to deliver good clear supported decisions. Perhaps you also allow the public or people in the industry to vote? If this is so, you need to make sure there is no room for votes to be manipulated or unfairly gained.
Judging process
Make sure your category criteria are thorough and clear. Use this as your yardstick by which people will enter and by which the judges will reach their decisions. If you provide unclear criteria, it makes it harder for people making entries and for judging processes too.
Deciding on your winners
It could be that you have lots of entries in one or more category and you need to scale these down. The judging process needs to start well before the event itself. Firstly, you need to reduce your entries (through your judging process) to a shortlist of nominees. Then you choose your winner (and runners up and highly commended if you are also offering these prizes). Don’t ever be tempted to choose winners for other reasons than the award criteria (for example if they have booked three tables already or that they are sponsoring another award etc.). People will be sceptical and suspicious of any such judging methods and your event will lose it’s credibility very quickly.
Sponsors
There are two types of sponsor for Awards Events. Award sponsors and Event sponsors.
Award Sponsors will pay a sum of money to have their brand associated with a particular award. This will usually entitle them to using their logo in award programmes, slide presentations, banners etc. You may also wish to allow them to provide table or gift bags and they will very often want to be on stage for the presentation of their award to the winner.
Event Sponsors will pay a sum of money to have their brand associated with either the whole award ceremony (usually Platinum or Gold sponsors) or certain aspects like wine or entertainment (usually Silver or Bronze sponsors) With each of these, you will determine the level of exposure for their brand throughout the event in relation to the amount of money they pay for the sponsorship.
All sponsors are usually given a prominent table (or more) as part of their sponsorship package.
Trophies
It’s worth spending a little more for some really amazing trophies. You want your winners to have them on display in prominent places, to photograph them and you want them to love them more than any other trophies they have.
Make the event extra appealing
It’s important to make your event exciting for everybody who attends. It needs to appeal to all others in the business, not just those who are about to win a trophy! Make it extra special by including some amazing entertainment or a special VIP.
Who will attend?
Obviously, you want all of your winners to attend, and hopefully they will bring along some of their staff/clients/supporters. But you want a much wider audience from your business or industry than just the winners.
Make sure you do a ‘save the date’ as soon as you have your venue sorted. (Talk about the event on social media). As for the location make it really special. And the entertainment (well, it’s got to be great), even before you’ve decided on your winners. Offer an ‘early bird’ special price for table of 10 to get the ticket sales rolling in.
Press
It’s always a good idea to allow for a ‘press’ table which your allocated PR will host. This will help with ticket sales and also help boost your post event PR.
Celebrity
Are there any celebrities in your industry? Think about inviting some really interesting celebrities and getting your PR to host a VIP table. Having celebrities at an event will boost your ticket sales. Remember you will need a red carpet and step and repeat board if you have celebs arriving (more exposure for you and your sponsors).
Bums on seats
Make sure you start promoting the event early and keep plugging the event with newsletters and social media in the preceding months. If the tickets are selling fast, you’re doing a good job! If they’re slow, then you need to think about what might be slowing down the process.
Ticket price
To work out a good ticket price, perhaps take a look at other award events in a similar venue and see roughly what others are charging just to give you a rough guideline.
Then work out your ‘actual’ costs. Include absolutely everything from venue hire, furniture hire, décor, printing, signage, lighting, audio visual, entertainment, awards, staffing, food and drink and anything else. Deduct all your sponsor contributions and the balance will be your actual costs.
Now think of your event venue and how many guests you would ideally like to attend your event (remember to check capacity with the venue) then reduce that number by 20%. Now divide your actual costs by that number to give you your ‘break even’ cost per ticket.
Obviously this won’t be the price you’ll charge as you will need to increase it accordingly to allow for contingency and you may need to make a profit if this is going to be a revenue stream for your business.
Be careful not to over-price your tickets, but equally important, don’t under-price them either. Do offer discounts for bookings of whole tables or more and perhaps offer different levels of ticket price based on the table position in the room or drink available at the table.
The event itself
Apart from all the administration for the awards and the judging process, the event itself will take a lot of organising. Some companies have a team in place who share the responsibilities and others will employ an event company to make the day happen seamlessly for them from setting up the room to the awards ceremony itself and the after party.
Audio visual set up and rehearsals are crucial throughout the day. Room and table décor, lighting and entertainment rehearsals take lots of time too. Make sure you have a spreadsheet or all suppliers and allocate them reasonable arrival times to ensure everything happens on time. According to your schedule, plan to have final rehearsals completed an hour before guests arrive to allow for any run-overs. You want your room clear and ready for your guests.
Your stage is your backdrop
Remember your stage is ‘your’ backdrop. People will spend most of the night looking at the stage. This is the bit that is about you. Make it special, make sure your slides are professional and clearly show your brand (as well as the sponsors). Video and photographs will be taken of your stage all night so don’t hold back on making it awesome!
Drink
Allow the drink to flow freely. Most award ceremonies provide a glass or two of bubbly for the drinks reception and approximately half a bottle of wine with dinner. You may want to continue with a free bar after that time, or it is perfectly acceptable to have a pay bar. As long as you make sure the guests have access to more drink if they want.
And afterwards ….
Make sure you have a great photographer and videographer throughout the evening and then get everything out on social media and on your website as soon as you possibly can afterwards.
Have your press releases prepared in advance (as far as possible) and remember that the winners will be revelling in their achievements, so it’s important to prolong that feeling as much as possible for them.
Summary
- Your event must NOT be about you, it’s all about your winners.
- Make sure the judging process is credible and not questionable.
- Look after your sponsors.
- Provide something special at the event to make it different from others that people may have attended.
- Get your pricing right and ticket sales well planned.
- Use the stage to your advantage.
- Let your guests celebrate and enjoy themselves.
