How Can an Award Benefit Your Agency? Which Are Valuable? 🏆

Do you know the number of agencies in the world? The exact number is practically impossible to determine, but some say it’s over 500K! 

One thing is sure: the competition is fierce! Indeed, with such a low entry barrier, any person who owns a laptop and has decent experience can claim to have their own agency even if it looks like a fresh freelance business. 

Agencies vary: small local shops and big corporate-like groups, independent boutique agencies with a national reach, or fast-growing mid-size agencies with an international presence. 

As we often see, vertical or horizontal positioning or a combination of both is key for an agency to succeed.

For the client, it’s become hard to choose. Platforms such as Ad World Masters allow Marketers to narrow down the type of agency they would need for a specific business challenge.

Awards are a staple of our industry for the simple reason that they assess qualities such as creativity, performance, craft, to name a few.

But why should agencies consider an award? Let’s dive down into our five reasons why awards matter.

1. FAME (and publicity)

By being honored with a title as an agency, the company enters the elite and hall of fame of this award. The contest will be publicly promoted and recognized for the year on. This means two things: your agency will attract some clients, and it will attract some talents

2. Trust

Hiring an agency is a bit like hiring a coach; you expect him/ them to be great at what they do, and you want to hire the best you can afford. 

Picture your favorite sport (be it baseball, swimming, chess). You are to enter a competition, and you want a coach. You consider a few, all have great recommendations, but you see one has more awards on his shelf. Wouldn’t this influence your decision? Don’t think! It’s a no-brainer! 😉 

3. Standing Out

This point comes in hand with the latter. It’s as if you are hiring somebody (for your agency, maybe).

You are lucky enough to have a lot of great applicants with excellent portfolios, and you have interviews with the selected few that match your expectations. All candidates nail the interviews, and it is hard to decide, yet one of them has mentioned he won prestigious awards – he or she immediately stands out!

4. Team Motivation

When good and hard work get appreciated, we are motivated to continue. In a team, this will affect all members’ morale and social interaction. Senior and juniors would do their best to contribute to the greatness of the agency.

5. More $$$

Receiving an award for an agency has the same effect as receiving a diploma, and this is the promise of better pay. At least one agency can afford to be more picky with its clients and has an argument to support its pricing.

So, if you wonder if awards are worthy, they probably are. The next question is: What award competition to apply for? With the most famous such as Cannes Lions, D&AD, Effie, Clio’s, Eurobest, Lia’s, to name just a few, while they are hyper prestigious, they are also extremely costly to enter; both in terms of participation fee as in time engaged in preparing the application. Having won, you have yet to pay for your award. In practice, some fees can ramp up to $5000 for one contest entry in one category, and you may not win or even be nominated!

We appreciate and think these awards are also an essential part of our industry, but we know there is an unfair advantage that favors bigger agencies with more generous budgets to apply to these awards in a way smaller agencies can’t compete.

Ad World Masters launched the Agency of The Year competition for top agencies from all around the world using cutting-edge technology. Agencies scoring 8.5 and above are awarded depending on the score of one of the three titles, Gold, Silver, and Bronze. The title is discerned for free only the trophy is paid. Interested? 

To apply, it’s simple: register to list your agency on Ad World Masters, let AI algorithms do the work, and if you score well enough, you can collect your award as a graphic badge in January. Learn more about this year’s competition. 

Ad World Masters offer an easy approach to new business by bringing publicity to agencies with a single platform. Interested? Discover our services.