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Not all awards involve black tie dinners and engraved crystal. Some of the world’s most entertaining competitions celebrate things like Excel prowess, accidental animal comedy, and bears who’ve really committed to the carb-loading lifestyle. And you know what? These alternative awards might just teach us more about recognition done right than any corporate gong ever could.
The spreadsheet championships: where formulas become fierce
Yes, you read that right. There are actual competitions where people battle it out using Microsoft Excel. The Financial Modeling World Cup and Microsoft Excel World Championship turn what most of us consider a necessary evil into genuine sport. Contestants have limited time to solve complex business cases or tackle unusual logic puzzles using nothing but spreadsheet wizardry. The finals happen in Las Vegas with serious prize money, and matches are livestreamed like proper esports. What we love about this is the sheer passion – these aren’t people grimly updating quarterly reports, they’re enthusiasts who’ve turned a tool into an art form.
Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards: when nature gets the giggles
The Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards celebrate the funniest moments captured in wildlife photography, with no manipulation or heavy editing allowed. These are genuine, perfectly-timed shots of nature being accidentally hilarious.
Founded in 2015, this year’s competition attracted nearly 10,000 entries from 108 countries. The 2025 finalists include a languid lemurs, an airborne squirrel and the one we think sums up how many people feel by this time of the year, a bird with its face entirely covered by weed. Or maybe that’s just us…
What makes this competition particularly smart is that it wraps serious conservation messaging in something genuinely entertaining. Behind every laughing lion and windswept gannet is a reminder that these creatures and their habitats need protecting. The competition donates 10% of its profits to conservation, working with organisations like the Whitley Fund for Nature. They’ve proved you can be funny and purposeful at the same time.
The winners will be announced on 9 December 2025, followed by a free exhibition in London.
Fat Bear Week: the chonkiest championship
We don’t usually condone awards which involve voting (more on that in our blog about popularity not being equal to quality). But we can’t resist this one.
Concluding annually in October ahead of hibernation season, Fat Bear Week is run by Alaska’s Katmai National Park. Every autumn since 2014, the park has hosted a week-long online competition where the public votes for the bear who’s packed on the most impressive winter weight. We’re talking bears that can weigh over 85 stones – heavier than a motorcycle.
The 2025 winner was Chunk (Bear 32), who won despite nursing a broken jaw that he likely got fighting another bear. His story is exactly why Fat Bear Week works – there’s genuine drama, overcoming the monster narratives, and real stakes. These bears aren’t posing for camera; they’re surviving. The fatter they get, the better their chances of making it through the brutal Alaskan winter.
Previous winners include the formidable Grazer (Bear 128), a protective mother who’s won twice, and Bear 747, nicknamed for his jumbo-jet proportions.
What’s brilliant about Fat Bear Week is its serious message, taking wildlife conservation and ecosystem health and making them accessible and engaging. Rather than lecturing people about salmon populations, they let you fall in love with individual bears and their stories.
The alternative awards advantage
At Awards Writers, we spend a lot of time crafting entries for traditional business awards, and we’re rather good at it. (In 2025, 91% of our entries were on a shortlist.) But there’s something wonderfully refreshing about these alternative competitions. They remind us that recognition doesn’t always need to follow a rigid formula to be meaningful.
Sometimes the best awards are the ones that celebrate something specific, slightly bonkers, and genuinely worth caring about. Whether that’s being able to make a spreadsheet do backflips, capturing the exact moment a seal photobombs an awkward penguin, or simply being the roundest bear in Alaska. We’ve helped clients to success in awards as diverse as contract catering, coaches and contact centres – we’re not joking when we say there’s an award for just about everyone.
If you have been considering entering an award – however niche – and want to know whether it will be valuable for you, get in touch for a no-obligation chat. Just know we won’t be recommending Fat Bear Week on your awards calendar!
Image copyright Alison Tuck, Comedy Wildlife Photography Awards 2025
