Writing entries for awards success in 2022

It’s almost the end of the year and it’s been an incredible one for the team here at Awards Writers.

Let’s give you the headlines first – (as at 9 December) in 2022, 82% of our awards have made it on to the shortlist. Of those, 39% took home a prize.

2022 has also been a bumper year for award entries – the team has written 50% more than in any other year.

We’ve supported regular clients with batches of entries and welcomed new clients too, writing anything from one up to 13 entries for one ambitious client! (All 13 made it on to the shortlist and 10 scooped a trophy, so the ambition was not misplaced.)

Our long-term awards success

We’re not quite the oldest awards consultancy on the block, but we’re not far off. We were 11 at the start of December, which feels like quite the achievement, having launched during a recession, weathered a pandemic, and now facing into another period when the economy might not be as buoyant as it could be.

While there was an understandable dip in interest about awards during the pandemic, the past two years have been really strong. Maybe people just wanted to dust off their glad rags and get back to having some fun? We’re optimistic about next year, and expecting to continue taking on more award entries.

This year’s stats are consistent with our long-term success rate, which stands at 77% on a shortlist and just under half of those taking home a prize. Not bad when you’re thinking about hundreds of award entries.

We’re incredibly proud to be able to maintain this level of success, and certain that our robust awards process combined with the team’s judgement, is what keeps them high.

How we keep our award-winning stats on track

We start every conversation with a potential client by exploring their story and what evidence they have to support it. This free discovery call gives us chance to evaluate their chances of success. Quite simply, if we don’t think it stacks up, we don’t agree to take on writing the entry.

We’ve turned down a high number of potential award submissions this year, including from our corporate clients. It’s just not in our interests – or aligned with our integrity – to put together an award submission which we believe won’t make the grade.

We also spend a lot of time immersed in awards. This year our chief wordsmith, Louise Turner, provided her awards expertise to help set up some local awards. Businesses entering those awards are unlikely to become our clients, but she wholeheartedly believes in the power of awards to help SMEs showcase their achievements. She created the categories, robust scoring framework and acted as chair of the judging panel.

Louise also delivers training on how to write awards as well as webinars for a variety of different sets of awards to help entrants create the very best entry. This year, more than 200 people have benefitted from her insight.

Awards winners in 2022

This year we’ve had clients at awards ceremonies as diverse as the British Business Excellence Awards, the Institute of Customer Service UK Customer Satisfaction Awards, the National Teaching Awards, the Route One Awards for the bus and coach sector, and the PR Moment Awards.

We can’t always reveal who we’re working for – not everyone wants the world to know they’ve had expert support – but we can tell you about a few of our fabulous clients.

First Event had big ambitions for 2022 and wanted awards to be part of their story. We helped them to 13 finalist places, with them taking home 10 trophies throughout the year. Marketing director Alex Melia says Awards Writers have been indispensable in supporting First Event’s push for an even stronger profile, plus recognition and pride for their team.

“From helping us refine our story to recommending the right categories and advising on the right metrics to use in support, the Awards Writers team has become an extension of my marketing team.

“Ensuring we got the recognition we deserved for our events, our company success and for individual team members was key to our strategy in 2022, and Awards Writers have helped us do just that.”

Performance in People (PiP) had an award-winning track record but wanted recognition for their innovative new way of assessing customer experience. We helped them to success in the UK Customer Experience Awards, the CXAs.

Mike Dalloz, PiP’s CEO said: “The UKCX awards are really important to us. We of course recognised that irrespective of our own understanding and belief in our system, this had to be effectively articulated in an awards entry in a highly competitive category. That’s where Louise and her team delivered for us! Louise was a pleasure to work with and created a compelling well-structured entry which delivered the award success that meant so much to us.”