Last week Zimmerman Company announced that its corporate identity and stationery package design for client, John McDonald Company, received an International Award of Distinction in the 15th Annual Communicator Awards. The 2009 Communicator Awards received thousands of entries from companies and agencies of all sizes, making it one of the largest award programs of its kind.
I ask myself, why do we even submit entries to these industry competitions? We have won many awards for our work – hundreds of them. Some we hide because they are so ugly. What is it all for?
As an agency, do we find that simply doing the work and getting paid is not enough that we seek additional recognition? Does the corporate client need some justification that a third-party says it was money well spent?
Lets face it. A fancy award has little impact on achieving a company’s goal or branding agenda. The job is to ultimately make the cash register ring or have leads flow in. After all, that is what it’s about.
In my experience, it is not a sales motivation that sends an agency to submit work to a panel of judges, but a publicity move for both parties. The more exposure a company receives, offers a direct impact on brand awareness in the eyes of the consumer. At least that is a public relations point-of-view. Word-of-mouth campaigns are one of the most powerful advertising medium, and anything to encourage it will work for a company. At Zimmerman Company we do not believe you have to invest heavily in PR, but we do cultivate the press and let them know we have something interesting to say. As a low-level campaign it can be very valuable.
So who really benefits most?
In the end, I say the client. The agency gets paid whether the work is award-winning or not. We spend a great deal of unbillable hours thinking about our clients’ businesses while we involuntarily take on their problems. Through our passion to exceed the clients’ expectations and our drive to rise above the standard, offering award-winning work comes as a bonus. Be proud of the recognition and feel free to campaign it around town. It gives you something interesting to say and you never know who is listening.
As for John “Dennis” McDonald, President of John McDonald Company, he takes pride in the quality of craftsmanship in building luxurious custom homes. Dennis cares enough about how his customers perceive his company’s identity that he engaged Zimmerman Company to strengthen his brand. We congratulate you on the award your company’s identity received from the International Academy of Visual Arts.
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