Getting the media to pay your company some notice can be like predicting when the market's going to crash. But industry awards may give you the entree you've been looking for, so you should be aware of what kudos are being given out in your market.
You can find this out via three key routes:
- Surfing the Internet and regularly tracking wire services;
- Reading the leading publications in your trade; and
- Becoming involved with trade associations: they often sponsor awards or are a resource for this kind of information.
Every year, there are thousands of awards bestowed upon companies or the people who run them. They vary from the mainstream honors we've all heard about - for instance, Ernst & Young's "Entrepreneur of the Year" award - to those peripheral ones like the "Dairy Award of Excellence." (Every year, the Nova Scotia Milk Producers Association presents awards to acknowledge the quality of milk produced on farms throughout Nova Scotia.)
"Awards can give you credibility and legitimacy," says Lynn Mazur, director of communications programs for Routing Technology Software Inc., a privately held company in Vienna, Va., that, for four consecutive years, was named to Inc. magazine's list of the 500 fastest growing companies in America.
That winning streak ended in 1993 but by then RTS, a $20-million-in-revenue company, had milked the award for all it was worth: it was mentioned in press releases and in execs' conversations with potential customers.
The company even earned substantial play in a Jan. 25, 1993, cover story in Modern Brewery Age. RTS's Roadshow vehicle routing and scheduling system was featured, and the article had a business hook that spoke directly to one of its key PR audiences: customers.
One business exec using the automated Roadshow routing system said it's saved his company about $150,000 in delivery costs.
Mazur said it's impossible for her to assign a dollar figure to the worth of the award, but she thinks it's analogous to having an Ivy-League education because it opens doors.
An award doesn't guarantee you ink, but it certainly increases your chances. If your company earns one, you should issue a press release, place calls to journalists with whom you have a rapport and share the news with your vendors.
The Upside for Journalists
For Richard Brandt, editor of Upside Magazine, a publication with a circulation of 120,000 for investors and executives in technology companies, an award can mean he'll give a second look to a company the magazine hasn't covered.
Brandt adds that the reason many journalists give credence to awards is because there are so many companies, from IPOs and start-ups to Fortune 500s, vying for the media's eye.
"I get hundreds of story proposals every month and some of the reasons - it's a venture capital business or a hot product's coming out - aren't enough. For us to meet with a company, we're looking for more evidence than that. I simply don't have the time to meet with every new firm."
Brandt's company sponsors two awards every year: "Elite 100" of the technology industry and the "100 Hot Private Companies." Both of these awards are based on nominations. Industry leaders, editors and analysts give Upside their recommendations and then an internal editorial board hashes them out.
Nonetheless, the awards are a communications coup because their worth extends beyond press coverage, according to Pam Alexander, president of high-tech PR boutique Alexander Communications. The company was named by Marketing Computers as "1997 PR Agency of the Year" and also received an Upside "Elite 100" honor.
But oddly, Alexander doesn't use the award to get ink. She uses it to attract employees in an industry that's fiercely competitive. Her company, which was founded a decade ago, has grown from six staffers to 110 and her client list includes such monoliths as IBM Speech Systems, HP Personal Systems Group, CitySearch and Deja News.
Once the Award, What to Do?
Several weeks ago, Capitol Hill Software, Lanham, Md., sent PR NEWS a press release that it had been named to the Inc. list for 1997. In the second graph of the release, CHS noted that alumni of the award include Microsoft [MSFT], Oracle [ORCL] and Gateway 2000 [GATE]. The release enticed us enough that we decided to give the company a call. CHS is a provider of software for the public affairs industry and netted $2.3 million in net sales.
Although CHS's Director of Marketing, Kay Heiberg, couldn't rattle off a list of media mentions the Inc. award has garnered thus far, she is convinced it is a PR plus company execs can leverage in several ways. So she put together four different versions of a press release: one geared for local businesses; one for PR publications; one for those in the government sector; and a release that went to software magazines. (RTS, 703/790-8300; Upside, 415/577-2507; Alexander Comm., 415/923-1660; CHS, 301/459-2590)