RISE PR IN ACTION – AWARDS PROGRAMMES
Posted by Paul Allen on 10th January 2017 / 0 comments
Awards are an element of PR that come up nearly all the time. Whether an official part of a PR programme, or just something a client occasionally throws our way, ploughing through a lengthy awards submission is a true PR rite of passage.
The value of awards is oft-debated in the industry. Some see awards ceremonies as a waste of money – you pay £500 for a few mediocre glasses of wine, sit through a former Mock the Week panellist phoning in their hosting duties and then endure a hellish disco until ‘carriages’ at 1am.
For others, awards are an important part of raising profile and attracting new partners or customers. As with most things, the truth lies somewhere in between. We’ve even written about the value of awards in the past too, but today want to focus on a very successful 2016 awards programme we carried out for Rise PR’s fintech client, Ormsby Street.
Smart use of content
The thing about awards submissions, is that many of them are truly time-consuming. But for most awards there is a body of content that can be repurposed or reused across submissions, meaning you don’t have to reinvent the wheel each time.
There is of course a strong element of personalisation required too, but as long you as you follow each award template to the letter and put the right answer in the right section, smart use of content can save a lot of time.
Ormsby Street is looking to secure VC funding and also attract further partners in the banking industry, both in the UK and beyond. For both purposes, awards can be a really useful asset. A large tally of award wins, short listings or nominations can appear impressive to a VC, and it can also ad gravitas when looking to finalise a partnership.
As a startup, Ormsby Street didn’t always have the budget to attend many awards ceremonies (We were very selective about those we did), which can have an impact on chances of success. So the short listing or being a finalist was just as important as winning, and really helped achieve Ormsby Street’s awareness raising objectives.
2016 – a golden year of awards
So as we sit in the middle of a cold, dark January, it feels like a good time to reflect on a golden 12 months of awards success for Ormsby Street. Particularly highlights were: being voted one of the UK’s 50 most disruptive businesses in the Everline Future 50; participating in Small Business Saturday (perfect for a software firm that works exclusively with SMEs); being a ‘Startup of the Year 2015-16’ in the Guardian Small Business Showcase and being short listed for best FinTech Startup at The Europas.
Here’s the list of the 2016 successes in full:
Winner
- Corporate LiveWire’s 2016 Innovation & Excellence Awards - Best in Small Business Advisory Services
- Everline Future 50 – one of the UK’s 50 most disruptive businesses
- Startups 100 list of the hottest UK startups
- 2016 Small Biz 100 / Small Business Saturday participant
Finalist
- Vendor Excellence Awards 2016 - Big Data Innovation of the Year
- 2016 Benzinga Fintech Awards – Levelling the playing field
- Guardian Small Business Showcase - Startup of the Year 2015-16
- Computing Vendor Excellence Awards – Big Data Innovation of the Year
- High Potential Business awards – Startup of the year
- Credit Today Awards - Best Fintech Company – Solutions
- V3 Digital Technology Leader Awards - Big Data Analytics Project of the Year
- The Europas - Best FinTech Startup
- British Small Business Awards - Technology Provider of the Year
- The UK Business & Digital Experience Awards - Entrepreneur of the year, second place
- The UK Business & Digital Experience Awards - Disruptive business model
- UK Industry Awards 2016 - UK Innovation and Entrepreneurship Award
- Growing Business Awards – Young Company of the Year
- Startups Awards – Tech Business of the Year
- Great British Entrepreneur Awards - Start-Up Entrepreneur of the Year
A lot of hard work went into entering these awards, but seeing the lengthy list of successes makes it all seem worthwhile.
If you’d be interested in raising your profile using award submissions, why not drop us a line?
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