By: Amy Greenwood, Director of Consumer Health & Wellness, Inizio Evoke
We are lucky enough to have submitted and won lots of awards over the years and several of our colleagues regularly sit on judging panels across the healthcare industry. With more just around the corner we have taken the opportunity to collate our best practice approach and captured the following tips:
Objective led - Be clear on the objectives of the campaign. Refer back to them regularly throughout the entry. Consider: How did the campaign meet the needs of the patients? How did the program support your client? How can our team demonstrate the goals and opportunity in an award submission?
Effective - Clearly show how the campaign/ launch/ initiative meets its goals, with quantifiable, transparent metrics. Jon Buckley, Director of Experience at Inizio Evoke who is frequently asked to serve as a judge across multiple awards offered these insights. ‘Just showing reach isn’t enough! Judges want to know how effective and efficient your solution was in hitting the objectives and bringing real value to your client. Client and/ or consumer feedback always helps!’ With this perspective in mind, consider: How can you demonstrate how effective your campaign was? How does it stack up against other competitors? Are there non-traditional metrics to consider?
Insight driven – Make sure you demonstrate the research behind the development of the campaign. The data should be robust and tailored to the campaign specifics. And show the insight that led to the creative breakthrough. Consider: How can you showcase the insights effectively in your submission? Does your creative effectively tell the story by itself, or can you incorporate another aspect like an infographic?
Expertly planned & executed – Show how the campaign/ initiative was planned and executed effectively, within time and budget parameters. Consider: Demonstrate how your campaign went above and beyond to deliver outstanding results. Is there a testimonial from your client or the patients themselves that supports this premise?
Innovative and creative – Judges are going to be asked to review multiple submissions in a short period of time. With this in mind, consider: How does your campaign stand out? Does the campaign convey a new perspective? How creative were the various parts of the campaign to relay the message or engage the audience?
Consistent and sustainable – Consider: Is the campaign part of a longer-term brand strategy? Does it have legs beyond the initial burst? Is it consistent with the brand and is the messaging consistent across all channels? How do we demonstrate that the campaign has staying power or is leaving a lasting impact?
Ethical and inclusive – Consider: How do we demonstrate that the campaign acted responsibly? How was our approach to make the campaign inclusive and representative
Health literate – Health literacy is important because half the population struggles to understand the information that can help them manage their health. Consider: How did we establish a consistent tone? How do we showcase that the patient was at the centre of the experience? What aspects of the creative supported accessibility and clarity?
Great storytelling – Holly Ford, Head of Consumer Communications at Inizio Evoke was recently a judge for the PR Moments awards. Holly advises: “I really love entries that can be stripped back. The best entries tell a story and take you on a journey from beginning to end. It’s so important to not just grab the attention of the judges, but to pull them in and keep them reading. The aim is to make them feel something, even creative jealously (“I wish I thought of that idea!”) or an emotional connection (“Wow, what a difference this campaign has made!”). Regardless, the art of storytelling is at the heart of memorable entries.” Consider: Can we meet the awards requirements in a different way? How can we make our submission stand out? Is there a way that we can more effectively tell our story and showcase what we accomplished?
We hope these tips will offer a solid foundation for your upcoming award entry, better showcasing your work and improving your chances to get the accolades your team deserves. Good luck!