Despite what some people might suggest and some modern behaviourists might propound, most people like to win awards. There’s certainly something inherently satisfying about achieving the plaudits of your peers and taking the long walk through the applause often at the end of a relatively expensive dinner, to collect a trophy, gong, statuette, or plaque. With this applause comes the moniker of ‘Award Winner,’ that sits neatly with the entrant for the remainder of his or her career, surfaces at interviews and even finds its way into introductions and personal descriptions.
Why Have Awards in Radio?
Radio is no different to any other industry, in that most industries have award ceremonies of some kind or another, at local, national and at international level and for a variety of reasons.
- To recognise outstanding work.
- To encourage the development of new ideas.
- To encourage new entrants to develop new practices.
- To highlight particular facets of the industry perhaps being ignored.
- To spotlight successful areas within the field.
- As a social occasion to bring individuals in the industry in contact with each other.
- And some say – to make money for the organisers.
Generally each industry divides its awards into categories that best suit its own working practices and this is reflected too in radio, as a creative medium.
How to Start the Award Wining Process
At the risk of really ‘stating the obvious,’ to win any award you have to enter them first. It’s also good practice to find the awards suitable for the area of operation within the entrant’s particular field. In the radio industry this can vary from:
- Radio Programming and Production
- News Broadcasting
- Radio Advertising Production
- Presentation
- Copywriting and Audio Creativity
- Audio and Studio Technical Skills
These general categories will be found in different awards in varying degrees. It’s possible to enter some general advertising awards organised for the advertising industry under a radio section, whilst other awards are exclusively for the radio industry.
What Radio Awards to Enter
It’s well worth doing a great deal of research to find the most suitable awards competition, and the most likely category within that award, that a particular piece of work will find success. Over subscribed categories are hardest to win. Minority interest awards may reap greater success. There may even be a category directly suitable for the entrant, e.g.: student, locally produced, small budgets, or often a category with a geographical or economic bias.
Each competition has its own kudos, and not surprisingly the awards that attract the highest entrants, have the greatest reputations and are usually the ones everyone wants to win. Radio awards and competitions with radio categories in no particular order include:
- The London International Advertising Awards
- The New York Festivals
- The Mobius Awards – established in Chicago and now with an HQ in Redondo Beach, LA., Calif.
- The Roses Awards, based in Manchester, England
- The Creative Circle Awards – London
- Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival
- Design and Art Directors Awards – London
- Eurobest – the European Advertising Festival Hamburg
- The Sony Awards – London
And there are many more, each generally with a number of different categories and varying degrees of entry fees, so spend time studying the entry conditions and rules of entry. Find the right awards and the right category for your work.
Entering the wrong category, or falling foul of the rules of entry with a simple administrative error, missing the deadline or not paying the required entry fee, is an unnecessary barrier to success in any competition.
How to Increase the Chances of Radio Awards Success
Radio Awards are about rewarding good creative work. Here are some simple steps to increase the chances of your creative work reaching the top spots:
- Review the work you’ve done; be careful it fits into the award’s stipulated time periods
- Listen to previous award winners. You’ll usually find these on the award’s websites
- Try and listen to your work with a judge’s ear
- Enter as many awards as you can afford
- Enter as much work as you can, into as many categories as you can
Finally, it could be helpful to put yourself forward as a judge for awards you’re not entering, to get some experience of the judging process.
After all that, all you need now if you’ve done all of the above, as some award winners might tell you, is to be lucky. Good luck.
Dan McCurdy - Dan McCurdy is a freelance writer producer creative and lecturer. Dan is one of the UK's most experienced radio writers and producers. ...
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