Winning an award is a third-party endorsement that can help agencies and brand marketing teams stand out from the crowd in the competitive world of marketing.
For business owners or managers, it helps to recruit great employees, and it’s an excellent promotion for an organization on social media and with news outlets. It boosts morale of current employees, who will likely be more engaged as a result.
A brand award could tip the scales in an agency’s favor when it comes to winning new clients.
Also, an award win can be incorporated into an agency’s logo, letterhead, email signatures and website to cement its position as a brand expert. With all that in mind, the American Marketing Association Chicago is recognizing the best ideas and campaigns across the U.S. through its BrandSmart Awards, which are given out at AMA Chicago’s BrandSmart conference in April.
The BrandSmart Awards are not local awards but rather marketers across the country are welcome to submit their best work.
So, make sure you don’t miss out on the opportunity to show off your brand.
“Winning a BrandSmart Award means your marketing campaign met our criteria for showing creativity while delivering business results,” said Harvey Morris, 2020 BrandSmart Awards Chair. “Only campaigns that meet this standard are worthy of winning a BrandSmart Award.”
Apply to BrandSmart Awards Now
Campaigns that ran between January 1, 2019, and January 31, 2020, are eligible to enter the award program that’s inspired by the golden ratio, which is the mathematical ratio that represents ideal beauty. Since marketing is part art and part science, award organizers felt the golden ratio is an apt description and theme for the BrandSmart Award.
The final deadline for all entries is March 10. A single campaign may be submitted into multiple categories. Winners will be announced at BrandSmart, a day-long conference that’s 8:30 a.m. – 5 p.m. Wednesday, April 22 at the UIC Forum on the University of Illinois at Chicago campus, 725 W. Roosevelt Road.
- Brand Introduction – Recognizing the best marketing campaign to introduce a new product or service.
- Brand Momentum – Recognizing the best marketing campaign for an existing product or service.
- Brand Engagement – Recognizing the best customer engagement campaign.
- Integrated Marketing – Recognizing the best integration of offline and online brand marketing to achieve a business outcome.
- Brand Advocacy – Recognizing the best brand advocacy marketing campaign to achieve a business outcome.
- Cause Marketing – Recognizing the best marketing campaign to support and promote a cause or a proactive community service.
- Influencer Marketing – Recognizing the most effective, creative use of an influencer marketing campaign to achieve a business outcome.
- Brand Innovation – Recognizing the best implementation of technology and/or research in a marketing campaign.
More than 20 judges, drawn from global brands, industry thought leaders, platforms, and publishers, will select the winners. Brand innovation, customer engagement, advocacy and overall marketing excellence will be what the judges are looking for in the competition.
Accenture, Alzheimer’s Association, Barilla America, Hillshire Brands, Hyatt Hotels, McDonald’s USA, MillerCoors, Mondelez International, United Stationers and Walgreens are among past BrandSmart Award winners.
“This year, our judging panel represents some of the most creative minds in brand marketing from across the country and around the globe,” said Harvey Morris, 2020 BrandSmart Awards Chair. “What these winning campaigns have in common is the ability to demonstrate incomparable creativity while delivering measurable results that move the brand forward in meaningful ways,” Morris said.
All gold-level winners in each category will automatically compete for the Grand Champion Award that selects the overall best-in-show entry. Competition updates and materials, including the official Entry Guidelines Kit are available at www.brandsmartawards.org.
Learn more about AMA Chicago
Check out more AMA Chicago events like BrandSmart, which are designed to help marketers network and build their professional skills.
Also, follow AMA Chicago on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and LinkedIn.
