How to Write a Killer AMEC Award

Entry

Three golden rules for success

1. Get the business problem right

2. Prove real results and added value of your work with clear evidence

3. Dramatise the achievement with a well crafted story. Innovation helps!

1. What’s the Business Problem?

Winning cases address a business problem, not a straightforward communications task.

Business problems use words like reputation, sales revenue, growth rate.

Business problem Communications task

Increase usage occasions to grow annual volume/user from 1.5 to 2.5 litres.

“Shape the bleach dialogue online “

Grow sales of (brand) contact lenses by educating women 20-35 to seek soft lenses for self-diagnosed ‘eye strain’.

“create a buzz about astigmatism in an entertaining way”

Example: Pambassador for Chengdu Govt

Our business objective was to drive Chengdu’s tourism growth rate to significantly outperform China’s national tourism growth forecasts (estimated at between 2.7-5%)

Example: Pegasus Inspiring Healthy Decisions

Increase the effectiveness of our work, helping retain and attract both clients and staff (therefore increasing fee revenue) by improving our ability to set great objectives and measure/demonstrate the impact of our work.

Example: iSentia for Urbis

> The Australian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) aims to expose prevailing stereotypes of older people in the media and raise awareness of age discrimination in the Australian community, as well as to change the nation’s attitudes and behaviours towards older people for the better.

OUR MISSION WAS TO…1. Determine the proportion of editorial media coverage and advertising that features older people, to allow for an assessment of the “invisibility” of older people in the Australian media relative to their presence in the Australian population; and2. Examine how older people are portrayed in the media and the extent to which this content creates and perpetuates stereotypes about older people.

2. Prove real results

>This means business results.Results must be quantified with sources given. “Awareness grew” or “reputation improved” is not enough

>Draw the direct link between your campaign and the business results achieved

Results Structure

Business Results- Compare them directly

against the objective

Intermediate Results - that prove the result was due to your campaign, eg. engagement scores, leads generated, awareness of new benefit. State WHY these were important proof measures.

Example: Pambassador for Chengdu Govt

Visitors to Chengdu were up 30.3%. Visitors to China overall were up just 1.2% (Source: CNTA).

Awareness of Chengdu as ‘panda-land’ increased from 19% to 43% in the UK, from 14% to 27% in the US and from 58% to 75% in Singapore (source: Facebook brand tracker study, 2012).

Our Facebook PTAT score of 29% was 4 times more engaging than campaigns for Australia, Visit London and New Zealand in the same year.

Example: Pegasus Inspiring Healthy Decisions

• 79% of staff now put measurement in place upfront

• 96% see a positive reaction from clients and prospects

• 75% say campaign quality has improved as a result

• This helped us win at least two new clients and has helped contribute to revenue growth of 25%

Example: iSentia for Urbis

> The research provided clear evidence that older people are underrepresented.

> Mainstream news media content most often presented older people as passive, vulnerable and frail.

“The stereotypes and invisibility have influenced perceptions of the younger generations, created negative employer attitudes and impacted negatively the way older people view themselves.”

The Hon Susan Ryan AOAge Discrimination Commissioner

Australian Human Rights Commission

“There is much scope for constructive collaboration between media, advertisers and corporate Australia to present older Australians in a more accurate, balanced and diverse manner, to reflect more realistically their value, capability and experience. The benefits for our economy, for corporate Australia and for older Australians themselves, are clear.”

3. Dramatise the Achievement

>Create a sense of drama

>Paint the degree of difficulty

>Show how innovation helped solve the issue

The East-West divide in China’s economic development is a social ‘hot-button’. Western China accounts for 80% of the nation’s land mass but just 17.8% of GDP.

Similarly, Chengdu’s 1.2million annual visitors represented less than 1% of China’s 135 million total visitors in 2011 (Source: CNTA statistics).

More international tourists to Chengdu would mean more tourism revenue and employment, easing a source of social tension.

Our challenge was getting Chengdu onto the tourism radar; growing international visitors to help secure the city’s future economic growth prospects.

Example: Pambassador for Chengdu Govt

Our story was difficult to tell, so we added a short highlights section for the judges. Our aim was to demonstrate the scale and national importance of the project.

> A first-of-its-kind analysis across editorial news content, advertising and social media, in terms of the range and quantity of media covered, and the depth of the analysis.

> Three different research firms worked collaboratively across methodologies and datasets to meet an ambitious brief.

Example: iSentia for Urbis

They cannot be an expert on every category so

provide the background & benchmarks they

need to judge your case and drop the jargon

Help the Judges

They are under time pressure to judge many

entries. Make your case a quick,

relaxing read by

halving the words and telling a simple

story.

This applies to supporting material also.

Help the Judges

Language Tips

> Avoid repetitive exaggeration that arouses suspicion:

“This bold, convention changing campaign broke new ground for insightful communications measurement.”

> Surprise judges by being disarmingly honest instead

Planning & Process

> Make sure you answer clearly and succinctly the criteria for that category

> Include a supporting quote from the client about the value of your work (not how great you are)

> Several rounds of internal review before submission. No typos.

> Start early, don’t leave it to the last minute

> Get early client approval to submit an entry

AMEC Awards Strategy Checklist

> Make it a priority for your business. Winning entries take time.

> Establish a committee to decide and play “judge” before submitting entries.

> Encourage fierce debate over each entry.

> If you only have one great report, enter it into multiple categories (budget permitting).

> Ensure you respond to all of the feedback from the judges for the following year.

> Study the winning case studies on the AMEC website (we study them over and over again).

> Pay keen attention to the weightings.