How to make the most of your awards entry
To make the most of your entry and the gala ceremony, we’ve prepared a few helpful hints to guide you through awards night like a seasoned pro.
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One thing you can do to ensure you have a fabulous awards night is to temper your expectations. Remember that regardless of the outcome, tonight’s a night for celebration. There will be time for reflection later when the judges’ comments are released but awards night should be viewed as a reward for a year of hard work. Just by making an entry, you and your team are kicking goals.
Consider preparing a few words for a speech on the night. If you win, you will be asked to formally address the audience, resulting in a quote – so it’s a good idea to have something prepared. And if you place (silver or bronze) you will most likely have conversations with the industry and your team, so it’s handy to have a few positive pearls up your sleeve.
Don’t leave this part to chance. iPhone images are needed to provide candid happy snaps and team images you can share with family and friends. They can also be used in internal comms, on your business and individual social posts on the night. Importantly, these images are available to you in real-time; as opposed to the official photos that take a few days to be released. On occasion these iPhone images make all the difference in securing local media coverage that goes to press immediately with your local hero news announcement.
We recommend that you ask your media team to prepare your awards comms ahead of time. You can site the details of the gala event; number of attendees (the ATA Gala is often called the tourism industry’s ‘night of nights’) the number of categories, the quality of the competition and you can write up your announcement with gold-silver-bronze as an interchangeable status that can be updated on the morning after the event. Finish off the job with your CEO’s quotable quote and appropriate images. Make sure you speak to your website content manager so they are poised to upload the news to your website and link the page to your follow-up social posts (FB, Linked-In).
One of the best outcomes from an awards win or placing is the benefit to your team morale and the opportunity to refocus your team towards the business vision. You may wish to draft a thoughtful piece in the days following the outcome of the awards.
Don’t forget to promote your hard-earned awards logo through your marketing platforms and promotions. You’ve earned the right to show it off for one year only, so it’s worth making the most of it right from the start. Likely places to update and share your awards logo are: updates to your 2024 brochure (cover), your website and your team’s email signatures. Consider including the logo on web listings with third-party sites.
Give permission for your team to share the win on their personal social pages. You could also share the good news with your own professional networks.
That’s probably enough from us to ensure you are well prepared on the night and can make the most of a successful outcome.
Wishing you the very best of luck in the days ahead!
– Nelly and team.
