Yay, we won gold 🏆 perfect timing for our new achievements wall 👏🏽 Well, if you can't love your own work how you going to get anyone else to 🤷🏻♀️ #bestteamever #teambradford #HEmarketing #heistawards2017 (at University of Bradford)
Back in January, Havas People, alongside Educate and Revolution Viewing, hosted two ‘How to win’ sessions for HE Marketing professionals in advance of the 2016 Heist Awards. The sessions aimed to give a deeper understanding of the entry and judging process, top tips from the judges themselves and case studies from previous award winners
The two sessions provided great inspiration for writing a compelling entry and getting your institution on the shortlist. From previous judges Jo Redfern (Educate) and James Greenwood (Revolution Viewing), we learnt that detailing return on investment and emotional storytelling is key to a winning submission. This probably isn't the biggest surprise to hear but it is vital to include details of costs alongside an engaging story. As well as the obvious benefits (and a great night out) it was great to hear the snowball effect that winning an award can have on an institution. Success in awards can raise expectation (internally and externally), increase collaboration and innovation and promote your institution to a bigger marketing stage. Not to mention extra motivation for your team and increased confidence to carry out challenging work. You can watch a recap from the Manchester session here.
And remember, a winning entry engages ALL.
Awards Season
There was confusion at the Golden Globes in January when The Martian, after some ‘great acting’ by Matt Damon, was nominated and then won the ‘Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy’ even though the film errs firmly on the side of drama while containing humorous elements. There will be no such confusion with HEIST – if the judges feel an entry is entered into the wrong category you will be notified and it will be duly moved. Similarly, if you wish to enter the same project into more than one category we would advise you to alter the narrative for each submission.
Continuing with the elaborate award metaphors – it’s likely Alejandro González Iñárritu’s revenge epic The Revenant will sweep the floor at the 88th Academy Awards and take home Best Picture, Best Director and Best Actor for Leonardo Di Caprio. How often do we see the winner of Best Picture take home a slew of other awards (the components that make it just that – acting, direction, editing, sound effects etc.)? Handy to bear in mind when submitting an entry for ‘Marketing Team of the Year’.
After his wife vowed not to attend the Oscars, Will Smith has announced he will follow suit due to the lack of ethnically diverse nominees. Diversity is a burgeoning debate in Hollywood and one that has been intensified with controversy around the all-white actor’s Oscar nominations this year. For the Heist Awards, our judging panels are made up of sector experts as well as commercial specialists with marketing expertise. The way in which we set up the judging panels with both sector and commercial experts leads to strong debate and results in a variety of award winners. Looking back at last year’s winners you can see the range of institutions from large global universities to specialist regional colleges.
At Havas People, we don’t just put on awards, we win them too. Congratulations to everyone involved for winning the evening’s big prize at The 2016 RAD Awards – ‘Work of the Year’ for the National Offender Management Service. The ‘Is it in you to be a Prison Officer?’ campaign also picked up Use of Social and Integrated Campaign.
Good luck with your entries into the 2016 Heist Awards and remember, the deadline for entries is Friday 11th March.
We look forward to welcoming you at the Heist Awards on Thursday 7th July at The Palace Hotel in Manchester.
Written by Charlie Boydell-Smith, Project Manager of The Heist Awards.
