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food for thought

Give Yourself a Hand – The Importance of Awards

In our newest ROOT Food for Thought blog series, we explore all things thought leadership, from awards to podcasts to speaking opportunities and beyond. (Find part one, “Speak Up to Stand Out,” here.)

What is thought leadership and why is it important? Essentially, thought leaders are recognized as experts in their field. To achieve that level of respect, you must first establish authority and credibility, then become known as someone with a unique, respected perspective who helps shape industry trends, generates high-quality content that drives SEO, and whose influence continues to grow. No big deal, right? 

Basically, that means you need to stand out above the crowd, and winning an award is an excellent way to do so. 

Read on for why awards are important, which ones are our favorites, how much you should budget, what to do with the accolade, and more.

Why Spend Time and Money Applying

Like the greater benefits of thought leadership, earning awards means you’re considered to be among the best in your field, which automatically gives you an element of trustworthiness and respect among your audience, clients, and peers. 

In addition to doing a happy dance in your office, you can post this earned third-party credibility on your website, share in your newsletter, and post on social media. You can put the award logo or seal on your products, add it to your business card, and even add it to your email signature (make sure to add a hyperlink to the award website for the reader to learn more.) If you’re able to accept the award in person at an event, you’ll have valuable networking time with industry professionals – potentially opening doors to key partnerships, distributors, or investors.

Where to Begin on Your Awards Journey

Research the award opportunities with the publications that your customers read – whether it’s your local city’s business journal like the Denver Business Journal or Twin Cities Business Magazine; a consumer-facing lifestyle magazine like Sunset or Readers’ Digest; or hyper-niche trade magazine such as Chocolate Connoisseur or vegconomist.

At ROOT, we keep a detailed spreadsheet of awards that are on our radar where we track the award’s name, description, deadline, costs, misc. notes, etc. No need to create something fancy. Set up biweekly or monthly calendar reminders to check in on the spreadsheet and keep up with deadlines.

Give yourself a reasonable goal of a few awards to apply to over the course of the next 12 months, then double it for the next year. Like most things, it’s more work at the beginning – creating your targeted list, typing out succinct blurbs for the nomination forms, etc. However, you’ll be able to use the list for years to come, and quickly repurpose portions of your nomination from one award to another.

Our Favorite Awards

Some of our favorite awards in the CPG space, include:

Better Homes & Gardens Pantry Awards
• Expo West NEXTY Awards
Fast Company World Changing Ideas
Food Network Supermarket Awards
• Good Food Awards
Good Housekeeping Best Snack Awards
NOSH Best of Awards
Taste for Life Essential Awards

For a more comprehensive list, spanning over a variety of food-related industries, contact us.

Budgeting for Greatness

Most of our preferred award nominations hover around $100 per submission. Some of the most prestigious ones, such as those with Better Homes & Gardens and Food Network, are free – you just have to mail in your product to the editorial team. 

However, many award companies also make money by charging for award usage, charging fees for permission to put the award seal on your product, use the logo in a print ad, or even put the seal on your website. These fees can be very pricey, often exceeding $5,000/usage. However, it’s free to announce that you’re an award winner, you’re just not able to use the distinct logo. Evaluate each pricing deck on a case-by-case basis to decide if spending money on usage would be worth the cost.

Take it Easy – We’ll Take It From Here

If you don’t have the bandwidth to add this to your workload and/or would prefer to leave this to the professionals, we’d love to help! In just the past year for example,  we’ve secured the following awards on our client Bubbies Fine Foods’ behalf:
 
• The prestigious Better Homes & Gardens Pantry Awards for their new Bread & Butter Kitchen-Chopped Relish. This award ran in a print issue as well as online and Bubbies even had a major mention on their Good Morning America segment!
• Their Spicy Bread & Butter chips were named as THE Refrigerated & Frozen Foods’ best new product of 2023.
• Food & Beverage also named the Spicy Bread & Butter Chips to their editor’s picks of best new products of 2023.
• Bubbies was a finalist for NOSH’s “Best of 2023” awards.
• Bubbies’ Spicy Sauerkraut was named to the Taste for Life’s 2023 Food Essential Awards.

We Practice What We Preach

ROOT takes the annual Public Relations Society of America’s Colorado chapter very seriously. For the past four years, we’ve dedicated time every spring to nominate our favorite PR campaigns. It’s paid off: we’ve won either Gold or Silver for every award we’ve applied to, including winning the Gold Pick award for earned media relations in the packaged goods category in 2022 and 2023. (We’ll find out on August 28 at the 2024 Gold Pick Awards which categories we win for this year and if we’re taking home a gold or silver!)  Needless to say, touting these awards on our social and website are great ways to prove to potential clients that they should consider hiring us. 

Setting aside the time to carefully vet and apply for awards has so many benefits that will positively affect your business for years to come. Let us know if you’d like to chat about how we can help! 

Follow us on social media (for example, on Instagram,) to see when our next thought leadership blog publishes, covering topics like podcasts, getting on TV, and working with trade media.

Photos courtesy of Naturally Boulder, Bryan Beasley, Rachel Marek

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