Ross Sturley, one of the organisers of the Construction Marketing Awards, discusses one of the most common reasons for entries failing to win.
One of the priviledges of being part of the organisation for the Construction Marketing Awards is seeing a huge amount of amazing work. Year after year we receive some remarkable stuff. Over the years we’ve polished our judging process to ensure that the best work wins, so usually we’re able to reward excellence with appropriate praise.
At the end of each judging meeting we have a session where the judges say what could be improved, part of ensuring the Awards continue to be brilliant, and to be seen to be. Some of the comments are on the process, of course, but much is about the entries themselves, and I can honestly say that in every one of the fifteen years of the Awards, the judges have said: “there were a number of entries which could well have won if they had included budget information”.
You see, among the key criteria that we judge on are cost-effectiveness, and return on investment. Neither can be reasonably evaluated without knowing how much was spent. So if there’s no budget information, the judges have to award zero marks for these criteria, and if you get a zero, it’s pretty much impossible to come back and win from there.
So the message is – put your costs in! Don’t worry, the secret of how much, or how little, you spent is safe with us. It’s one of the numbers we will never publish, and which the judges understand is commercially confidential. If it’s hard to count it up exactly – at least give us an estimate, as without that, you’re out of the running.
For other tips on writing a winning entry – see our article – Writing your wining entry!
