With just a few days until our award entry deadline closes, the CMA team are on hand to help with any last-minute questions or entries you may have.
There’s still time to enter this year’s awards. See our award entry pack for more details
It’s been great to see so many entering this year’s awards, especially due to the pressures of a global pandemic. The team and I recognise many of you from previous awards, but one thing that’s certainly stood out is the number of newcomers to our awards. The International Content Marketing Awards has always showcased the greatest content from across the world, and this year looks to continue this.
We had a number of first-time entrants and many of them were asking for tips on how to win at the International Content Marketing Awards. Who better to give tips than winners from previous awards. We got in touch with a selection of previous winners and asked them to join us for our Award Winning Content Breakfast. A short webinar where they could discuss both the award-winning work they submitted, but also the entry process.
Watch the full session on-demand
First, we spoke with CPL who won gold in our ‘Best Consumer’ category for the work they did with Cambridgeshire County Council. Sophie Hewitt-Jones and Anna Cruickshank discussed the brief set out by the client and how they approached it. One of the judges from last year had this to say when looking at CPL:
A heart-warming campaign which clearly engaged the right audience with fantastic results. A successful campaign, backed by insight, effective creative and well-executed.
Judges comment, 2019
During the talk, Sophie and Anna spoke about the results of this campaign and how they were able to achieve these. Especially as social media wasn’t the main channel they used and spoke about the ways CPL used inventive ways to measure and track the success of their content. You can see the full case study here.
Doing the award entries is such a valuable exercise for the business. We try and do them every because it helps us to shine a spotlight on the work we do and makes us really think about the results. Even if you don’t get nominated or win every time.
Sophie Hewitt-Jones, Director – Client Services, CPL
If you’d like to hear more from CPL’s award-winning campaign, check out the on-demand webinar here
I then spoke to Trygve and Ole from Geelmuyden Kiese (GK) who have been incredibly successful at previous CMA awards, including nice awards at our 2019 International Content Marketing Awards.
GK spoke about the award-winning work they completed for DSB – The Norwegian Directorate for Civil Protection. Ole and Trygve spoke about the client wanting to communicate with an audience without causing mass hysteria and panic.
This content campaign, 72 Hours, launched in 2018 and used many channels and included print, video, and podcast. Bringing in the help of celebrities but also bringing in the public. Through this content campaign, public awareness nearly doubled from 40% to 78%.
There were a number of questions put to our speakers from GK, including a discussion around the work they did in Norway and if it helped Norwegians prepare for a pandemic, such as Covid-19.
Hear more from GK and the work they carried out for The DSB by watching the on-demand recording
Jonathan Fink of Green Park Content then joined me on the webinar to talk about the work they did with Unilever and the Wella brand.
Greenpark Content won gold in our Best use of SEO category for ‘All Things Hair’, which is the content platform they built for Wella (Unilever). Jonathan went into detail about the pros/cons of having this platform, and especially as the content crosses a number of countries and continents.
From the creation of imagery and video to listicles and blog content, Greenpark created an outstanding campaign based on real insight into how people are searching for hair inspo, that paid dividends.
Jonathan then answered questions, including the discussion around growth and how you can evolve your content hub. Regardless of size, there are areas which you can improve on and Jonathan delves into these, including the hiring of more journalists to create new and exciting content.
A bold pivot from product first to audience first. This content clearly paid dividends. It was nicely executed with some really lovely and useful content. I look forward to seeing what they do next to grow this.
Judges comment, 2019
To hear Jonathan talk in more detail, you can watch the full webinar on-demand
I then spoke to Blayne Pereira of Progressive Content, who won gold in last years ‘Best use of Social Media – B2B’.
Blayne spoke about how Progressive Content has been working with the NatWest group since 2015 and helped to launch the Business Hub. This has also won a number of awards with the CMA.
One of the challenges Blayne spoke about was the disconnect between the Business Hub. So one of the main objectives was to increase traffic and align social media content calendars with the Business Hub. Progressive would bring social media and other content platforms to create an always-on approach.
Research from DSMN8 showed that NatWest Business had the most active professional users in UK/Ireland. This shows that employees are more likely lot be engaged when they see their employer is also posting timely and strong content.
Blayne then gave advice on how to create an award entry, and mentioned that the most difficult thing was ‘selling the work’. Although you know the work was great and the client was happy, it has to be a collective effort from the team to sit down and really highlight the successes and key points.
If you’d like to hear more from Blayne and Progressive Content, you can watch the full session on-demand
- Here are some tips for those looking to enter this year’s awards: Tell a story to give the judge the bigger picture. By explaining what happened before and sharing the jeopardy, they can understand the significance of the outcome.
- Illustrate the story to break up the text and make it easier to read. Use photographs, videos and testimonials.
- We’ve got to get your entry title on a trophy, so make it short and memorable!
