Room at the Top: Content Awards

It’s awards season! Check out this roundup of content marketing awards for inspiration.

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Issue 12 | February 16, 2017 | Room at the Top: Content Awards

It’s awards season! This lull between the Grammys and the Academy Awards seems an opportune moment to take a look at the awards landscape in content marketing. Let’s see what the good folks at the top are doing, shall we?

Why content awards can be inspiring, and a bit…indulgent
There are a number of associations and institutes that crown content winners each year. The winners offer plenty of inspiration – great storytelling, engaging digital media, even poignant social media moments. But much like this week’s Grammys, content awards can be an imperfect exercise with plenty of holes in the process.

For instance, have you personally submitted some of your content for award consideration? No? Neither have most of the other in-house managers reading this newsletter, I suspect. After digging around the awards section of the internet this week, I can report that content awards are dominated by edgy marketing agencies and their clients, very often Fortune-500 types. Nothing against the creative folks dreaming up major campaigns – but most marketers are in-house, doing the daily dirty work of cranking out on-brand emails and reigning in ramble-y portfolio managers, not turning the Coca-Cola home page into a fun! content! library!

Content awards also gravitate toward categories like “best use of native advertising” – interesting to some, but I’m sorry to report that I was not able to track down an award roster with the exact submissions I wanted to see – such as “best financial white paper by a mid-sized asset manager” or “most tolerable sales idea for advisor audiences.”

Alas, even with that long-winded caveat, content awards are fertile places to fish for inspiration. Here are a few locations to cast your net:

 Content Marketing Awards: Roundup

1. The Content Marketing Institute’s annual Content Marketing Awards. CMI is one of my favorite sources for general content marketing trade secrets, and they put together a comprehensive annual award process too. You can find the 2016 winners here, and they are currently accepting entries until April 2017 for the current round.

A notable entry to check out: Take a side trip over to BMO Harris Bank’s It’s Your Financial Life, a finalist for “Best Corporate Blog.” 

2. The Content Council’s Pearl Awards. The Content Council is more of a trade association, evolved from an earlier association of magazine publishers, and they have been hosting content awards since 2004. The 2016 winners are available here, and they are also accepting entries until late June 2017 for the current year.

A notable entry: Check out this T. Rowe Price Insights interactive quiz, Do You Act Your (Savings) Age?, which won third in “Best Interactive Content.”

3. Digiday’s Content Marketing Awards. This seems like a more mainstream advertising event, as Digiday is a media platform that covers the agency and publishing industries. Still, the 2016 winners are worth a gander, and the group is currently accepting entries through March 2017 for the next round.

A notable entry: Take a look at this Goldman Sachs infographic, Millennials, the winner of “Best Infographic.”

4. The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals’ Marcom Awards. This is another traditional communications organization, rather than a content-only group, that runs a number of international competitions. This is perhaps the largest competition, accepting 6,000 entries for the Marcom Awards annually. You can find the 2016 winners here, and the group opens for current submissions in August.

A notable entry: Visit this Guardian Life Insurance interactive infographic, My Retirement Walk, which won the “Financial Services” category.

Room at the top
As the saying goes, there’s always room at the top. When I was researching content awards, I was struck by how few notable financial entries there really were. I know from the experience of working alongside many of you that sharp ideas and innovative execution are happening on the ground in financial content teams. I’d encourage you all to consider sending some of your favorite pieces for consideration for 2017 awards.

Need some copy for your next award-winning campaign? Reach out to learn more about how I can help you build your financial brand with engaging and human content.