Years ago, a seemingly go to question for air show organizers looking to hire me was, "how many marketing awards have you won?" At the time, there was a competitor touting all their marketing awards. And good for them!
When asked, "how many marketing awards have you won?" My proud reply, "ZERO! I'm not in the business of winning marketing awards for clients. The award I seek for clients is delivering them a paid-in-full event, before their event attendees arrive."
Think about it. For most event organizers, no award can equal the emotional satisfaction of having your event paid for in advance. Just consider all the worry it eliminates for you and your event team. And as a result, a better customer experience for your event attendees.
Again, if a client wants to apply for an award. I won't stop them, but I also don't encourage them. Why? Because of the dozens of hours clients spend in the application process. In some cases, just for a single award application.
Having collected around one million words of customer feedback for North American events over the last 20 years, not a single event attendee indicated that they had purchased a ticket to an event because the event won an award ... "Best of," marketing award, etc.
For me, the best clients to work with are those who are intently focused on meaningful business results as opposed to satiating their ego. It's my firm belief that all those (award application) hours are better spent investing in improving one's own event.
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