There seems to be a misconception that only large companies win corporate awards and that the smaller players don’t get a look in. This leads some smaller firms to take the view that it is simply not worth bothering to enter business awards.

Awards Intelligence conducted some research in November and December 2007 to find out if this was the case and found that 60 per cent of UK corporate awards are won by companies outside the FTSE 350. We analysed which companies won 200 randomly selected awards from our database of some 600 UK corporate awards and found that well over 100 awards had been won by SME’s. While I appreciate that the number of SME’s in the UK massively outnumbers the FTSE 350, the fact still remains that SME’s are winning many quality awards. This should not come as any great surprise given that smaller firms often tend to be more creative and cutting edge compared to their larger competitors and are therefore well positioned to become award winners.

The main reason that more SME’s don’t win awards is that they don’t enter – it’s as simple as that. The fact is, you have to be in it to win it. This means developing a plan and identifying and entering around a dozen awards a year, not just the occasional award. A corporate awards programme should form a key part of any companies marketing and PR strategy as it is one of the most cost-effective yet powerful marketing tools available. The benefits of being an award winner include improved reputation, increased staff motivation, enhanced company valuation and increased profitability. Research has proved that winning business awards has a positive effect on the bottom line yet many firms fail to take full advantage of awards to prove to stakeholders that they are better than their competitors.

So for those smaller companies who are serious about differentiating themselves from the rest, leveraging third party endorsement via corporate awards could prove to be the missing ingredient in the marketing mix. Furthermore, I bet you get frustrated when your competitors win awards!