The ICCA Best Marketing Award has gained a global reputation for recognising outstanding achievements of organisations in marketing their product and services. It calls on all their passion, creativity, and courage to seize the initiative and do something truly different that will set their campaign – and their brand - apart. And every year, the entries impress us more and more with their levels of sheer brilliance and imagination.
That is why we are delighted to announce the launch of the ICCA Best Marketing Award sponsored by The Meetings Show. This year's theme is "Once Upon a Time – The Art of Marketing as Storytelling."
What does this mean?
ICCA is on the hunt for the storytellers of our industry. Whether you're a destination, a supplier, or an association, everyone has a tale to tell. Share your organisation's unique marketing stories for this year's Best Marketing Award theme: Once Upon a Time.
Show (and tell!) how you went from an inkling of an idea and nurtured it into a strong, substantial piece of marketing genius that conveyed your message with wit, humour, clarity and confidence.
So, if you have a marketing campaign that has your team ready to burst with excitement, get ready to share your creativity, your ground-breaking ideas, your marketing genius and you too could join our illustrious list of award winners.
Why participate?
Entering a project for an award competition can be costly in terms of efforts and resources, so why enter the ICCA Best Marketing Award?
Put simply, the ICCA Best Marketing Award is the premier recognition for the associations’ meetings industry marketeers and the marketing community. It is the most widely respected award in the field and truly gives recognition to the most creative achievements of organisations. The bestowment of the Best Marketing Award is a benchmark worth having and sharing.
ICCA invites our association community and meetings industry members from all sectors and regions to submit campaigns, projects, and initiatives that demonstrate ‘Marketing – Going Beyond the Obvious’ to showcase our commitment as international advocacy community for global events and meetings. Your campaign could include:
- Content branding
- Cultural shift
- Social storytelling
- Brand evolution
- Power of partnerships
- Internal brand transformation
- Mobile innovation
- Pioneering technology
- Data creativity
- Targeting excellence
- Best use of technology
- Crisis management
- Effective brand building
- Marketing in the moment
Judging Criteria
Judging panellists will evaluate entries according to the following parameters:
- Research & rationale (10%) – evidence-based information supporting the necessity and importance of the marketing initiative
- Determining and measuring success (30%) – the objectives of the marketing initiative should be outlined, and the application should be very specific about the following items:
- What level of engagement will be required – by the organization, the community, customers, etc.
- The objectives of the initiatives – what do you intend to achieve
- How will success be determined, i.e. more business leads, greater awareness, more contracts, etc
- How will that success be measured – i.e. data, customer or partner testimonials
- Innovation & Creativity (30%) – the marketing initiative must demonstrate a level of innovation, which could include fresh ideas, pursuing a new market, leveraging new technology, creating new processes to increase effectiveness and/or efficiency. The award application need not address all of these elements of innovation, but should be sure to include some.
- Long term impact (15%) – the marketing initiative should ideally embody more than a short term, one-off celebration, but rather, a long-lasting impact of the project
- Communication/presentation (15%) – is the presentation of the award submission clear and compelling.
Submission process
1. Submission
The competition is open to all ICCA Members and associations (individual members, or groups of members working together).
- Entries should be submitted in digital format through the application link and must include:
- A written proposal of max 1000 words
- Answer to criteria objectives (included in the submission form)
- A personal video presentation of max 1.30 mins that synthesize the key messages and outcome of the initiative. Video production should be consistent with the following criteria:
>Personalised touch. We want to see ‘you’, your team and recognise your efforts.
>Casual tone of voice and engaging delivery. Captivate the judges in a fun and dynamic way.
>No state-of-the-art video production. Video quality should not exceed the quality of smartphone video standards.
>Big budget does not equal victory. We want to recognise the creativity and outstanding achievements of initiatives implemented with little to no budget
Submissions must be completed through the application link by 23 August 2024, 23.59 UTC -12.
2. Selection of finalists
The judging panel will select the finalists from all the entries/submissions received. The finalists will be announced before 23 September 2024. Finalist will be asked to attend the ICCA Congress in Abu Dhabi (October 20-23, 2024) in person.
3. Winner announcement
The selected finalists will be allocated 10 mins each for a live presentation of the submitted project during a dedicated session of the ICCA Congress.
Finalists are warmly encouraged to attend the ICCA Congress in person.
4. Winner’s recognition and legacy
The ICCA Best Marketing Award is not only about creativity, ground-breaking ideas, and marketing. The award is mostly about shared learning and inspiring other organisation to break out from the norm, think, and do differently to start shaping tomorrow’s bigger success. The winner project will be featured on ICCA website and prominent media and will gain a speaking opportunity at the next ICCA congress so that can inspire best practices and relevant strategies for other community members in their marketing efforts.
For entrants:
- Opportunity to reflect on a project/campaign/initiative and build a case study for promotional use
- Raise the organization individual’s profile
- Opportunity to showcase your efforts and projects to internal and external stakeholders
- Have the work judged and externally benchmarked by leading professionals in the business.
- Potential space for global visibility
- Boost staff morale and reward individuals and teams for their hard work
- Chance to inspire others and develop best practices for industry and sectors
- Work on a fun and exciting project: Teamwork!
For Finalists:
- Profiling on ICCA communication channels (website, newsletter, social media -LinkedIn)
- Mention during the announcement session to all of the delegates at ICCA congress
- Worldwide recognition from peers and colleague at ICCA Congress
- Featured recognition on ICCA Congress website
For winner:
- Dedicated global PR (newsletter, press release, social media)
- Attendance to one of the North Star meetings group events- based on the region from which the winner will be, per year. The winner will have the flexibility to attend the preferred event/ meeting, from the offered variety, or have the equivalent in media visibility within the Northstar Group media portfolio.
- Personalized logo- (BMA winner 2024) to use on their website, emails or promotional material
- Speaking opportunity at the next ICCA Congress
- Interview/podcast with President or ICCA CEO about the winning project
- Webinar with the Winner
For questions or queries contact bestmarketingaward@iccaworld.org