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Blog, Creativity 101, The Business: November 16, 2009 : 1:59 am

Are Awards Worth It?

Real problems from fake people.

Dear Earl,

We just received an email announcing the open entry period for a big media award/film festival, and we’re going to enter!

Awesome, congrats. Why are you entering?

When you win, the trophy is amazing, it’s made of crystal and golden butterflies — wait, what? What do you mean, ‘why?’ It’s a big award/film festival!

How much is the entry fee?

Huh? I don’t know. It’s somewhere around ($50/$100/$200).

Maybe it’s just me, but if someone is asking for more than lunch money, I like to know why I’m doing it.

INT. GRAND BALLROOM – NIGHT

Easily fifty tables filled with the world’s most beautiful people, every one holding their breath. Nerves on edge. Somewhere, a media darling bites her lip in anticipation.

Every pair of eyes turned to the host, delicately holding an envelope.

HOST

And the winner is...

The RIP of the envelope is a thunderclap across the heavy silence.

HOST

You!

The collective breath EXPLODES into applause, screaming, people rising to their feet --

-- Tears in your eyes, you’re standing, and everywhere, hands awkwardly slapping your back, shoulders, grabbing to shake your hand --

-- You take the stage, and the roar leaps another level --

-- You grasp the award and it’s so REAL, so much heavier than it looked --

-- and as the noise dwindles, you step to the mic, and begin to speak.

YOU

God, there’s so many people to thank...

Everyone born after 1953 has imagined this for themselves at some point. And when you finally commit to being a professional creative, you’re hit with so much hard reality (disappointment, compromise, and poverty) it can seem like the last bit of magic left.

And it is. For one night.

But after the champagne is all gone and the press has gone home, a new day dawns and you’re left with a clunky conversation piece. And not much more. There is no honor in winning awards.

You’re depressing me.

That’s because, as an audience member, you have always admired awards. That admiration is what you’re going to count on now, as a creative professional, when you realize that awards are really only good for marketing purposes.

Awards are something you wow the audience with. Awards get you jobs, get you access to higher-caliber collaborators. In a marketplace glutted with competing talent, awards give you the benefit of the doubt.

Isn’t that the same thing as honor?

It is and it isn’t. Honor is an ambiguous idea that floats wherever we place it. What I’m talking about is credibility, and that has a very concrete value.

So I shouldn’t try to win awards?

You should absolutely consider it. But be discerning. Like anything creative, you should take into account your audience first.

And before you offer yourself up to be judged, be a judge yourself. This award/film festival claims to be prestigious and noteworthy: have you ever heard of it? Is it something recognized by your industry, your clients, your audience? If not, you may get better results spending your marketing budget elsewhere.

Because that’s what you’re doing, when you submit to win an award. As much as you’re putting yourself up against your peers, you’re also entering a blind bid for something to add to your press kit.

Set aside the validation of winning. If someone offered you the chance to buy this award, for the same price as the entry fee, would you do it?

That’s how you know if an award is worth it. It cannot be about validation. If you don’t already know you’re good enough to win, you probably aren’t ready to enter.