There are, according to The Economist, over 2,000 corporate award programmes in the UK - everything from 'Payroll Provider of the Year' to 'Best Trade Bank in Structured Finance'.

In the past month alone, the Coast team has:

  • Attended the Farmers' Weekly Awards (where a client won Specialist Crop Producer of the Year), 
  • Been invited to the Eat Out Awards (for the casual dining sector), 
  • Attended a drinks reception for finalists in the National Business Awards, and
  • Penned submissions for CityWealth Magic Circle Awards (not as exciting as they sound), Xero online accounting partner awards, and the British Legal Awards.


Boost Marketing, a marketing agency, have created a terrific database of awards that is free to access - http://www.boost-marketing.co.uk/awards-lists/uk-international/.  It is a great resource for those looking to enter or heaven forbid, wanting to attend an award. 

Awards are for businesses a mixed blessing. They do provide a terrific platform to showcase expertise amongst your peer group, to celebrate achievements with staff, and have a long shelf life for customer and client marketing.  But they are expensive to attend.  A table for 10 at the British Legal Awards will set you back an eye-watering £6k. 

And marketing and comms professionals' hearts will often sink when it comes to penning submissions. They take a lot of time, often asking difficult to answer questions (how do you capture innovation in an M&A deal?) and, certainly in professional services, will involve too many people. 

The best advice: keep it simple and tell a compelling story.