So you won an architecture award! What’s next?

The Institute’s National Awards were presented last week and 44 projects were recognised: 25 won national awards and 19 took home commendations.

The Design Files announced its awards on the same night, and there are two more ceremonies this week, including the ArchiTeam awards (later today, Wed 11 Nov) and Sustainability Awards (tomorrow, Thurs 12 Nov).

Bozen’s Cottage by Taylor & Hinds Architects was a joint winner of The Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage. Built on the land of the Palawa/Pakana people of Lutruwita. Photography by Adam Gibson.

Hollow Tree House by Core Collective Architects was a joint winner of The Lachlan Macquarie Award for Heritage. Built on the land of the Palawa/Pakana people of Lutruwita. Photography by Adam Gibson.

Whether you win an award or not, how can you convert your entry into marketing gold?

And perhaps the more pertinent question: how can you translate your awards entry – and any success you had – into new clients and projects?

In the past, architects have largely viewed awards as ways to enhance their branding and raise awareness about their practice, but in this digital-everything era, you can also use your awards activity to generate new leads.

In my Awards workshop earlier this year, I encouraged architects to prepare their awards entries with three main audiences in mind: the jury; the media; and future clients. By carefully framing your entry text, you can speak to each of these audiences simultaneously.

I’ll be running that Awards workshop again early in 2021 ahead of next year’s programs – and you’ll be able to CPD points – so if you’re keen to learn how to really harness the value of your awards investment, keep an eye on out for details. I’ll also update my free downloadable Awards Calendar once details of next year’s programs are published, so grab a copy of the updated version when I launch it in January.

I developed that workshop to increase your ROI on awards because entering awards can cost practices thousands of dollars each year. In fact, your awards outlay may be the largest annual marketing expense of your annual marketing budget, so it makes sense to leverage that investment long after your submissions are lodged. 

Think about the money and time you spent on your 2020 entries, including photography costs; time spent preparing your entries; your client’s time and any cleaning costs they incurred; time spent presenting to the jury (and in typical years, showing juries through your project, which didn’t happen this year because of Covid-19).

So how do you repurpose your entries (and promote your wins!) to generate new projects?

You can repurpose your 2020 awards entries into content for other marketing channels such as your referral network, email newsletters, publishing, social media and your website. Don’t be afraid to shout your success from the rooftops!

Rather than just copying and pasting your entry text though, you’ll make more meaningful connections with future clients if you frame your content in a client-centric way. Doing so will help future clients to recognise themselves in your stories and posts, and feel comfortable about making contact with you to discuss their upcoming projects.

It’s likely that you didn’t place much emphasis on addressing these future clients in your entries this year, so from this point forward, you should reframe all of your outward-facing communications to speak directly to them. I explain how to do that in this blog post.

But before you start that reframing, you need to first identify who your ideal client avatar (ICA) is, for each awards project. For education projects, you may be addressing school principals or government procurement managers; for residential projects you might be speaking to empty nesters, for example. 

Next you need to determine the key message that you wish to convey to each ICA about the project, your practice and/or your process, and any awards you won.

Once you have determined your ICA and key message, you’re ready to select the best delivery channels to deliver that message to them. It’s important to meet them where they are (rather than expecting that they will magically find you on your preferred platform, which might be Instagram).

Joint winner of The Sir Zelman Cowan Award for Public Architecture: Anzac Memorial Centenary Extension by Johnson Pilton Walker with The Government Architect NSW. Built on the land of the Gadigal And Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation. Photography by Brett Boardman.

Why should you reframe your awards entries to speak to your ICA?

It’s fairly common for architects to pitch their Awards entries – and a lot of their marketing materials – to appeal mainly to jurors, and other architects who speak the same language as you. But doing so means you risk excluding a broader audience – including potential clients – from understanding and engaging with your message.

Architects already know the value of good design, but in my experience, they sometimes struggle to convey that message simply to others, especially people outside the profession and beyond the construction industry.

In essence, your marketing materials should contain both big picture thinking (about why good design matters) and specific messaging about your practice and projects, and details about any awards that you won this year. 

This multi-layered approach will help you to expand your influence and reach - both beyond the profession and the awards programs (which tend to be very industry-focussed) to connect and engage with many more people, some of whom may be interested in engaging your practice.

In the digital era when consumers expect to be able to freely engage and converse with brands and services they transact with, your awards entries should deliver value in three key ways: 

• enhancing your practice’s reputation; 

• generating media coverage for your projects;

• AND bringing in new clients, because new clients are the lifeblood of your practice.

It’s also useful to remember that awards and the jury citations that accompany them are a form of ‘social proof’; that is, they add a layer of credibility to your practice and projects that is extremely valuable in the eyes of your future clients. Of course, you need to translate your awards success into messaging that describes how your practice and unique approach will benefit your future clients, and to do that, you need to speak their language.

Making this switch – from addressing jurors and peers to addressing your ideal client – can unlock significant value in your awards investment.

With just a few small tweaks, you can repurpose your Awards entries to promote your practice in ways that will connect with and attract the types of clients you’d like to work with in future; and the types of projects that are both financially sustainable and enjoyable for you and your team. The good news? You can do this whether your awards entries won you medallion, a certificate or commendation, or nothing at all.

Joint winner of The Sir Zelman Cowan Award for Public Architecture: Marrickville Library by BVN​. Built on the land of the Gadigal And Darug Peoples of the Eora Nation. Photography by Brett Boardman.

Are you ready to get a head start on your 2021 awards?

If you didn’t enter any awards programs this year, but you’re starting to think about next year’s entries, you can get a headstart by downloading my 2020 8-step guide. If you start working on your 2021 entries this side of Christmas, you’ll have plenty of time to be much more strategic with next year’s entries. I’ll be updating this guide for 2021 soon, but it contains the key dates and tasks you need to get underway right now.