Consultant Corner: Awards Season: The Indie Playbook
March 19 @ 9:30 am – 10:00 am PDT
Awards season is coming and most indie agencies approach it the same way every year — enter a handful of categories at the last minute, spend too much and hope something sticks. The agencies that win consistently are not spending more. They are spending smarter, treating awards strategy like a year-round discipline instead of a last-minute scramble. For an indie on a limited budget, every entry needs to count. Yet most agencies put 90% of their effort into the creative and 10% into the entry itself — and that ratio is backwards.
Charlotte Williams is the Co-Founder of The Thought Partnership and former VP of Content and Editorial at Cannes Lions — the person who helped shape what the world’s biggest creativity festival looks for in winning work. Elizabeth Rosenberg is the Founder of The Good Advice Company and treats awards as a core pillar of PR strategy. She has Grand Prix wins from both MAL and 72andSunny and has changed the rules for how interactive work gets judged at Cannes. On this episode, Charlotte and Elizabeth walk through the practical playbook for indie agencies: how to choose the right shows for your budget, why category selection is where most entries are won or lost, what separates a winning case study from a forgettable one and why your metrics strategy matters more than your entry count.
Who Should Watch:
– Agency leaders deciding where to invest limited awards budgets
– Creative directors preparing case studies and entry materials
– New business teams looking to build credibility through awards recognition
– Strategists and account leaders who want to understand what judges look for
– Anyone entering awards for the first time and wanting to do it right
