Awards season has a formula, and most indie agencies follow it faithfully: enter a handful of categories at the last minute, spend too much money and hope something sticks. It’s the industry equivalent of throwing darts in the dark and calling it strategy.
Charlotte Williams, co-founder of The Thought Partnership and former VP of Content and Editorial at Cannes Lions, and Elizabeth Rosenberg, founder of The Good Advice Company, have spent careers on the other side of the table — and they’d like a word.
Williams has sat in jury rooms watching brilliant work get tossed because it landed in the wrong category. Rosenberg helped 72andSunny land Grand Prix wins, once fought every awards platform to let judges hold pre-loaded phones so they could swipe through Tinder’s “Swipe Night” themselves, and still remembers the budget math for buying all those devices. Between them, the playbook for indie agencies gets refreshingly specific.
Start with your wallet, not your trophy case
Before the entry form, before the case film, before the heated debate with your business affairs team about music licensing — Rosenberg says the first question is simpler than most agencies want to hear. “Is it going to be better for you to go to a conference and see more people?”
Not every agency needs a Lion. Some need a handshake. But if the answer is awards, the next move is budget — then working backward from there.
Williams puts a number on it. “Is it $5,000? Great. Be rigorous about what award shows you think you’ve got a realistic chance.” The consensus from both: pick one creative show and one editorial award. Editorial awards — the ones connected to trade publications — deliver additional press coverage that helps with SEO and AI optimization. Two birds. One entry fee.
The category is the campaign
This is where most agencies lose before the jury even opens the envelope.
Williams has watched it happen from the inside. “I’ve seen work die in the jury room so many times because people are just like, it’s a great piece of work, but they really shouldn’t have entered it into this category.” The fix starts with one question: is the strongest part of your work craft-focused or results-focused? That answer changes everything about where you submit.
Rosenberg points to a client whose film was good — but whose use of music was outstanding. “They were not going to win in the film category because the competition was so steep, but they ended up doing really well in the music category.” The subcategory nobody’s watching is often where the trophy lives. And Rosenberg adds a truth that applies well beyond awards: “The story that we always think is the most interesting is the one that isn’t. It’s that one that we don’t really know about.”
What is the clickbait of the case study?
Rosenberg doesn’t dance around it. “If it is not interesting within the first 15 seconds, you’re gonna skip. It’s just like any other ad you’re watching on YouTube.” She pauses. “What is the clickbait of the case study?”
Good question. Most agencies never ask it. They open with “here’s the problem,” move to “here’s what we did,” close with what Rosenberg calls “all these fake numbers” — and wonder why judges glazed over by entry number 47 didn’t notice.
The Tinder “Swipe Night” entry at 72andSunny is her proof of concept. The experience — a choose-your-own-adventure on a phone — simply didn’t work as a traditional case film. Every awards platform said no. Jamie Reese, the agency’s awards lead, said too bad. “We were like, too bad. We have to figure out a way to do this. This is the future — jump on the train,” Rosenberg recalls. The solution: pre-loaded phones shipped directly to judges. It won.
And the entry that still lives in Ad Age’s Judy Pollack’s memory seven years later? An agency that opened with “we don’t deserve to be your agency of the year” — and meant it. “Get authentic, get transparent, get real,” Rosenberg says. “It’s just not interesting if we keep doing it the same way we’ve always done.”
Impressions are not a metric. Tell the story around the numbers.
Williams is blunt about what gets tossed. “No judges who are worth their salt really care too much about impressions. It has to think back to your original goal — which is generally going to be sales or growth.”
A 2% sales lift sounds modest until you explain that the entire category was flat. A pizza brand’s Super Bowl bump means nothing if their sales spike every year regardless. “You need a story around those results,” Williams says. “Most people just miss that out.” Context is the difference between a number and a narrative.
Talk to me like I’m your grandmother
Williams has a trick for finding the gem buried in an entry, and it’s disarmingly low-tech. “Talk to me as if I’m your grandmother or a four-year-old child, and tell me about your work. That’s often when you get the most interesting nuggets — the little insight that’s fascinating, that judges will laugh at.”
Those unpolished, off-script details are what juries remember when the deliberation room gets crowded and the shortlist gets short. The agencies that sweat fewer entries and tell better stories — rather than entering more and hoping volume does the work — are the ones that stick. As Williams puts it: “Sweat less rather than enter more. It refines your process, and it helps you create better work the next time.”
Learn more
The Thought Partnership
Charlotte Williams LinkedIn
The Good Advice Company
Elizabeth Rosenberg LinkedIn
The Good Advice Company LinkedIn
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