* by Michele Newbern Gillis
Staff Writer
Paying attention to detail is key to winning a Laurel Award.
“The requirements are so particular,” said Maxine McBride, president of Clockwork Marketing, who held a seminar prior to this year’s awards to help Northeast Florida Builders Association Sales and Marketing Council members prepare their submission. “You have to follow them so specifically. You receive a call to entries that lists the different requirements for each category and they are not always written in a user-friendly way.”
She said entrants should read them from start to finish and then read them again and again to interpret them.
“You can get rejected from a category if you don’t meet the requirements,” she said. “They take a lot of paying attention to detail.”
The Laurel Awards is a local awards program of the SMC of the Northeast Florida Builders Association to recognize the best in marketing, advertising and the people who work in the real estate and building industry.
“There is an industry recognition that goes with winning a Laurel Award,” said McBride. “It does acknowledge that your product, service or whatever is better than anyone else. You can either win the award and stick it away in a closet or you can use it.”
She said it is a good promotion for yourself and for your company to say, “We won a Laurel Award.”
The awards were started by Victoria Robbins, currently of Beazer Homes.
“Our SMC had grown to the point that we were one of the few big SMC’s in the country that did not have a local awards program so it was a natural progression for us,” said Robbins. “The dilemma is that it is a huge amount of work, especially to kick it off and we had no money and no budget. Going out and getting sponsors was something we had not done before, but we did get sponsors.”
She said it took three years for the awards to actually come to fruition. Robbins traveled to other associations to see what categories they had and how they put on their awards event.
They started working on it in 1991 and had their first Laurel Awards in 1994.
“I spent time with other associations, went to their functions, judged their awards events and basically just talked to them about how they did it,” said Robbins.
Robbins said many people don’t enter because they don’t think they have a chance at winning and that is not the case.
“It’s nice to know if you enter that you really do have a chance to win,” said Robbins. “Ask anyone who has won any kind of award, especially a Laurel Award, and they will say they didn’t know they could win.”
She said the previous awards programs in the industry did not go far enough to recognize the sales and marketing people behind the scenes.
“The people who decorate that models, handle the marketing, put together the ads, do the research and come up with the concept — nobody knew that they were doing that or that they are the reason that it all turns out the way it does. So the Laurel Awards gives them their due.”
Builders, marketing and sales agencies, real estate agents, landscape architects and interior designers who are SMC members choose one or more of the 53 categories to enter.
Only SMC members can enter.
“Choose the category carefully and if you are doing multiple entries, choose the areas where you will shine,” said McBride. “Remember, the judges can only see what you present. They haven’t been to the site.”
If an entire company is entering, they need to decide who will coordinate the project. If they are not creating the entry in-house, they need to choose an experienced outside firm.
Clockwork Marketing charges $600 to create and present an entry.
“All they have to do is pay the entry fee and pay us for our time to get it done,” said McBride.
A fee of $100 per entry is required for each Laurel category. A $50 entry fee is required for Million Dollar Circle awards entries.
The awards are in four categories: marketing, individual, production awards and grand laurels.
The marketing category is for all of the marketing, advertising, architectural, interior design, landscape and sales office entries. Entrants must submit a 500 word or less marketing statement to describe their entry.
The individual awards, also tagged the “of the” awards, are for individual accomplishments in the industry.
They include rookie salesperson of the year, marketing director of the year and so on.
This category is based on a marketing statement, a photo and a personal interview.
“You only get a couple of minutes with the judges during the interview, so you have to put your best foot forward and sell yourself to the judges,” said Robbins.
The marketing statement is supposed to encompass such items as the person’s success in selling homes, personal and professional goals, achievements and significant contributions to the building or real estate industry
The production category is just that — based on production.
Entrants need to submit their dollar volume closed by January 1 of the year of the Laurels and a photo.
The final category, the Grand Laurels, only has three awards:
• The Golden Service Award, where the entrant must be a builder member of NEFBA and the award is based on the builder’s customer service record.
• The Grand Award is awarded to a builder/developer member for the best overall product and marketing program.
• The Dick Baker Memorial Award is awarded to whoever shows the same dedication to the home building industry and the community as veteran homebuilder Dick Baker did with his many civic works.
Each category has different requirements but basically the entrants will submit a variation depending on category of a marketing statement, the marketing tools used including brochures, direct mail, photographs, video cassette of television commercial and much more to be judged.
“When writing a marketing statement, describe the project entry and include the source of market research,” said McBride. “Describe the advertising campaign and the source of market research. Talk about the curb appeal of the project and the company’s reputation.”
Do all that and don’t forget to keep it to 500 words, she said.
For example, when entering to win Best Special Event, McBride said she would first help the company write a marketing statement and then include photos of the event, the invitation and advertisements that ran.
McBride said that good photography is an essential ingredient to winning a Laurel Award. She suggested using an architectural photographer.
“Work with the photographer to ensure that your vision for the award presentation is translated properly,” said McBride.
For the visual presentation of your entry, McBride suggests following directions to the letter, using quality materials, making the exhibit sturdy enough to make it through mailing, judging and transport to site of exhibition, using excellent photography and a production company to make slides if used, gathering all material to create a continuous story from one board to the next, and using color to attract and please the eye.
All exhibits should be labeled carefully to avoid misplacement or confusion among the judges.
“Believe the deadline date and be ready,” said McBride. “Plan ahead. Stay organized and know your requirements. Don’t allow your entry to be rejected for a small mistake.”
One thing that McBride said is definitely a Laurel Award killer: if you don’t check and re-check all of the requirements.
Robbins said entering a sloppy exhibit or having bad photography or bad presentation can hurt your chances of winning.
“Enter and enter often,” said Robbins. “Be careful that you do your presentation just like you would do a political or marketing campaign. If you enter the ‘of the’ categories, you have to be careful with your marketing statement and not bore them. I’ve seen marketing statements that were way too long. Hit the high points and don’t be humble. This is your chance to sell yourself and you will reap the benefits. Also, show up for your interview. We’ve had a few people not show up. If you are going to do a presentation, don’t come in with an ‘I’m great and everybody knows it’ attitude. You have to prove it to the judges. I’ve had people that were too casual; you need to take it seriously and plan what you are going to say.”
About five judges are brought in from out of town to judge the exhibits and conduct the interviews.
The Laurel Award committee chooses a combination of a builder, architect, sales professional and a sales and marketing professional to come in from out of town.
They do not pay them for their time, only for travel expenses.
“They don’t have relationships with the people here,” said Robbins. “We have to be very careful and screen our judges so that they are impartial.”
McBride, who has also judged several awards programs, explained what she looks for.
“They need to follow the rules,” she said. “What I personally look for is to see if the marketing statement well written. Is it clear and does it state an objective and then explain how the project met the objective? The visual presentation is like anything else — I look to see if it is neat, tidy and well labeled. A lot of it is visual. With interior merchandising, all the judging is based on the photography that is sent in. The judge doesn’t actually go out to look at the model, so you need to have the top of the line photography.”
Robbins said that sometimes the judges want to see that you are not just really great at your job, but that you give back to your industry.
“Other judges could give a hoot about that,” said Robbins. “They are just interested in your contribution to the industry and they don’t care if you are highly successful.”
Choosing the judges is tricky, but Robbins said, they just take it as a lesson learned.
“There have been a few years when we have sat down after to critique the event and we talk about the judges and we won’t invite certain ones back,” said Robbins. “This isn’t any reflection on them, but some of them were real outspoken and they sway the other judges or others that have their own agenda that we didn’t discover while interviewing them. Then, we say ‘Oops!’”