by Fiona Brown, MCIM, MCIPR

According to the Georgia Institute of Technology, they do. It found that 600 companies that had won awards had 37% higher sales growth and a 44% higher share price than their peers. But which came first:  the awards or the sales growth? Is it possible that this form of third-party endorsement really can affect the bottom line?

The company that seeks a business award already has aspirations and is probably successful, so winning an award simply helps to demonstrate these facts to important audiences.  Darrell Zahorsky, however, writing for the websites of The Stevie Awards, contends that, used strategically, business awards can have a definite impact on a company’s business.

His view is that awards actually bolster a company’s overall success.  And to maximize its effect, a company’s choice of award should be as strategic as any other part of its business development.  He claims business awards can be used to address three important areas:

1. Corporate Direction: The first aim is to affirm corporate direction.  He quotes Lynne Marcus, who advises companies on selecting awards, as saying that businesses need to plan a corporate awards strategy with corporate initiatives in mind.  Marcus also says: “If a company is making a push for ethical behaviour or corporate leadership, it can look for awards that recognize these traits.”

A bank trying to get away from a tarnished call centre image could, for example, sensibly pick a category honoring Best Customer Service Organization.

2. Attracting and Retaining Talent: Having awards posted on company websites helps build confidence for potential recruits doing research before applying for a job.  Employees also enjoy being on the winning side, particularly when an award recognizes Best Teamwork.

3. Improving Sales: Third, Zahorsky claims awards can improve sales.  He quotes Jamie Futrell, in charge of awards at US software company SAS, who says awards have “the benefits of increased awareness, third-party validation, and establishing market leadership.” Used effectively by a sales rep, they often help close a deal.  

In the UK a large percentage of residential property sales are today sourced online, making an agent’s website a crucial part of its marketing.  Says the web designer of Foxton’s, the UK residential estate agents, which won several Stevies for its website in 2005,  “It’s nice to be recognized for the work we put in to maintaining a user-friendly and feature-rich website.”  Foxton’s is still displaying its award on their site.

Help in a Crisis
A top-tier award can also help in a campaign designed to manage reputation and steer a company through a difficult period.

In 2006, TelecityRedbus was the winner of the Stevie Awards’ International Business Award for Best Business Turnaround.  Born of the dotcom era, Redbus Interhouse was founded by one of the people behind the enormously successful Demon ISP.  Redbus Interhouse was a colocation and data centre operator, or “Internet hotel," for ISPs, telecom operators, and online businesses, providing resilient hosting and connectivity services.

Given its pedigree and early strong performance, Redbus Interhouse plc successfully raised over £102 million from two market offerings in 2000.  But only a year later it was struggling following the dot-com crash and subsequent economic downturn.

In 2003, the recently appointed CEO of Redbus Interhouse, Mike Tobin, devised a survival strategy using cost-cutting, improved customer service, training, and a board restructure. The strategy was adapted to suit local markets in which Redbus Interhouse operated. 

By the end of 2005, Redbus Interhouse’s share price had rebounded by more than 300% and the company was well on the course of recovery.  In November 2005, Redbus Interhouse’s merger with its long-time competitor, TeleCity plc, was announced, thus creating TelecityRedbus, one of the largest data centre operators in Europe.

As part of its ongoing marketing strategy Redbus Interhouse —and subsequently TelecityRedbus—entered several business awards.  This was a planned part of the ongoing reputation management to demonstrate the company’s improved status.

Says Mike Tobin, CEO of TelecityRedbus, winning the Stevie Award in 2006 was “a big breakthrough.  It was a Tier 1 award with international kudos. The award also helped to raise the profile of TelecityRedbus in our European markets.” 

TelecityRedbus was keen to ensure maximum mileage around the award win. All staff received email alerts and on-site notices, the sales staff was briefed, announcements went to both prospective and existing customers, and releases were sent to the trade press.  Feedback was positive.  As TelecityRedbus increased its profile, the good news started to take hold.

James Tyler, Head of Communications at TelecityRedbus, is also convinced that winning an internationally recognized business award helped to build the CEO’s reputation in the wider business community, making him a sought-after industry speaker.

Think Strategically
It is important to think strategically when recommending awards, and to make the process part of the PR plan for the year.  And if you are successful and you or your client become a winner, be ready with the optimum publicity package to ensure you gain the full value of your success.

Author Fiona Brown MCIM, MCIPR, is UK Representative for The International Business Awards. fm.brown@blueyonder.co.uk

Darrell Zahorsky is the founder & CEO of Insightica Research, a company specializing in providing business planning and marketing/sales plans to small and medium-sized businesses. In addition, he is a banker for a large, multinational bank, and he writes and edits the Small Business Information website for About.com.

Lynne S. Marcus, is owner of the awards and recognition consulting company, Marcus + Company.

Descartes is an international provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) logistics solutions based in Waterloo, Ontario, and was an International Stevie Award winner for Best Turnaround in the 2006 International Business Awards.  We follow up on the logistics of the company’s continuing success.

The chief executive officer of Descartes Systems Group since 2004, Arthur Mesher, has been known to use a “corny” analogy to describe his philosophy. Mesher grew up in Prescott, a small rural city on the border of Wisconsin and Minnesota.  "I have had the luxury of watching corn grow," he says. ”After you plant the seed, you need water to grow roots. As the stalk grows, you need more water. But not too much water. If you get too much rain too early in the season, the roots grow but they are too thin. The corn grows tall but when a thunderstorm comes, it blows over.

“You need the right amount of water so the roots grow deep—so when the storm comes, you will be fine."

Weathering the Storm
Like many dot.com companies before 2000, Descartes was a darling of the hi-tech boom but struggled during the stormy conditions of the subsequent market down turn. Commenting on the company’s remarkable turnaround over the past two years, Mesher adds: "Everyone is congratulating us on the turnaround, but there is still a lot of work to do. "

Mesher’s philosophy is clear.  After years of losses that pushed Descartes to the brink, Mesher made sure the company was on a firm footing before continuing to expand.  The vision for the company now focuses on the customer rather than the company’s growth and can be summarized as follows:

Customer Commitment
Descartes measures its own success by those of its customers, and by how satisfied those customers are. The Descartes philosophy is to drive improved productivity and performance across its customers’ operations by working in partnership with its customers to develop and deploy business processes.

In addition, Descartes undertakes to deliver the highest quality service and support and uses a unique methodology and approach that ensures the success of its customers while lowering the risks associated with implementing enterprise- wide solutions. The Descartes methodology is focused on delivering fast time to value for its customers while minimizing the risks.

Focus on Logistics
Descartes believes it is the only global network that is focused strictly on logistics-based messaging and business processes and partnering with business with logistics intensive operations. Descartes continuously works to develop and deploy new and improved value-added applications to support its customers’ logistics requirements. The focus is to drive results for customers by bringing together manufacturers, distributors, retailers, transportation carriers and logistics third parties in a shared services environment working with standardized business processes.

Results-Based Methodology
The Descartes approach to the implementation of its customer is to carve out value-based metrics and validate each phase based on predefined metrics. This methodology keeps the company focused on delivering value quickly while minimizing the customer’s risk.

Multimodal, Multi-process and Global
Descartes is the only logistics network that manages multiple channels (air, ocean, truck, contract carrier and private fleet) and multiple business processes through the same global network.

Making Businesses More Efficient
Descartes provides a range of products that help distributors, retailers, and transport firms track shipments and efficiently make deliveries. Mesher says fleet operators can reduce the size of their fleets by 10% or more with Descartes' software and services.

"For many small companies, what we offer can be the difference between profit and loss," says Mesher. "We are so good at what we do, we will make it work.”

"Our mission is not to sell software," continues Mesher. "Our mission is to improve the profitability and productivity of our customers. Our software is just a tool used to do that."

The Descartes philosophy is paying off. Customers now include such giants as Autozone and DHL. And while Descartes' market is mainly large companies and smart small businesses, the company has potential for growth with the many firms in the middle that still do their dispatching manually.

The Descartes sales team may have an enormous amount of work to do, but using another “corny” analogy, nowadays it seems to be a cash crop.

About Arthur Mesher
In his 25 year career, Arthur Mesher has emerged as one of the foremost pioneers, business developers, and thought leaders in the logistics industry and is considered by many to be one of the founders of the modern-day concept of on-demand logistics networks.

In the early 1980s, Mr. Mesher pioneered one of the industry's first store and forward communications networks for MTS and Northern Telecom. In the mid 1980s, Mr. Mesher helped start up VOCAM Systems and brought to market the first PC-based multi-carrier manifest system, as well as the first data network that tied shippers and carriers together to exchange computer-to-computer electronic logistics data. Vocam is now part of Pitney Bowes.

In 1992, Mr. Mesher delivered the definitional work on the concept of federated logistics networks, published by Benchmarking Partners. He served as an advisor to AMR SABRE Technologies and also CSX Corporation, which led to the development of the first client/server-based, on-demand freight management system for global cargo visibility. In 1995, Mr. Mesher founded the Integrated Logistics practice at the Gartner Group. His Concurrent Logistics Systems framework (1995) and the 3Vs: Visibility, Velocity and Variability framework (1997) continue to be used today by logistics professionals.

In 1998, Mr. Mesher joined Descartes where he led the creation of the first on-demand logistics network providing application and communication capabilities for all three major modes of transportation: truck, air and ocean. As EVP Strategic Development, Mr. Mesher helped implement success-based pricing and logistics innovation services. Mr. Mesher was appointed CEO in November 2004.

As a thought-leader, innovator, and business developer in the supply chain field, Mr. Mesher is a frequent keynote speaker at industry events and at academic institutions such as MIT, Penn State and Northwestern. He is the author of numerous articles and white papers.

About Descartes
Descartes (TSX: DSG) (NASDAQ: DSGX), a leading provider of software-as-a-service (SaaS) logistics solutions, is delivering results across the globe today for organizations that operate logistics-intensive businesses. Descartes' logistics management solutions combine a multi-modal network, the Descartes Global Logistics Network, with component-based nano-sized applications to provide messaging services between logistics trading partners, "book-to-bill" services for contract carriers and private fleet management services for organizations of all sizes. These solutions and services help Descartes' customers reduce administrative costs, billing cycles, fleet size, contract carrier costs, and mileage driven, and improve pick up and delivery reliability. Descartes customers include an estimated 1,600 ground carriers and more than 90 airlines, 30 ocean carriers, 900 freight forwarders, and third-party providers of logistics services, as well as hundreds of manufacturers, retailers, distributors, private fleet owners, and regulatory agencies. The company is based in Waterloo, Ontario, with operations in Atlanta, Pittsburgh, Ottawa, Washington DC, Derby, Stockholm, Shanghai, Singapore and Melbourne. For more information, visit www.descartes.com.

Publishers and advertisers need to get serious. We need to prepare for the time when online ads are the main event, not an afterthought or value-ad says Anna Murray of media blog Content Is Queen, and president of the e*media division of tmg-e*media, Inc.

Headlines are screaming about the decline of print media and that the current level of online advertising puts publishers at risk. What will happen to the publishing business model if more and more content shifts online but advertising CPMs (costs per thousand) don't shift as well?

It seems we have a lot to learn from the truly tacky. Take the dancing cowboys from LowerMyBills.com. According to the New York Times: "Even as online advertisements are becoming less obtrusive, LowerMyBills.com is a stubborn holdout, with its ubiquitous Web banners featuring two-stepping cowboys, frisky rooftop dancers and weird tattoos. Some say the undulating characters in the ads are highly distracting and have so little to do with low-interest loans that they border on the surreal." But these online ads have been hugely successful for the company and led to its $400 million purchase in 2005 by credit agency Experian.
We need to rise above this kind of trash, right? Umm. Not really. These ads tell you the benefit right up front. Better tacky that works than coy that doesn't.

“You can’t mean online advertising is no better than outdoor?” some in digital media wail. I first heard the comparison between online and outdoor in the mid 90s. CPMs for online advertising, the argument ran, will stay comparable to outdoor because that’s what banner ads are like: Billboards. We object. We rail. And yet, people click by web pages like cars exiting the Lincoln Tunnel.

We disdain the dancing cowboys at our peril.

Take Symantec. I hit a Symantec interstitial every day on the New York Times website. These ads expect me to stop, actually read, and engage with them. Oh, and there is an animation that has to load and then do its thing. Are you kidding? When I’m trying to get to my article? If you want me to stop and notice you’d better give me a dancing cowboy and a call to action linked directly to my wallet.
 
So while the growth in online advertising may jeopardize the future of print media, I am not against pre-roll ads (the ones that come up before the main site loads) or interstitial ads (the ones that appear before you get a piece of content). The reality is that if content is going to be free, something has to pay for it. And that something is advertising.

Advertising is by its very nature interruptive, but these kinds of ads must deliver the why-do-I-care? immediately. What is the product and what is the benefit? That’s why the LowerMyBills.com ads work. You know exactly what the value proposition is.
With Symantec, the ad unfolds like a storyboard, gradually progressing through CEO technology stressors.  Here’s the disconnect: Knowing that most C-level execs have a 10-second attention span, would any of them ever sit through this ad?  Maybe it would work better alongside content, where I might gradually become aware of its presence and, after reading my article, attend to the story it is telling.

Better yet, what about choosing my advertising? AWS Convergence Technologies, Inc., the company that owns WeatherBug, has technology that would allow just that. Imagine: You come to a publisher’s site and they tell you right up front “Listen, friend, content costs money. If you want the ad-free version, it’s $29.95 a month, but you’re welcome to come in free of charge to our ad-sponsored site. And we’ll even let you tell us which ads you’d prefer to see.” Me—I’ll look at health and beauty ads all day long. Get this: I even click on the ads for new face cream.

So get serious, people. But not too serious.  After all, online advertising should be fun and effective.

Blogs, or web logs, are all the rage these days. Each month in this space we'll point you to several blogs that we think might be of interest to you.

Laughing Squid : Mainly promoting art, culture, and technology, with a focus on the San Francisco Bay Area, the site also connects the art community with the tech community by letting artists know what tools and resources are available to promote their work.
Grammar Girl : Deep within the blog- and podosphere resides a mysterious writer known only as Grammar Girl. Defender of the sacred comma, orator of the mysterious grammar way, and deliverer of practical tips, she strives to restore fun to the desolate world of Grammaria. (Actually this is the blog of science writer Mignon Fogarty.)
Line 56 : A leading source of global news and analysis on e-business technology and strategy covering customer relationship management (CRM) and supply chain management (SCM) to procurement and e-marketplaces.