Industry awards tend to polarise people. Just ask around. Some will tell you that awards are an essential proving ground to uncover the best the industry has to offer. Others will say awards are a huge marketing opportunity. A gong at the state or National Print Awards is a differentiator in a highly competitive market. But quiz the other side of the fence, and people will moan about the same old companies always winning. They’ll hint about preferential judging. There are those dogged rumours of jobs printed solely for the benefit of the judges, despite rules that entries must be commercial projects. And there’s awards fatigue: a whole season of state awards, the National Print Awards, as well as other ceremonies like the Printovation Awards, the Galley Club Awards and vendor awards.
Wherever you sit on this broad spectrum, few can doubt that awards nights are a focal point for the industry. The annual awards season in printing is upon us. First, come the state awards, the PICAs (Print Industry Craftsmanship Awards). PICA award winners automatically go through to the National Print Awards.
The NPAs is a night of plenty of backslapping, a lot of cheering, and a fair amount of drinking – usually followed by a great deal of shushing from the beleaguered host. Each year’s host, who have included the likes of Julia Morris, Gorgi Coghlan, Larry Emdur, Sandra Sully and Julia Zemiro, tends to be judged on his or her ability to control an often unruly crowd.
It is a night when the industry comes together – but not the whole industry. With at least 2,000 and perhaps as many as 5,000 companies across the broader graphic arts landscape, the number of companies vying for the win are only a small sample. At the two largest state awards, in New South Wales and Victoria, there are about 400 entries every year.
Earlier this year, ProPrint asked readers: “If you don’t enter awards – what’s the main reason?” The results of the 104 votes were striking: 43% said it was too complicated and costly, 25% couldn’t see the value, and 19% said they’re not fair. Another 13% said they did enter awards.
Got it, flaunt it
Those printers that keep winning awards say they are a great tool for marketing.
Libby Jeffery, the co-founder and general manager of Sydney-based Momento Pro, says its award wins have provided real value for the photobook specialists. The small company has won a bevy of gongs in recent years, including a National Print Award for inkjet at the 2013 ceremony and four nods at the 2012 New South Wales PICAs. These awards join plenty of others in the trophy cabinet in Chippendale. The company also scooped the biggest categories at the Galley Club Awards in 2012, as well as being named Grand Winner, Photobooks, HP Indigo at HP’s Asia-Pacific print awards. In fact, Momento Pro also runs its own customer awards for excellence in photobooks.
“Most definitely it works for us because we differentiate ourselves from a lot of our competitors by our quality,” Jeffery says. “We are above pricing in the consumer photobook world, but customers get value for money because we handcraft and stitch every page and that is recognised when we win an award like the PICAs.”
She says the company uses the win to press home the advantage at every opportunity. “A recent print ad going into a photographic magazine makes reference to the number of awards we have. We say we’re in two countries [Australia and New Zealand], we have X number of products and X number of awards.
“We also make reference to it on our website. We have a trophy room on our website confirming the details of our trophies and awards we have received.”
She believes the awards have helped the company pick up new business customers. “It definitely helps win our professional customers,” she says. “If they know we are awarded, they know they will get good quality products for their clients.”
It’s no big deal
However, other printers are not convinced. Paul Daley, a director of Melbourne-based Newlitho, says he can’t see the point of being judged by peers. It simply doesn’t bring in any business. “The print buyer judges us on our quality, service and customer relations,” Daley says. “Peer review and peer status is not really of importance to us. We don’t want to be getting into a conga line with our peers; it does nothing for us.”
Other printers say the awards have nothing to do with the quality of the business. They’re focused solely on dots per inch of a job, not the ink on the balance P&L. After all, Geon regularly topped the medal tally at awards night after awards night, and it did nothing to save that group. As one printer, who did not want to be named, put it: “I’ve seen so many printers having more bling on them than a rap singer, but ultimately they are unsuccessful businesses.”
Certainly, many award-winning printers say they are not sure the awards helped them get new customers. It’s more about just keeping their name out there.
Peter Armstrong, general manager of Sydney print and design house ArmstrongQ, which has this year bagged eight Benny awards at the US-based Premier Print Awards, says: “My turn of phrase is that it would be great to turn all these gold awards into actual gold. That’s where it’s difficult. You have to have a receptive audience. Clients working with us do like to hear about it and that keeps us in good stead, but for winning new business it depends on how the word gets out. If they read it themselves and form their own opinion, that’s all well and good but that’s something we don’t crow about too much.”
Be tactful
Warwick Roden, a long-time judge at the state print awards, says attitude might reflect the way many printers approach the market these days.
“I think it’s definitely worth the effort, but it is an effort,” Roden says. “Printers are basically focused on job-to-job and sometimes, in this market, on survival so an award seems to be very secondary and not as important as where the next job is coming from.”
His own company Roden Print, has picked up awards and they have helped promote the company. Roden says printers certainly use award wins to market their company. Many even bring their customers along to the awards night.
“And it’s lovely to have certificates to hang on the wall when clients come in. It’s nice to have a bit of a display and of course even better if the entry for your particular client has won a prize.”
He’s not sure whether it brings in new clients. Awards can help with marketing, but Roden warns businesses not to come on too strong about winning them. It might put customers off. No one likes a show-off.
“I don’t know if there is any magic bullet that will bring in new clients but certainly, it’s something you could very gently brag about,” he says.
“Whenever I was calling on clients, I would take a couple of recent jobs we had done so that when you’re chatting about new stuff, you might say you might be interested in this; we did this two months ago and we heard the other day it picked up a silver medal in the state awards.
“In general terms, that’s the way we would do it. We gently let customers and prospective customers know that this is the kind of quality you are aiming for,” says Roden.
“We are in a market where price seems to be the main dictator and you generally try to say to people that some might try to do it for a price but they may not have been happy with the result. We then say here are samples of stuff that some of our clients have been happy with, and some of the award judges have noticed it too.”
Self-promotion
One persistent criticism of the award system is the idea that companies produce jobs just for the awards. That, the critics say, devalues the awards. But Roden stresses that this kind of printing-for-the-win only occurs in the self-promotion category, which was specifically developed for this reason.
“It does not devalue it, not when it’s only one of 32 categories. I don’t think anyone would spend thousands and thousands of dollars on producing a lovely job just for the printing awards.”
Rod Urquhart, the former head judge of the National Print Awards, concurs. “If you are good enough to say: ‘Here’s a nice job, we’ll try hard with this one and see if we can get an award’, what’s wrong with that? It simply proves you can do it.”
He says printers who choose not to enter the awards because it’s too much effort, or because they don’t want to pay the $35 entry fee, are missing out.
“They are not taking full advantage of what is available to them,” Urquhart says. “If I did good work and I wanted the whole of the printing industry to see it, what better way to do it. Anyone who thinks $35 for an entry is too expensive is a cheapskate in my opinion.”
He says companies that have used the awards to their advantage include Avon Graphics. Thanks in part to the company’s regular appearances at printing awards, the multi-state trade supplier is “generally known through the industry as being the best embellisher in the country”.
“If someone has won a number of awards, they hang them up in their reception area. If they have a client coming in, the first thing they do is sit them down in front of all these medals,” says Urquhart. “If you’re a winner of a national award in printing, what better thing to put in front of your clients to say you are the best in the country.
“I can assure you, as a judge, these medals are not easy to win. You’ve got to be really good to get an award. Nobody gets an award for second-rate work. Even people who get bronze and silver have to be very good.”
Team effort
Michael Kinninmont, managing director of awards darling Offset Alpine, does not see the awards as a marketing tool and does not believe winning them has helped his company pick up new clients. And that’s saying something – the company is always one to watch at the NSW and National ceremonies.
What’s important about the awards, says Kinninmont, is that they support the industry.
“By pursuing excellence in print, we can provide a formidable alternative to other mediums that threaten our space,” Kinninmont says. “I believe supporting the awards is indeed supporting our industry, but I accept that other print businesses may have other priorities.”
He says the awards are good for staff morale, too. “When we are fortunate enough to win awards, it is appropriate recognition for our wonderful employees. They try exceedingly hard to produce fine quality products for our clients and accordingly they deserve any accolades that come their way.”
Adams Print managing director Shane Soutar says his company started entering awards initially as a way of rewarding staff and building morale. “The whole purpose of the exercise for us is to create a culture that rewards the individuals internally. If they work on something that’s amazing, it’s a recognition of their skills. Some of my guys have been there 35-40 years, others are second-year apprentices and they’ll come to me and say, ‘Are we going to enter that into the awards?’
“We didn’t do it to have a marketing tool; it was just to make people on the floor feel like they had done an amazing job and were recognised by the industry. If you have a guy in the presses giving 150% of his effort and there is recognition, I’m sure he goes home and feels proud of it.”
Soutar says the awards are terrific for building teamwork. “I’ve seen guys going off and giving their peers a lecture and saying, ‘Make sure you do your bit’.”
However, he concedes that over time, it has become something of a marketing exercise for his company. “What’s happened over the years is that this has grown momentum for us. It started off as an internal situation, then clients said quite often: ‘You won a lot of awards last year. Are you going to enter our product into the awards?’ It gets a little bit out of control sometimes because people have such high expectations.
“We didn’t intend to use it as a marketing tool but it’s self-driven now.”
But has it actually won them any new customers?
“It’s hard to know. Adams Print has been around for 110 years and uses word of mouth. Everybody talks in customer land. You never really know where things come from.”
Building a reputation
Michael Warshall, executive director of Melbourne-based photography specialist PicPress, says his company keeps entering the awards, and keeps winning them. There’s one aim: establish the company’s name in the market. It has worked – PicPress came out of nowhere to become one of the biggest winners at Victorian and National ceremonies. At the 2013 ceremony, the company won gold for Book Printing, digitally printed. It joins a treasure chest of gold at the firm’s Braeside plant.
“My background is not in the printing industry; we are originally from the photographic world,” Warshall says.
“The first time we went in was to see how we rated with other professional printers. We won gold and the Currie prize. That gave the staff a bit of oomph.”
He says his company uses the awards to market itself.
“I think the awards have been beneficial for us in terms of positioning ourselves as experts in the field,” he says.
“Since then, we have been using it for positioning ourselves in the market place as the premium producers for photobooks and other printed material.”
Has it won them any customers? “You can’t say specifically. But I imagine it would make customers more prone to using us,” he says.
He says printers who don’t enter awards are making a big mistake. “I would say they’re not being very clever. I am a photographer and I built my reputation on being the most awarded photographer in Australia for doing portraits. I have had every award from Australia and overseas for wedding portraits, and that definitely propelled my business to higher levels.
“The consumer has no idea who is good or who is bad, but when you have multiple awards, it shows you have staying power. To customers, that’s important because they want to be dealing with someone who produces the best possible result.
“We are not after every type of client. We are after select clients who appreciate what we do and are prepared to pay. Printers say [entering awards is] expensive. Yes it is, but it is a hell of a lot cheaper than other forms of marketing and advertising. When you get recognised by your peers, it tells the customer that you are really good.”
There’s no simple equation to work out the true value of an award. It is not in the plaque or the applause or the pat on the back. Calculating the real worth of an award will depend on how a winner chooses to use the win to their advantage. That might be to motivate staff. It might be to start a conversation with customers. It might be a subconscious decoration in the foyer. But at a time when too many customers are questioning whether ink on paper has any relevance, any endeavour that seeks to put print on a pedestal can’t be ignored.
National champion: Geon
National Print Awards
2010: 2 gold
2011: 1 gold
2012: 2 gold
2013: 3 gold
NSW PICAs
2010: 3 gold
2011: 4 gold
2012: 1 gold
Victorian PICAs
2010: 3 gold
2011: 3 gold
2012: 3 gold
Queensland PICAs
2011: 2 gold
2012: 3 gold
Western Australian PICAs
2010: 11 gold
2011: 5 gold
2012: 12 gold
Tasmanian PICAs
2010: 8 gold
2011: 5 gold
2012: 7 gold
NSW big winner: Offset Alpine
National Print Awards
2010: 3 gold
2011: 2 gold
2012: 2 gold
2013: 3 gold
PICAs
2010: 6 gold
2011: 13 gold
2012: 7 gold
Victorian big winner: Adams Print
National Print Awards
2010: 1 gold
2011: 2 gold
2012: 2 gold
2013: 2 gold
PICAs
2010: 3 gold
2011: 3 gold
2012: 3 gold
Queensland big winner: Platypus Graphics
National Print Awards
2010: 4 gold
2011: 1 gold
2012: 2 gold
2013: 3 gold
PICAs
2010: 8 gold
2011: 11 gold
2012: 12 gold
Western Australian big winner: Scott Print
National Print Awards
2011: 2 gold
2013: 1 gold
PICAs
2010: 6 gold
2011: 7 gold
2012: 11 gold
2013: 16 gold
South Australian big winner: Finsbury Green
National Print Awards
2010: 1 gold
2011: 1 gold
2012: 1 gold
PICAs
2010: 6 gold
2011: 6 gold
2012: 8 gold
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