Celebrate Your Awards Ceremony with Innovative Promotional Items
Everyone loves to receive recognition for a job well done. That is the driving reason behind why so many awards ceremonies exist. Awards events range from the Academy Awards celebrating movies, to the Grammys celebrating music, to national associations, to the celebrations that your own business hosts. It’s a time to get people in your field excited. But it’s also an opportune time to get others — namely your customers — more interested in what you have to offer. After all, awards can gain you considerable brand exposure and word-of-mouth power.
Businesses want to foster a positive workplace environment. Through an awards ceremony, you can achieve that. Of course, you should be showing your employees appreciation throughout the year. Employees need to feel that you care about them so that they will be motivated to care about the business. An annual awards ceremony offers a fun and competitive way to get your team more involved in a larger event. Learn how you can expertly create and market your awards ceremony with the help of innovative promotional items.
Determine your awards categories.
Before all else, you have to decide what kind of award ceremony you are hosting. For instance, are you going with the novelty of team superlatives? This is a good choice if you are aiming to be inclusive. Every member of your staff can receive an award for something that they are individually known for.
Company leadership can come up with the categories or ask the rest of the team for suggestions. These can be as funny or as serious as makes sense for your business. Then, hold a vote a few weeks prior to your event. This way, you can get everyone involved in the process, while allowing yourself enough time to get the actual awards together.
Superlative categories could be “Best Dressed in the Office” or “Most Likely to Receive a Positive Online Review.” Ultimately, they should be acknowledgments for different things that will make that person feel special. But, if you would prefer to stick to data, that is also acceptable. You can base rewards on performance, awarding employees that sold the most in each quarter or for the entire year. Think about what will be the most meaningful for them.
Get a planning committee together.
It is best to start planning your awards ceremony early. Invest time upfront and set realistic milestones for the duration of the planning period. For bigger companies with a sizeable budget, this could even start a year prior. This ensures that you make sure that you have executed everything to the best of your ability, and you have time to pivot when something unexpected changes your plans.
Of course, if you haven’t planned an event like this before, it can be stressful. Talk to someone who has hosted an awards ceremony previously to draw inspiration from their successes. You could potentially even hire a professional event planner to take on the hard tasks for you. They will know how to determine the resources required and the anticipated timeline based on the scope of the event.
One thing that needs to be decided upon from the beginning is the theme of the event. This gives you an idea of what to base the planning around. You are going to need creative inspiration for your food, decorations, and innovative promotional items. Any successful event should be able to provide a fascinating experience from start to finish for the whole audience.
Pick the perfect event location and date.
You may decide that you just want to host a team get-together at the office. This will serve well for smaller businesses that have a meeting space that can accommodate everyone on the team. Just make sure that there is more than enough room to move about, converse, and participate.
If you are planning on allowing friends and family to attend your event, consider getting a larger space. You may also want to do this if your awards ceremony is going to be upscale. Find a venue that is worthy of a lavish affair. Use one that has a stage for the presenters and award winners. The venue may even come with an all-inclusive package so that you don’t have to worry about catering or any audio-visual requirements. Your planning committee should ensure you stay on budget with your choices.
As for the date of your awards ceremony, toward the end of the year is a great option. Combining awards with a company party can add convenience for families, as well as combine your budget and level of festivity. But keep in mind that you shouldn’t host the event on a national or religious holiday. If you have a special fiscal year, you can choose a date surrounding that calendar to align it with the year’s performance.
Choose local vendors to keep it intimate.
We mentioned earlier that you are going to need to solidify your options for food, decorations, and innovative promotional items. As you are doing this, consider giving your awards ceremony a community emphasis. Hire small businesses in the area. Maybe there’s a local restaurant that your team often gets catering from for other get-togethers. You might even know of some hometown musicians who you can book for entertainment during periods when you aren’t recognizing award winners.
Find a quality supplier for invitations, too. Awesome 3D Cards is an Austin-based business that has been serving companies and non-profit organizations across the country since 2019. It offers a unique way to announce events and build connections with stakeholders. You can tie your invites back to the ceremony by making 3D popup cards that feature a VIP trophy.
If your event is a big one that is getting a lot of different people involved, consider asking a magazine or newspaper to publish an article about it. This will give them an interesting editorial piece, as well as give your business a boost.
Offer memorable gifts to attendees.
If you want to make a lasting impression on your audience at an event, you should provide them with a goodie bag full of innovative promotional items. These can be small products that feature your company logo or name on them. Make sure that they are relevant to your business, or else things that you know will be useful to your audience.
Did you know that approximately 34% of new customers are acquired through contests? To make your ceremony even more interactive, interesting, and capable of turning a profit later on, you should take part in giveaways throughout the year. But during your awards ceremony, you could host a raffle for your employees. Partner with the local vendors you chose so that they similarly lift their name recognition — and eventually profit. They could return the favor down the line at their own event.
Of course, the trophies themselves are going to be the highlight of the night. Take care to personalize them with the names and awards of the winners. This will make them more special. Give them an artistic 3D card afterward that they can display alongside their trophy or put into a memory book.
Give thanks with 3D popup cards.
Making your employees feel appreciated is a must. You should convince them that your business is worth sticking around for because, at the end of the day, salary alone isn’t enough to maintain their loyalty. They want to know that you care about them and that you are noticing the hard work they are putting in, day in and day out.
When you supply someone with a 3D popup card, they remember it for years to come. It makes so much more of an impact than a standard 2D card. Following the event, you can mail these out to all of your attendees. They will come as quite the surprise on their trip to check their mailboxes.
HCL decided to work with Awesome 3D Cards for their own awards ceremony card. Both on the exterior and the interior, this innovative promotional item expresses congratulations to the recipient. But the most exciting part about it is the 3D Stevie® award. It is tall, sleek, and gold — the picture of elegance. This was the perfect way to reach the CEOs that showed “passion and excellence” in their work.
You need to find ways to boost the motivation and productivity of your staff. They are the backbone of your company. It isn’t enough to just pay them what they are due. Give those employees the chance to see your business as more than just a business. That is what is going to keep them loyal to you. By bringing human bonding and individual appreciation into the picture, you succeed in minimizing your turnover rate. Regardless of whether you are planning an awards ceremony or another memorable end-of-year event, do so with innovative promotional items that will keep everyone talking.
