PrintWeek Awards - DEADLINE EXTENDED - 2 JULY

Welcome - deadline extended - 2 July

In the current economic climate, the marketing value of winning or being shortlisted for a PrintWeek Award, in terms of raising the profile of your company in the buying community, can't be underestimated.

However, winning a PrintWeek Award isn’t easy – it’s not meant to be, it’s the highest accolade in UK print after all. But there are some simple steps you can take to give yourself the best possible chance.

Firstly, you need to enter. Obvious, I know, but you’d be surprised at the number of printers who like to complain that they “never win”, but at the same time have never entered.

Secondly, you need to ensure that you send us only the very best examples of your work. There’s nothing worse for a judge than seeing a beautiful brochure or book blighted by a hickey. Start setting aside pristine examples of jobs so that you have the best of the bunch to choose from when you come to submit your entry.

Remember, you’re judged on a body of work, not just one single piece of print. It's one of the strengths of the PrintWeek Awards, and you should aim to demonstrate your prowess in as wide a variety of skills as possible.

Thirdly, read the rules carefully and make sure that you have submitted all the relevant information. You don’t want to be eliminated from the competition on a technicality. For instance, when we ask for a full set of accounts for our Performance categories, do please send them to us. We won’t publish them, but our team of accountants need them in order to be able to make a sound judgement on the success of your business. If we don’t have enough information to go on, you won’t make it to the shortlist.

Finally, remember who’s judging! Your clients. We assemble an august line-up of big name print buyers for our Quality Awards covering all of the major print disciplines and this is your chance to sell to them. Make sure your supporting citations explain exactly what makes you and the work you do so special.

Once you’ve done all this, you can sit back with confidence and wait for the shortlist in September. And you might want to start thinking about that outfit for the big night in October, just in case…

Good luck!

Darryl Danielli
Editor, PrintWeek