What an incredible week we have had in Barcelona celebrating
the very best in Search across Europe.
The 2022 European Search Awards celebrated its 10th anniversary, the return of a face-to-face live event and 74 incredible winners across a multitude of categories. We also celebrated a record number of entries, and a completely sold-out event, which after two years of virtual celebrations was a huge achievement and a very emotional one to share with all our attendees, sponsors and judges.
Each year we welcome entries from across Europe, and the
standard and quality each year improves exponentially. This is a true testament
to the amazing agencies, teams and individuals that continue to excel in Search
across the continent. This year our judges were put through their paces and had
some incredibly difficult decisions to make, but I would like to thank them for
their tireless efforts in ensuring each entry was scored and reviewed in the
most ethical and transparent way.
I would also like to thank our incredible sponsors whose support made the European Search Awards the most extravagant to date. Our drinks reception sponsor Clever Ads, paparazzi red carpet welcome sponsored by Majestic, the ever-popular photo booth sponsored by Advanced Web Ranking and of course the social wall which was sponsored by five elements.
Personally, it was incredible to see so many faces, both old
and new, in person at the event, but we also had over 900 views on our live
stream, which is going to be a huge challenge to beat! As such we are already
working on a 2023 venue large enough to hold all our wonderful entrants,
sponsors and judges at a location that will be revealed in due course!
So next we move on to the Global, US, and UK Awards before the last 2022 Search celebration of the year MENA.
We have limited sponsorship packages available across the
remaining 2022 Search Awards and are already taking enquiries for the 2023
calendar of events. If you would like to get involved, please email me helen.barkley@dontpanicprojects.com
Likewise, if you are interested in demonstrating your work
in front of our esteemed panel of judges, please email our Search Awards
account manager Stephanie.gianfriglia@dontpanicprojects.com
Don’t Panic are excited to be working with connective3 on The Marketing Mixer, and we think they feel the same way, but we can let them speak for themselves!
Introducing connective3…
connective3 is a digital marketing agency, and we create market leaders. We do this through the application of SEO, Content Strategy, Digital PR, PPC, Display, Social Media and CRO. We were founded in October 2019 by CEO Tim Grice, and in just two years have grown to a team of over 80 marketers across Leeds, London and Manchester. We’ve already achieved multiple award nominations and wins for our work across Organic and Paid search – something we’re immensely proud of.
Headquartered in the north, with growing teams in both Leeds and Manchester, we’re proud of the incredible northern digital community. With the north boasting some of the best agencies and marketers in the UK, being part of and investing in the northern digital community has always been something we’ve supported and promoted. There’s so much to be gained when marketers get together to share knowledge and network, and there’s no better way to do this than at events. That’s why we’re so excited to be hosting our first in-person event in Manchester in partnership with Don’t Panic.
The Marketing Mixer is happening on 27 April and is free to attend for marketers working in the north and beyond! The event provides the perfect opportunity for us to get together, hear from leading marketers in the northwest and enjoy an evening of relaxed networking.
Earlier this month the Event Team headed to London for the International Confex.The event left us all feeling incredibly inspired.
The full team was back in force as we were joined by our lovely Head of Events, Alex Rimmer. It was a fantastic opportunity to attend talks and meet with suppliers to discuss the new and exciting event inclusions they have been working on.
Some personal favourites discovered by the events team were alcoholic mist orbs, edible balloons, tipsy fountains, roll up ice creams and 360 photo booths.
At Don’t Panic, we feel it is super important to keep up with new and exciting industry initiatives to allow us to adapt aspects of our awards to make them more engaging for our audience.
It is safe to say we have taken away lots of new ideas for our upcoming events. After a full two days attending the Confex, we had a lovely team meal and drinks to finish off a successful trip!
Kicking the 2022 Live Award Season off with a bang has been a priority for Don’t Panic since the shortlist for the Northern Digital Awards was announced in December 2021!
Following a date move due to continued covid restrictions, the event finally happened at the Royal Armouries, Leeds on Thursday 17th March. And it was worth the wait!
Northerners know how to party, no offence meant to our southern award entrants, there are opportunities in London to prove the North you can do it better!
Dressed to impress the glitz and glamour pervaded from everybody in the room who and host, Jenny Powell, took it to another level, which the paparazzi loved! Even ‘Our Jordan’ looked the business in his check 3 piece suit!
Starting with welcome drinks and photo opportunities galore, finalist gathered to sip something sparkly, hit the gif booth and pose in front of the infamous Don’t Panic neon angel wings, before sitting down to a gala dinner. The menu included, according to Jenny, ‘massive chicken breasts’ served with confit leg and carrot, pea, and broadbean pine nut ragout, followed by the most incredible Which Chocolate Tarte with Sable Biscuit and Raspberry Bonbon. (Sadly, mine was whipped away before I could finish it!)
On to the ceremony! Winners were welcomed on stage by Northern Digital Awards judges, partners and digital celebrities to receive their trophies! Congratulations to all our winners and finalists, not only have you produced outstanding work you made our first live event of 2022 a night to remember!
In attendance were the whole Don’t Panic Team, except Steph who was working on the Global Agency Awards early bird deadline (she will be attending the European Search Awards in Barcelona to make up for this). It was great for us all to meet the Northern Digital community, put names to faces, and we were honoured to be able to join in the celebrations. We really hope you enjoyed the evening, and we look forward to doing it all again next year!
“My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
Empowering women is a value we hold high at Don’t Panic. With 72% of our full-time workforce being female we wanted to take the opportunity for International Women’s Day to learn which women influence and inspire our team.
I asked our team members to reflect on women who have made a lasting impact on them whether that be a family member, colleague or person in history. This exercise has been profound given it has allowed us to gain an insight into the values each of our team members hold dear but also helped us understand their history and why they are who they are today.
Here is what our amazing team had to say about the influential women in their lives….
“My mother is my biggest inspiration, she firstly moved cities all on her own to provide a better life for my brother and I while simultaneously working, raising us and studying towards her degrees in BCom Business Management and Executive Development, which is not an easy feat with two young kids who need your attention all the time. She also put us through prestigious universities where we both achieved our honours, in the fields of our choosing without adding pressure on us, and she’s still going today, being an amazing mom!”
Leenesha Friend, Marketing Manager
“The woman I admire is my daughter. She is 16, suffers from anxiety, panic attacks and catastrophising, yet she still challenges herself and the people around her. Despite her thought process, she puts herself out to try new things, join new clubs and meet new people – none of which are easy, at the best of times. She commits to engage with political and controversial topics to broaden her understanding of the world around her, and speaks out when she sees wrongdoing. With all the world has shown her she remains committed to improving the environment for the future, educating friends and family in relation to LGBTQ+, the empowerment of women, and equal and fair rights for all. Her strength astounds me.”
Sue Johns-Chapman, Content Manager
“There are many women that inspire me, but at this current moment in time, my biggest inspiration is Don’t Panics working Mums! Seeing first-hand how these amazing women can juggle the trials and tribulations of raising children and managing a career, and excelling in both, even when they probably don’t feel like it, is a huge inspiration. They’re women I feel incredibly proud to be working with – and I will definitely be learning from them!”
Sarah Power, Operations Manager
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“Strong and independent women rule the world. It’s true. Whilst I’m sitting at a desk, messing around with graphics on the computer, my wife is raising, educating and basically moulding our two children into lovely human beings. She’s doing an amazing job. My little girl, Aoife Grace, is already a formidable and independent spirit. When her older brother starts a fight, it’s Aoife who finishes it. When I have the audacity to suggest bath time is over, it’s Aoife who informs me it’s not, and that I still need to wash behind her ears. Don’t let her grin fool you, she is feisty and she is fierce. And those are beautiful things to be.“
James Harding, Graphics Guru
“My Grandma is my inspiration 90 years young and still going strong after recently over coming Coronavirus. She is the best listener and gives great advice, she calls a spade a spade and we love her for that. At 90 years old she still dresses impeccably and has been the best baker and cook! She’s lived through so much being evacuated to Wales during WW2 and being a business owner in her 30s, running multiple children’s clothing shops. She a STRONG lady and is known affectionally in our family as ‘The Boss’. Here she is with my two wonderful children being, a fabulous Great Grandma!“
Steph Gianfriglia, Account Executive
For me, the first women who had a profound influence on me are my late grandmother and my mum who are both empathetic and fierce in equal measure. They both bucked every trend for their time and I am pretty sure had they been alive during the suffragette movement they would have been at the front of the line. Both have taught me to have a voice and to always remember that no one is better or lesser than yourself so treat everyone as equals and not fear difficult scenarios.
Aside from my grandmother and mum, there are two little ladies who empower and influence me every day and they are my daughters. As children, they both have a beautiful innocence and an unwavering sense of patience and forgiveness for others which inspires me.
When we were talking, in the office, about what IWD means to us the conversation led us to believing in, and taking inspiration from, ourselves. With that in mind Sarah Belcher our event manager shared a little inspiration of her own.
“I am ‘Little Saz’ from Salford. Not a qualification to my name, but running events around the world, including my fav venue, Sydney Opera House. I’m a full-time working Mum and I am fab at both, my son is gorgeous and I made him! (well 50% of him) At work I fill the day with laughter, I am gameshow host and comedian. Day to day, I strive to be the best woman I can, and do you know what – I’m a belter!”
I am lucky to be surrounded by inspirational women every day at Don’t Panic. So, my hope on International Women’s Day, for my daughters, colleagues and all women is that they do not still have to have the conversations we do today around equal opportunities and women’s rights, and that they will hopefully benefit from the years of hard work women have put into paving the way for a better future for women.
“Here’s to strong women: May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.”
Company Culture Awards Judging – It’s a job taken seriously!
I had the pleasure of joining the Judging session for UK Company Culture Awards.
As the Don’t Panic Content Marketing Manager understanding all aspects of the business is invaluable, so thank you to the Events’ team for inviting me and thankyou to Tiago, Janet, Hannah, Dawn and Anna for letting me observe you at work.
Sitting quietly and listening intently I learnt that our Judges are passionate about company culture, best practice and awarding only deserving winners. The robust two-step process ensures every category is pre-scored by each judge prior to the session. At the session every category was discussed thoroughly, and all judges shared their feedback, which often prompted further discussion and challenge takes place – entries are championed where necessary! Collaboratively they award winners and, in some cases, when the competition is so tight there is just a point between submissions, a silver award.
Our judges are cultural ambassadors, senior leaders in their field and committed to cultural transformation. Whatever the outcome of the awards, it is clear the judges have been impressed by what businesses are doing to grow, develop and look after their people.
If you are entering the European Company Culture Awards 2022 or thinking of entering the UK Company Culture Awards next year here are the top tips from the panel.
Include your objectives and your financials, to show what you achieved on your budget.
Demonstrate how you implemented your intitiatives/programmes and the challenges you faced.
Diversity is important, but don’t just say you do it. Show and prove what you are doing.
Aspirations need to be supported with frameworks that show they can be achievable
Include data, it helps judges understand the what, how and results
Judging is a ruthless business and let me say that winning and shortlisting in a category is a major achievement. If they don’t believe any entries deserve the award, they close the category! This may seem harsh, but Don’t Panic pride themselves on delivering ethical industry awards that are worth the trophy they are printed on, and that can be trusted by clients and employees.
Thank you again to Dawn Osbourne, Janet Houlis, Tiago Perdiago, Hannah Butcher & Ama Africa-Tchie for sharing your expertise, and to Event Manager, Kate Humphries for inviting me.
Categories for the European Company Culture Awards can be found here.
Are you having trouble managing all your campaigns and those of your clients due to the overwhelming number of platforms and interfaces? Clever Ads’Slack, MS Teams and Google Chat Botintegrations offer high-value features designed to provide our users with maximum usability and productivity in their work environments.
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These are three great tools not only for marketing teams managing ad campaigns for their own businesses, but also for ad agencies managing campaigns for other companies.
You can use the alerts features to be sure you won’t miss a thing. Set up as many alerts as you want by selecting your preferred advertising account, and then the preferred metric you want to track.
Smart Reports will be your greatest ally when it comes to analyzing your own data and that of your customers. You won’t waste time jumping from one platform to another, downloading data and organizing it into clunky spreadsheets. With these automatic and customized reports, you will get daily/weekly summaries on metrics and data, through your preferred channel. Keep these Smart Reports on file and share them with your team. It is completely up to you!
Best of all…they’re free! Yes, you read that right — these three integrations, with which you will receive your desireddata and alerts in the channel of your choice (Slack, MS Teams or Google chat) are downloadable on our website, free of charge and 100% secure.Clever Ads promises you that the process is quick and easy. Both your own accounts and those of your customers will be safe and sound — this from a Premier Google Partner!
The festival features a Digital City Expo, awards, live music, cultural events, speakers and much more.
Digital City Festival will gather thought-leaders from around the world to address the key challenges facing people, businesses and governments as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Starting at Media City with its official opening, the festival moves to some iconic venues across the city including the Science and Industry Museum, Beehive Mill Jersey Street, the Central Convention Complex and the Weston Building on Sackville Street.
Don’t Panic will be at the Digital City Expo on Wednesday, 9th and Thursday 10th March. Come along and meet some of the Sales and Events team who will answer any questions you have about our Digital Awards and our event management services. We are sure to have some Don’t Panic goodies to share too!
Senior Event Manager, Sarah, and MD, Helen headed to Barcelona for 24 hours on Thursday to finalise all the details for the European Search Awards. Sarah took over the Don’t Panic Instagram and gave live updates of the day which started “too early!”
Sarah fills us in on a Day in the Life of a European Search Awards Event Manager!
Early flights are never usually my ideal, but I am so excited to be bringing the European Search Awards 2022, their 10th Anniversary, to life that I was up and out of bed and raring to go when we hit Manchester on a cold, damp February morning!
Dark & wet!
Excited to be doing what we love!
Arriving in Spain, the temperature was warmer, the skies bluer and the welcome perfect – I knew we were in for a successful day!
First job, and the most difficult task of the day was … Menu Tasting.
Dish upon gorgeous dish arrived for us to sample. Some descriptions were baffling (who knew apples could be ‘ostomized’) and there were combinations of flavours that were too tantalising for words. However, we are nothing but committed to our jobs, and after much indecision and retasting we settled on our dishes. For details of the menu click here.
Drinks’ canapés
Vegetarian option
Second visit, on our whistle stop tour, was the venue: La Llotja de Mar, Barcelona.
Built in the medieval period, Gaudi and Picasso learnt their trade at La Llotja de Mar, so it seems fitting that the artists of the past give way to the creatives of Search in 2022. The majestic Contracting Hall will play host to the event, and pre-dinner drinks will be served in the beautiful neo-classical courtyard, home to a fountain and figure of Neptune. This could be the most glamorous of all the Search Awards to date!
The Contracting Hall
The Classical Courtyard
And now to find a host!
Feeling jubilant because the main event details were all sorted, we went for our liaison with our Host for the live award announcements and evening. Who, you ask?
I am delighted to tell you that hosting the European Search Awards 2022 is the multi-talented, charismatic and funny Ricky Merino. Ricky is a singer, actor, and TV Host. In Spain he became known for appearing in Operacion Triunfo (sort of like the X-Factor), but in the UK you will know him as the co-host of Channel 4’s, The Language of Love, alongside Davina McCall. Attendees are in for a treat!
Ricky Merino
And Finally…
Our final task of the day involved heading out into the beautiful city of Barcelona in search of the perfect place to party – a Search event would not be complete without the afterparty!
Just a short break! Honest!
For the time being we are keeping the afterparty secret to ourselves, but keep an eye on the website and social for a reveal soon.
Helping Don’t Panic Awards’ entrants from around the world, the Don’t Panic Account Executives are your go to for any help and advice. They answer your questions about categories, judge criteria, how to enter and more on a day to day basis.
You may have spoken to them by phone, communicated via email or met them at a live event! Now put their names to their faces, so you know who you need to, or are, talking to!
Stephanie Gianfriglia – Account Executive
I have been working with DP for 6 months and have already come in contact with a great many of our amazingly talented award entrants across a multitude of our Awards! I love being involved in the entry process and feeling the excitement and anticipation from new and existing clients from the outset.
As a Mum of two youngsters, Charlie and Jessie, you can imagine I don’t get much spare time! I love spending time outdoors with the children and my fiancé, Andrew, so long walks spotting wildlife in the spring and summer and kicking leaves in the Autumn and Winter are high priority at the weekends.
Being of Italian heritage, I like nothing more than cooking up Italian inspired feasts for family and friends and, frankly speaking, I love food, so eating out is a must do for me too.
The Don’t Panic team are great to work with, and our award entrants are passionate and inspired, they make my job worthwhile and immensely fun!
Jordan Wilkinson – Account Executive
I joined DP in January this year and have quickly become part of the team. I seem to have landed the role as the maker of the first cup of tea of the day. I’m not sure if this a ‘newby post,’ or whether we will start taking the most important task of the day in rotation! I do make a great cuppa though! ☕
The curiosity of a new industry is a challenge I am eager to take, and discovering and learning makes working fun and worthwhile. By nature, I am a very curious person; I like to venture into the ‘unknown’.
I have been working as an account executive for 7 years and love building and managing relationships with clients, overcoming hurdles and streamlining communication. Don’t Panic deliver awards across a multitude of digital industries and I look forward to learning about all the incredible campaigns, software, tech, PR and culture our clients are creating.
In my spare time I like to kick back and relax! By relax I mean play a little Fifa or Call of Duty, and when I say a little, those of you know, know that means longer than I should!
Alongside the occasional gaming, I have always had an interest in music, whether that be the writing and theory side, or the production and back-end mixing of a track. I can play a vast range of instruments, with guitar being my favourite and the trombone most difficult to transport! In contrast to all the chilled relaxing, I enjoy going to the Gym.
Boxing has played a big part of my life in the last 4 years for me and now we are heading back to normality, I am super excited to pick back up again!
I look forward to chatting to you on the phone, e-meeting you and partying with you at the events in 2022.
We are currently looking for a talented individual to join our Sales and Marketing Team as an Account Executive. Interested? Email your cv to sarah.power@dontpanicprojects.com
2021 is coming to an end and as always, we are spending some time, along with our teams, reflecting on another year. It seems to have passed with lightning speed and we are thrilled to be leaving it with some incredible highlights, after what has been (as for most industries) the most challenging 18 months we have faced.
At points during 2020 we did wonder if we would ever have the luxury of delivering a live in-person events again, and I have to say the biggest highlight of 2021, for myself, and all of Don’t Panic, is that we have! This year we managed to deliver six live, in-person events which may seem a small number given we organise over thirty each calendar year, but I think it is safe to say given the current circumstances and the restrictions we have faced, the number six is huge.
This year we celebrated turning Sweet Sixteen and have grown with some amazing additions to our team. We have welcomed Sue Johns Chapman as our resident Content Manager, Dan Kilburn as our Web Developer, Jo Diver our Data Analyst, Stephanie Gianfriglia our new Account Executive, Leenesha Friend our new Marketing Manager, Emily Winders our Event Assistant and Kate Humphries our Event Executive. All of whom have played pivotal roles in the success of Don’t Panic’s 2021.
Aside from turning sixteen, we had more reasons to celebrate. 2021 saw the return of our Senior Event Manager, Sarah Belcher, who spent some time on maternity leave after the birth of her gorgeous little boy Ellis. We celebrated the birth of Otis, our Senior Event Manager, Alex Rimmer’s, new baby boy. Operations Manager Sarah Power got engaged! We feel Sarah will be in good hands for any wedding planning that she needs support with! And I got married to Mark, who got Don’t Panic’s blessing and honorary team member status on our last social night out, and became Helen Barklay.
Another highlight of this year has been the successful implementation of our judge feedback process, which provides all entrants, whether winners or not, with transparent and qualitative judge feedback across all of their entries. We are committed to being the most ethical and transparent awards provider and want to further expand on this offering by delivering content-driven educational pieces and insights into what exactly our judges are looking for in a 2022 award-winning entry. Our aim is to ensure all our entrants are supported through the entry process, from beginning to end, and are recognised in the fairest and most ethical way possible.
Possibly the overall highlight of 2021 has been the celebration of YOU, and all the incredible campaigns, tools, software and agencies, located around the globe, that enter each of our awards. We have been inspired by your entries, joined you online to applaud your efforts, laughed at some of your questionable dance moves at our live events and had one too many Jägermeister shots with you….it has been a joy to be a part of, and exactly why we love every part of what we do.
Whilst we round up our highlights, on behalf of Don’t panic I would like to thank all of our entrants, sponsors, media partners, judges, clients and suppliers, as your commitment to our events is hugely appreciated and without your support, our awards simply would not be possible. In particular, I would like to personally thank David Edmundson – Bird our Chair of Judging Standards, Richard Gregory our Non-Executive Director, our Award Ambassadors and Judith Lewis who continually help shape and grow all of our award programmes.
The last highlight of 2021 for me is being appointed as MD of Don’t Panic. It has been an incredible 6 months in post, and I have the team to thank for that. Nicky Wake’s shoes are incredibly tough to fill, but I can safely say each member of the Don’t Panic family have made it that little bit easier. So, my last thank you goes to the incredible team I am lucky enough to be surrounded by each day, thank you for being committed, innovative and above all fun!
2021 has been an extremely busy year at Don’t Panic! So far, we have delivered 29 awards with a mixture of live and virtual events, and seen new additions to our ever-extending portfolio. As part of this we have added the Company Culture Awards to our repertoire, which are an extension of the increasingly popular agency culture categories, across the breadth of our agency awards.
The Company Culture Awards have given us a great insight
into the incredible work our award entrants are doing to ensure employee
satisfaction, productivity and wellbeing are at the forefront of everything
they do. Often, we see how these businesses are taking their staff on their
journey with them, and often the incentives they put in place are not funded by
big budgets, but make a huge difference.
We too have been working hard as a small agency to ensure we
are practising what we preach, and ensuring we create a working environment
that rewards innovation, creative thinking, and nurtures our talented team
members to achieve their personal and professional goals.
With that in mind, this year we have signed the Breathe HR Company
Culture Pledge as an ongoing commitment to putting our team first. As part
of this, we have recently launched our Culture Committee, which is made up of a
representative from each department who report back to the senior leadership
team on changes they feel need to be made and give everyone a voice in
cultivating our culture. This can be as little as recommending an array of
motivational incentives, or how we can improve communication internally and
improve our core functions.
We also launched, what some may feel is a cliché but seems
to be a hit with our team…Team of the Month. November’s the Team of the Month
were our Event Managers. The Events teams work tirelessly (often behind the
scenes) to ensure the logistics of every event we deliver, whether live or
virtual is seamless, which is not an easy task! They all received an ASOS
voucher to help them choose their very important Christmas party outfits! We are
hoping that for one night, and one night only, they may be able to put their
headsets and clipboards aside!
Our company culture is not defined by the senior leadership team alone. It has been great to see how our teams have been assisting in the development of our company culture and working hard to motivate and support one another particularly during our busiest months. We have recently had our very own GBBO sweepstake organised by our Data Analyst Jo and an incredible team cheeseboard organised by our Content Manager Sue. We have also recently enjoyed a night out at the UK Search Awards which many of us are still recovering from now!
Given the pandemic has seen a real shift in peoples
behaviours, and sadly wellbeing, we will be shutting down all operations on
Monday, May 9th for our Don’t Panic Mental Health Awareness Day. This means no
emails will be sent, telephone calls answered or slack notifications pinging. This
will give the whole team a true day off to do something we enjoy, or simply
nothing at all. In addition to all this, we also offer a paid gym membership to
assist with employee wellbeing– we can’t say this has been used too much on the
run-up to Christmas, but can already hear the “new year new me” slogan making
its way around the office.
We aren’t the biggest of businesses, but we recognise our
teams, and the people that make them, are our biggest asset.
We are committed to continuing to learn and grow, and would
love to hear what other businesses are doing to reward and motivate their
teams…How do you cultivate your company culture? Email us at awards@dontpanicprojects.com
My journey with Don’t Panic has definitely been a varied one! I joined Don’t Panic after graduating from Manchester Metropolitan University, with a Business Management degree and I’m still here 5 years later, now in my role as Operations Manager.
When I first started out, I had no idea where I’d end up. I joined Don’t Panic as a Speaker Bureau Assistant and quickly moved on to be Speaker Bureau Manager. From there, my role branched out into a variety of different areas, which led me to where I am today.
Don’t Panic pride ourselves on putting people first, and that’s something I’ve always loved and enjoyed being a part of. Everyone at Don’t Panic has a huge role to play in the business’ success, which means we never hesitate to nurture and invest in our employees.
A big focus for me at the moment is building on our company culture and making sure our employees are involved in shaping that. This month, we launched our ‘culture committee’, which allows our dedicated ambassadors to share ideas and have their say. We’re always looking to improve, and we know our ambassadors will help us do that.
Making sure our employees are involved and educated on the business’ goals is key for us. It helps us to ensure that everyone is working towards the same objectives, but also shows them what the business is trying to achieve and how they’re important in making that happen. We work hard together as a team with some ambitious goals, but we make sure to celebrate every win, no matter how small.
We have been hybrid working over the past month as we have had several awards to celebrate, UKeCommerce and UK Search Awards being just two of them, so having the whole team back together deserved a celebration.
Our Christmas Elf, Jo, must have arrived in the ‘dark of night’ to spread sparkle across the office as arriving to Christmas decor in the office, first thing Monday, was a delight. Each and every one of us was treated to a cone, filled with everything you need for the perfect hot chocolate, and we have a 6ft tree, decorated with lights, candy canes, and decorations that would bring a smile to St Nic (and I don’t mean our founder!)
The return to the office was also heralded in with a cheese board and appropriate accompanying delights. Who needs chocolate, when you can have cheese, or in our case both!
As the end of the year approaches the team is working towards deadlines for UK Dev Awards, Northern Digital Awards, European Content Awards, and Global Social Media Awards so we are all busy, busy, busy! We call December a unicorn month, a month when we are supposed to have time for catching up and planning, but this year we have seen increased levels of interest and entries, the launch of some new awards, more than one house move, a wedding, and a new baby so we will be working flat out until we shut for the holidays on the 23rd December.
At Don’t Panic we work hard, but we play hard too! We will of course be heading into Manchester to make merry at the office party on 16th December. If you are out and about, and see us, be sure to come and say hello.
Help is at hand! We’ve teamed up with awards experts Boost Awards (the world’s first and largest award entry consultancy), who can help you with your entry. They can offer the following discounted service to those entering these awards:
A ‘starter for ten’ for £500 + VAT – a one hour call to explore your story, after which Boost will draft a ‘storyboard’ for your entry within a week.
This document will provide you with a recommended angle, key evidence points, and entry structure to align your story with all the elements of the entry form and the scoring system. It will not only increase your chances of success, it will make it far quicker for you to create a clear, punchy, focused and well evidenced entry that wows the judges. Further assistance is available on request should you need Boost to do more of the writing, evidence of graphic design of your entry than within the scope of this introductory offer.
Boost can help you enter any of the Don’t Panic Awards whether they are Search, Content, Digital, ECommerce, Business Tech and they can help whatever region you are working in.
What is the Difference Between the Search Awards and the Agency Award Series?
It’s not a Search V Agency decision!
The Search Awards are key celebrations dedicated to the Search industry. The Awards are regarded as the premiere celebration of SEO, PPC and content marketing and attract hundreds of entries from leading search and digital agencies across the world. Launched in 2011 the series has grown from strength to strength and 2021 sees the 10 Year anniversary of the UK Search Awards.
The Agency Awards are a broader celebration of all agency types from PR to marketing to experiential; from digital to ecommerce and every agency type in-between. The Agency Awards want to celebrate all sectors and verticals, large and small; they reward campaigns and the teams that deliver them in their specified region, be that UK, Europe, US, MENA or Global!
Which should You Enter?
Search v Agency Awards is not an either/or decision. The Awards compliment each other and are your opportunity to be a multiple award winner. Awards are proven to be transformative for business and they are great for attracting new clients, business development, team morale and, in a competitive job market, essential for recruitment.
Both, Search and Agency awards are brought to you by Don’t Panic, recognised and respected awards organisers, who are proud members of the Awards Trust Mark. The entry forms for both Search and Agency awards are purposefully similar so that business that enter one, can easily enter the other. We understand that time is precious so with only a few minor alterations you can submit the same details and supporting documentation to both Awards and be judged ethically and fairly by relevant industry experts against robust criteria.
Don’t Panic hosted their first live networking event, since lockdown 1.0, in Manchester’s Northern Quarter last night, 3rd November.
Having returned to live UK Award events back in July, it was great to be networking in a smaller venue with search, content, agency and PR experts based in the Northern Powerhouse, prior to the Northern Digital Awards final entry deadline.
In true Don’t Panic style, drinks and conversation flowed, and food you ask? Well Crazy Pedro’s delivered pizzas! If you haven’t tasted the ‘Fried chicken, smoked bacon, maple syrup, waffle’ pizza you haven’t lived, although the vegetarian, fantastically named, ‘Got the Muncheese’ gives it a good run for the money!
On hand to answer Award questions and do the introductions were Don’t Panic Founder, Nicky, and her right-hand women Sales Executive, Steph and Content Manager, Sue.
It was great to see the teams from @ForwardPMX, @dontbeshyb2b, @PushDoctor and @FourthDayPR, to name but a few, and Judges @JustinClarkSocial, @SmartRich and @LidiaInfanteM. Big shout out to @Connective_3 and @MountDigi, who were the last men/women standing at the end of the evening, early, but way past 7pm!
During 2020 and 2021 Covid 19 put a damper on networking. Virtual events were all well and good, but there is nothing like face-to-face connections that lead to forged connections, potential collaborations, increased confidence and best practice sharing.
It was clear last night, that digitals want to reconnect. The room was filled with buzz and chatter, it was a relaxed and informal event that was a great re-introduction to socialising, talking to like-minded strangers/future friends and sharing industry stories. Tales of homeworking and hybrid working were topics of conversation along with government bursaries available for apprentices and upskilling, and, of course, Award entry and friendly competition. It was an interesting night!
Look out for other Don’t Panic networking events that will be coming up in 2022 as we would love to support you in widening your circle of connections and encourage you to enter Awards!
We asked One Minute Briefs, winners of Best Use of Social Media at the Northern Digital Awards, about their experience of entering awards and the impact it had on the team and the Ombles community!
Don’t Panic Q: Do you find the process of entering awards in terms of review and development beneficial?
Nick:As entries are judged on a number of different criteria, it encourages you to evaluate your results based on objectives and budgets etc. Effectiveness is as important as the original idea, and it’s important not to forget that.
Evaluation is beneficial to help you improve, but also to look back on a project well done and recognise its merit is helpful for moving forward. As the digital industry is so fast paced, you are always onto the next thing.
Don’t Panic Q: After you were shortlisted, did you use your finalist assets to promote your success?
Nick:We shared finalist assets across all socials. Having the assets alongside links is great as they are distinctive and provide a good focal point to the content you share about awards. The Ombles responded well the posts as every shortlist or win is for the followers as a whole.
Don’t Panic Q: You won Best Use of Social Media at the Northern Digital Awards in 2022. How did this affect your clients and team?
Nick:The win reflects well on the community and what we can achieve together. I always share our nominations and wins as I want everyone to feel part of every achievement, OMB wouldn’t be a thing without them. It is also great for our own team to have our hard work recognised too.
Overall I think entering awards is important for team-building, improving output and helping you go above and beyond for your clients to make impactful work.
It’s good to compete with other brilliant agencies and have the chance to see and celebrate all of the other great work out there too.
We are always very proud to have our work recognised.
I have recently had the pleasure of being part of the judging panel for the Global Content Awards alongside talented peers. It was an honour to judge some creative campaigns, especially after an extremely difficult 2020 for marketing and other industries. All of them prove that marketing can drive business during and beyond any crisis. This article aims at helping brands to make their professional awards entries stand out.
Spoiler – It’s all about making it easy for judges to see that you are presenting an award winning entry. The judging criteria is strict and a great campaign, might not be enough to win an award. Communicate clearly without beefing up any aspect of the campaign.
Connect the dots
Judges look out for a clear connection between objectives and results, as they can only judge on the evidence presented. Show them how your campaign has achieved the previously identified objectives, stating both clearly on your entry form.
Relevant figures or graphics can help to this end if you need to show any technical results, eg, organic traffic to a website. We’re looking for tangible results, taking into account the budget used for that campaign.
Overcoming challenges
This is an important point. We all come across challenges when we plan and implement any strategy. Entries may be scored more highly if they
State the nature of those challenges clearly
Show how they have overcome such challenges.
We’re also looking for creativity when approaching them. Therefore, a focus on the process of developing or implementing a campaign is not relevant.
Customise your entry for each category
Entering more than one category with the same campaign is perfectly fine, as a campaign might be considered from several angles. Your job here is showing those angles to the judges by customising your entry for each of the categories entered.
Remember that the criteria for each category is different, judges need to see that each entry meets that criteria. One risk of not doing so is that we might deem a campaign not suitable for the category entered.
Fill out all areas of the form
This might be obvious, but I have seen entry forms that were not totally filled out. Why not using all the opportunities offered? Brands risk not giving the judging panel enough information as to why their campaigns should win.
Make it easy for judges to understand why they should score your campaign highly. Not stating why they think that campaign might win or what has achieved for a business might also show that brands may not really care enough about that campaign.
Make it nice
Story telling is a great way to let judges know why your entry is a winner, the challenges you have overcome with it, the excellent results it has achieved for your business. Then, present everything in a readable way to increase the chances to win. It has been a real joy to read some of the entries, whereas I’ve seen others that needed some more work. Some tips:
Take care of the word count and style
Make sure your pictures or graphics don’t get cut out
Make good use of the space you’ve got to write
Making it easier for judges will help your campaign to stand out and maybe even win an award, while making a good name for yourself.
For details of which Awards you can enter click here.
Making the shortlist for any of the Don’t Panic Awards is worth celebrating.
Judges and Award Ambassadors do not award any accolades unless the submission is worthy! Judges are committed to upholding the standards across the digital industry and maintaining the worth of award accolades.
If campaigns, software or teams are worthy of their place on the shortlist they receive downloadable finalist assets which are, to be frank and honest, worth their weight in gold. The assets include badges, banners and animations which can be shared across marketing materials, social media and websites. I recently saw ours across an email footer which scrolled through a number of awards this particular correspondent had been a finalist in or had won. We like your style Impression!
How do you make your finalist assets work for you and your business?
Display your accolade on your website, social media and marketing materials both internally and externally.
Blog about your success. Making the shortlist is BIG news. Don’t be shy, it is time to boast. Your accomplishments are a story waiting to be shared.
An Award accolade is for life. From the moment you download, through the event and beyond. In other industries making the final is a really big deal Let’s take Film for example, famous actors resume’s often state Oscar or BAFTA nominee, film tag lines include shortlisted at Cannes Film Festival – the titles are industry recommendations that attract the audience.
Award winning culture attracts new talent, and teams that make the shortlist strive to stay at the top. Teams develop and grow, creativity will flourish and commitment will thrive.
Entering Awards is not just about winning, they are about being proud, showing the industry your achievements, sharing with peers and being part of a community. Celebrate your work even if you don’t end up putting the trophy in your cabinet!
To see which awards Don’t Panic deliver and what you could win click here.
Don't Just Take Our Word For It
Testimonials
Don't Panic has been an invaluable partner to the Craft Beer Marketing Awards.
Their unwavering dedication and expertise has played a pivotal role in the evolution and growth of the CBMAS competition each season.
Jimm & Jackie Craft Beer Marketing Awards
From the initial planning stages to the execution of the event, their team demonstrated unparalleled professionalism, creativity, and attention to detail. Don’t Panic perfectly understood our vision and went the extra mile to ensure it was brought to life. It was like having an extended department within our business!
Dale Hicks, Director The Fashion Network
We've sponsored multiple events in conjunction with Don't panic over the last couple of years. It's been a key route for us to, develop sort of brand visibility and brand recognition. Coming to the awards gives us the opportunity to get in front of 50 or even 100. The events are so well run, everything works like clockwork.
Richard Ingles, Sales Director Diginius
Don’t Panic Events continues to raise the bar of their events each and every year. Participating in each of the Search Awards is always a special experience for us as an organization, they provide an opportunity to celebrate the successes of our amazing industry with so many of our clients, partners and colleagues, all in one room.
Jennifer Hoffman, Marketing Director Lumar (formerly DeepCrawl)
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