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.
The Don’t Panic events team have undertaken a 3-day first aid training programme to keep you safe.
SAH Training joined the team at the new offices in Rawtenstall to add #safe to the Don’t Panic Awards philosophy of ethical, trusted and recognised. The team were put through their first aid paces: recovery position, resuscitation, abdominal thrusts and more!
Sarah & Kate practise the recovery position.
Don’t Panic take the health and wellbeing of their event attendees very seriously. We are known for our abilities to throw parties to remember, awards that celebrates in style and events that raise the roof. No matter what, where or when we endeavour to keep you safe.
The 3 day training involved understanding the role of a first aider from surveying the whole scene to the D.R. A.B.C. primary survey to the secondary survey and treatment where possible. The team practised use of a defibrillator and resuscitation techniques, how to relieve choking by using abdominal thrusts, how to manage blood loss and the correct way to treat burns, sprains and strains.
We are pleased to announce that the team passed their final assessment.
Don’t Panic believe that first aid training is essential although we are hoping their skills will never need to be tested, but we are ready if and when the time arrives.
Michelle Wilding-Baker – Head of Digtal & Content at FreeSat, UK Search Awards Judge and Industry Expert talks Awards!
I have been a Search Awards judge for almost 5 years! Why do I do it?
Well, it isn’t for the money! People think judges are paid, but it is a volunteer role.
The reason I commit my time is because Search is my passion, and the UK Search Awards raise the standards in our industry and ensure the reputation of high quality work. Awards keep the industry in check and the UK Search Awards is one of the toughest to win. The quality and calibre of entries is always extremely high, and if you win or make the final it’s an achievement to get through ‘the gauntlet.’ They are esteemed because the judges are professionals and experts who believe in the quality of the whole industry and because the judging criteria is designed for the Search industry.
Why You Should Enter A Team Award?
When entering an award there is a level of personal achievement and recognition which boosts team morale. Anyone could win a campaign award if they had an epic piece of work, but a team award means so much more. Having led teams in the past and having won a ‘Best In-House Team’ I have seen that a team award entry is definitely a representation of the hard work, personal growth, results, culture and bond a team has. It shows collaboration and discipline which businesses admire whether it’s an agency or in-house brand.
Entries that Stand Out…
Without naming brands/agencies… winners that stand out have cutting-edge submissions where they thought beyond the box and their work was truly innovating and automating. Search is an industry that is only getting harder over time with goal posts constantly moving, loop holes higher to jump through and more data points than ever to sift through… being able to automate and predict is an art.
Top Tip for your 2021 Entry
Judges have to be able to benchmark what ‘great’ looks like and if objectives were achieved or exceeded. Inserting graphs into your entry to visualise your performance, including creatives from your campaign and photos of your team if it’s a team/agency award make a difference to an entry. It’s about the people, not just hard numbers and revenue.
I will be in London for the Awards Ceremony in November and I look forward to meeting the cutting edge of Search, I hope that is you.
Michelle is a globally award-winning digital marketer who specialises in data-first customer acquisition (owned/paid/earned), SEO and content strategy. She graduated with First Class Honours in Communication Studies (Journalism) and is armed with more than a decade of marketing and editorial experience across international, SME and start-up brands in highly competitive FinTech, Insurance, Travel, Beauty, eCommerce and publishing industries. Now leading the digital marketing, eCommerce, editorial, content and social strategy remit at Freesat and consulting on a project-basis for Oh Mishy, she previously completed 2.5 years as Head of SEO & Content at The Telegraph Media Group where she hired and led the ‘Best Brand SEO Team’ of 2019. Michelle regularly judges industry marketing and eCommerce awards, guest speaks at events and co-organises the ‘Take It Offline’ Digital Marketing Roundtable in London and Europe
What does being a sponsor at a Don’t Panic Event mean to you?
Your in-kind support of the digital community shows you care about the same things they do. In relation to our events, that is the recognition and reward of creativity, innovation and tenacity that digital achieves to be outstanding.
In return for your care and support you get…
Direct access to a specific, digital audience who are guaranteed to want to engage with you and your products.
Opportunity to shape your consumer attitudes. Your support will ensure your audience has a positive attitude towards your company. Your association with Don’t Panic also sends the message of ethical, fair and transparent – it is our award motto.
Media exposure and coverage from the Awards industry and related commerce. Your branding will appear on websites and social, but also on email marketing and related news and blog posts. You can even guest blog for an event, if you want to!
The chance to differentiate yourself from your competitors who don’t support the industry. Your relationship with your market becomes personal and the emotional value of that is exponential as it begins the journey to ‘trust.’
Increased reach from word-of-mouth marketing. Your positive interaction and promotional materials allow you to reach beyond the award ceremony and networking opportunities. Don’t Panic offer longevity for your sponsorship. If you get your sponsorship in early then from the moment a website is launched to the relaunch the following year, your name will be associated with the Awards. You are not only connecting to the shortlist and winners, you are connecting to the wider digital community.
There are many more reasons to and benefits from sponsoring an award or two and there are many ways to get involved, from sponsoring a whole event, award category or even an award game or activity, which incidentally go on during virtual events too.
Don’t Panic run 28 digital awards around the world, your relationship with Don’t Panic reaches a global audience by association.
Talk to Helen Barkley, Managing Director to discuss exactly what Don’t Panic can offer, including bespoke packages with opportunities to host webinars or demos, or perhaps you have some ideas of your own on how to join the community and party. Telephone: +44 1706 828855
So this week feels like something of a milestone, Don’t Panic turns 16 years old.
I wanted to take a moment to reminisce a little about the baby I created 16 years ago.
We started, as with all babies, with a lot of nurture, long hours and interrupted sleep whilst we poured heart and soul into doing it right! As it grew we had tantrums, late nights, door slamming and drunken adventures (us not our baby!) At 16 we are heading into adulthood, fully formed, profitable and successful and continuing the late nights and adventures!
I started Don’t Panic back in 2005. I was a hugely reluctant entrepreneur, after leaving ‘Out There Events’ I literally couldn’t get a job in fact I was turned down by quite a few events agencies (I’m hoping they still regret that!) After six weeks of unemployment my husband Andy Wake suggested I should set up on my own Events company and after a little kicking and screaming by me (it runs in the family), we hotfooted it to PC world, bought a computer and installed me in our front bedroom. My baby needed a name and Andy often joked that left to my own devices it would have been called Nicky Wake Events, however after a lot of head scratching, a few bottles of red wine and a bit of brainstorming Andy picked up the book I was reading The Hitch Hikers Guide to the Galaxy, its cover was emblazoned with the words ‘Don’t Panic’ and the rest is history – big shout out to Douglas Adams.
Next step we needed to dress our precious baby! We visited Bury’s Printing.com and met Adam Hindle, who now runs Fluid Digital. Adam was to be a central part of the early days of Don’t Panic. Adam designed and printed our first iconic pink letterheads, business cards and eventually built our first awards websites and social media wall. Another thank you, that pink outfit still fits today! (If only that was true of all my award outfits!)
Now we were ready to get out into the big wide world. I did outreach before the term even existed! I wrote to literally everyone I’d ever worked with telling them I was setting up and to get in touch if I could help… we then waited patiently for the phone to ring and eventually it did! A few wrong numbers later, I got a call from Philip Young, a lecturer from Sunderland University who had spoken at a few conferences I’d organise. He’d had an idea for a conference about this thing called blogging and how it could perhaps revolutionise PR! Philip was way ahead of his time! After several calls we set about planning a one-day conference called ‘Blogging, RSS and the New PR’. Concurrently I had a call from another PR speaker, Andy Green, known for his inspirational training on creativity. Andy also had a conference idea; an event to explore how PR people could influence communications in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings. Don’t Panic was up on its feet and toddling with our first two events booked. Interesting both were organised on a no risk, no fee basis with Don’t Panic earning and retaining our fees – this was unusual in the events world but became the basis of our future business model. To this day we are an incredibly unique events agency who create, build and own our own events and assets.
The business went from strength to strength and in late 2007 Andy Wake left his well-paid communications job in Greater Manchester Police (gulp) to join Don’t Panic. He was responsible for all our early design, print and built our first ever website. A few years later we hired our first full time employee Rowan Jamieson (now Rowan Schahill) who was a hugely valued member of our team and instrumental in putting some order in my chaotic way of working. During this time we worked with some incredible clients creating brilliant events, they included JustGiving.com , Trimedia , NHS Blood & Transplant, University of Bolton, UCLan, SEMrush, Urban Splash, The Learning and Skills Council, PRMoment.com, Educate North, Royal Liverpool NHS, Tameside NHS, CityCo, Bruntwood, Manchester Digital, CIM, PRCA, CIPR and Click Consult to name just a few. A special shout out is due to Nick Jaspan and Profilic North (previously known as How-Do) who were an instrumental client in our continued growth and I remain hugely proud of some of the joint ventures and collaborations we created – along with a good few hangovers…
Around this time, 2009, we decided to launch Some Comms an awards celebrating the very best in social media. The awards were a great success and much loved by the PR industry. Today they are known as the UK Social Media Awards which better reflects what they are – Andy Wake was way too clever with his branding at times!
In 2010 we were lucky enough to be asked to organise SAScon, a one day conference which was the brainchild of Simon Wharton, Richard Gregory, Pete Young, Ben McKay, Peter Cobley and Richard Hudson. They wanted to create a conference for Manchester’s search community, and over way too many beers, on regular occasions (my favourite ever event planning sessions!) SAScon was born. During this conference we were totally blown away by the impact SEO was having on businesses bottom line and the difference a page one listing can make to profitability is mind blowing. After more beers and after parties we suddenly realised there wasn’t an Awards for the SEO & PPC industry, so we decided to launch the Search Awards. We were lucky enough to secure our headline sponsor Gareth Hoyle, a great supporter of ours over the years, which helped underwrite the risk to Don’t Panic. ‘Entrepreneur’ was beginning to suit me!
The first Search Awards was awesome! We had over 150 entries, 200 plus attendees and a very very messy night, the search crowd loved, and still do, an opportunity to dress up and party. They started calling in the UK Search Awards so we quickly bought that domain! While at that night myself and Andy had the idea of an EU Search Awards in Amsterdam and the rest is history! We now run search awards in APAC, MENA, USA, Europe, UK, Global in New York and are planning launches for Africa and Asia. We’ve also been proud to work with Olga and the team at SEMRush on their Nordic Search awards and Australia Search Awards which led to delivering an event at Sydney Opera House, a particularly proud moment! Thanks also to Dixon Jones, a legend in the search industry who has been a long time supporter and champion of ours and introduced us to Brett Tabke, founder of Pubcon and host to the US Search Awards in Vegas.
Sadly in 2017 Andy fell ill, he had a heart attack which resulted in a catastrophic brain injury and we sadly finally lost him to Covid in 2020. We raise a glass to you Andy and salute all that you did for Don’t Panic.
Fast forward to 2020 and a global pandemic – who saw that coming?! Well apart from Bill Gates! The covid pandemic could literally have decimated the events industry. Thankfully the incredible Don’t Panic team lead by our now MD Helen, Michelle our FD, Sarah Power our Ops Manager and Chloe our Creative Director were hugely agile and quickly pivoted our business model to virtual events. Their quick and creative thinking has ensured our survival and profitability and we even managed to add a few awards to our portfolio! We are now back to a full staff complement of 20, we now own and deliver 35 prestigious awards events around the globe and are looking forward to an office move next week.
We are also FINALLY back to running live events and its never felt better, we literally cannot wait for September and the UK Agency Awards – that is going to be one hell of a party!
Over the years we’ve employed some amazing people, seen a few staff weddings and several Don’t Panic babies born and we are still growing up ourselves.
My news, after 16 years I’ve decided the time is right to take a slight step away from day to day management and I’ve promoted Helen Kirkland to MD. Helen is a brilliant and a perfect fit for the role. I’m confident the business is in very good hands. I’ll still be around causing chaos and dreaming up new awards ideas, networking (basically lunching with our clients, sponsors, judges and supporters!) as well as attending the majority of our awards – well who doesn’t like a party!
I will close by saying the biggest of thankyous to everyone who has been part of this 16 year journey including obviously Andy Wake, Finn my gorgeous son who lets Mummy go on various work trips to Vegas (its hard work honest!) my Dad John Pennington and his wife Mary who have provided countless hours of support, Dog Dog sitting and childcare, my amazing Senior Team, Helen, Sarah, Michelle and Chloe, our non-exec director Richard Gregory, all our incredible sponsors and our fabulous judges without who we wouldn’t have our awards, our loyal customers, the digital industry as a whole who have taken us in the hearts and given us so much support, all our staff past and present, our incredible presenters and speakers, our AV, trophy and print suppliers. Special thanks also to Steve Kunciewicz our trusted lawyer and supporter, Dave Edmunson Bird our chair of academic standards and Judith Lewis, probably our most longstanding judge (and chief wine taster!)
I hope to see you all soon at one or many of our Awards at the end of the year. Good Luck with your entries!
Space 48, like us, have trust at the heart of their philosophy. During their 13 year history they have provided a range of eCommerce consulting services for clients with a focus on designing solutions to improve end-customer experiences and drive online sales.
Experts in eCommerce, Space 48 work with leading brands including Ordnance Survey, Richer Sounds, Irregular Choice, and Menkind. Their depth and breadth of knowledge includes website development, UX and UI design, performance marketing, and app development.
Jon Woodall, MD & Founder of Space48 and proud husband and Daddy, is highly respected and a recognised figure in eCommerce. Jon is fascinated by all things digital, which is why in 2008 he combined his passion with business to start Space 48. What Jon and Space 48 don’t know about eCommerce isn’t worth knowing, which is why he makes the ideal partner for the UK eCommerce Awards.
Jon says…
“The idea for the UK Ecommerce Awards was born from a desire to recognise excellence and success in ecommerce and lead change in the industry. It’s an amazing opportunity to shine a spotlight on various brands, technology partners, and other agencies that are doing excellent work. It’s an event that can bring together our community of like-minded professionals to network and celebrate each other. I think there was a need for an awards event that would be open to businesses of all sizes, celebrating the talent and dedication of online businesses that often fly below the radar. Don’t Panic was the perfect partner to help make the awards come to life without a hitch and we’re looking forward to collaborating with them for the third year.”
To enter the UK eCommerce Awards download your entry form here
Don’t Panic Awards celebrate digital excellence around the Globe. Which is why Pimento are the perfect fit as awards partner.
The Global Award series has shown us that you don’t have to be big to be brilliant. The smaller and independent agencies harbour incredible talent and digital growth is the proven result. Over the past year, our Awards have celebrated and recognised the best campaigns, innovations and people wherever they come from, and we are pleased to have Pimento supporting us in our endeavours.
Pimento are ‘The UK’s Leading Independent Marketing & Communications Network.’ Working with a community of independent consultants and agencies they are ‘built to help brands thrive.’
Pimento build bespoke teams to suit a clients’ specific needs, adapting over time as change happens. They bring together experts in:
Branding
Communications
CX, UX & build
Content & social
Data & insight
Retail & ecommerce
Technology & innovation
PR & reputation
Stephen Knight, CEO and Founder of Pimento said “We are delighted to partner with Don’t Panic again this year. We like to work with the very best and they have a very similar ethos to us. They recognise outstanding marketing across a broad range of sectors including the independent agency community. They share our common values and attitudes, and recognise the talent and creativity that agencies can bring. We look forward to the return to live events this year.”
Stephen has judged the UK Agency Awards 2021. Stephen has held a variety of positions at major international agencies including Bates Dorland, Lowe Howard-Spink and WCRS. Five years with the Walt Disney Company, latterly as Senior Vice-President of Marketing and Brand Management for Europe, Middle East and Africa. He founded Pimento in 2005 and it is now Europe’s leading Independent network.
Don’t Panic second Stephen’s quote about returning to live events, we have already started in the UK and we feel the world awaits.
If you are interested in becoming Awards Partner or sponsoring an event, category or merchandise live or virtual, please contact Shenai on 07546 303745
The UK eCommerce Awards are brought to you by Don’t Panic Events in partnership and powered by Space 48.
The UK eCommerce Awards 2021 are celebrating websites, software, campaigns and teams (agency or in-house).
Website Awards
Across all eCommerce Industry Sectors the judges will be examining the website for creativity, functionality, user experience and conversion.
Innovation/Software/Extension Awards
Innovation and technology are evolving eCommerce. Judges will be looking for new features/tools added to eCommerce experiences in the last twelve months.
Campaign/Initiative/Awards
Campaigns / initiatives are key to increasing engagement. Judges will be looking at the campaign’s objectives, strategy, creativity, implementation and the overall results achieved.
Agency/Team/Individual Awards
Power to the people! These awards recognise the teams and individuals behind websites and campaigns. Judges will be looking for evidence of great team-work: creativity, challenges faced and overcome, and results.
The UK eCommerce Awards are judged by an esteemed panel of industry experts, who work with us to develop categories and judging criteria. The process is a transparent and rigorous two-step process and judges provide feedback on all entries.
Entering and winning a UK eCommerce Award provides industry recognition and informed social proof, increases future business opportunities and is a celebration and appreciation of the people that make online retail happen
Everyone can create social media content. But not everyone can create successful social media content that flies far and wide and returns home with big wins.
At least, not without first making time to strategize a social media campaign for it.
Let’s take a look at the steps you need to take for a social media campaign that meets its goals and makes your clients—and your agency—happy.
1. Know the goal of your campaign
To create a winning social media campaign, however, you first need to define its purpose: A social media marketing campaign is a series of strategic actions designed to focus on one specific marketing goal.
That goal can vary greatly, but it usually is one of the following:
Encourage sign-ups (for a website, program, newsletter, trial subscription, etc.)
Increase brand awareness
Drive more traffic to a website
Get more customers to visit the client’s store
Bring in more sales
Don’t make assumptions about what your client wants to happen. Instead, take time to map out with your client a clear understanding of the goal to be reached.
Keep in mind that not all clients are particularly eloquent. Some may not know exactly how to phrase what they want or even know if there’s a common term for it. (We social media types can fall into the habit of talking in jargon if we’re not careful!)
You’ll have to ask the right sort of questions to determine what your client wants. You will also have to dig into the data. After all, how can you tell whether social media helped boost sign-ups if you don’t have the baseline number of sign-ups before the campaign?
Establish the metrics needed to determine whether this social media campaign is successful.
Ditch the lingo and be very clear in your definitions
Some clients will know exactly what they want. But even so, make sure that you understand each other clearly. If you use a term, know what that term means for the client.
For example, the client may use the term “engagement,” and you may think the client means online interactions with social media … only to find out the client just meant “likes.” (What you consider a vanity metric might not be a vanity metric to the client.)
SMART goals are those that are specific, measurable, attainable, realistic, and time-constrained. Take time to review your established goal for the social media marketing campaign with your client before you do any brainstorming of content, scheduling, or anything.
After all, failure to plan, as the saying goes, is a plan for failure.
2. Do the research
Once you know the goal of your social media marketing plan, you need to know specifically who you want to reach.
Is it existing clients? Potential clients? Both? People at the top of the funnel, the middle of the funnel, or the bottom of the funnel? The whole funnel?
What to look up
Who your client’s audience is Does your client have established buyer personas that you can use? If not, create one, taking into account the audience’s age, location, education level, goals, challenges, and wants. Use Agorapulse’s audience reporting to determine demographics of your audience, for example.
The right channels for your client’s audience Your agency may love Instagram for engagement with your clients. But your audience isn’t necessarily your client’s audience. That group may prefer LinkedIn and Twitter, for example, and avoid Instagram.
Dig into the data to find out where your desired audience is … and meet them there.
What times are best for posting social media content Everyone wants to know the magic time for all the engagement, all the shares, all the love! We do know that daytime is usually the best time to post on Facebook, Wednesday is the best day for Instagram, and LinkedIn is usually best during business hours. But to specifically find the right times for your client’s social media content, you’ll have to dig in deeper. (Agorapulse can help you look at content performance and determine what’s best specifically for your client’s audience.)
What your client’s competitors are doing Brand monitoring can help listen to conversations about your client’s brand, the industry they are in, and even competitors. By taking time to listen to what everyone is talking about (especially social content from the competition that’s doing well), you can start planning a campaign that will do better than theirs.
3. Create a social media campaign calendar
After laying that groundwork, you’ll want to plan out the timeline for your campaign.
Agorapulse’s shared calendars can help agencies plan, create, and approve content for clients.
4. Craft Compelling Content
Now, it’s time to focus on creating unique, interesting, and compelling content. All crafted, of course, strategically—rather than haphazardly or on a whim.
Assemble your team and make sure that you know who is in charge of each content piece. If you are the one-person content team, you’ll want to give yourself realistic deadlines for each piece.
Quick checklist
One purpose for the content piece (Is it to inform? Entertain?)
Sanity check for videos (Blurriness, speed, quality, etc.)
The types of social content that you produce should vary. Include such social content as:
Behind-the-scenes videos
Visual content, such as quote cards
Twitter threads
Tutorials
Screencasts
Checklists
Testimonials and reviews
Lists
Downloadables (e.g., ebooks, whitepapers, etc.)
5. Schedule and launch social content
Use a social media management tool, such as Agorapulse, to upload videos, images, and written content for your social media marketing campaign.
Once the social content is published, you will want to set aside time to engage with your audience. That means staying on top of any comments, answering questions, and getting rid of spam. (Saved replies can help significantly in keeping up to speed with all of them.)
6. Review and optimize
So, how is everything going in your social media marketing campaign?
Check your metrics periodically throughout the life of the social media campaign.
Impressions (including paid, organic, and viral impressions)
Mentions and shares of content
In reviewing the social media metrics, you may discover that some content is doing great and some content is not.
But no worries! You can use that information to now edit, tweak, etc. the content to better hit the goal. You may need to change up your calls-to-action, scheduled times, write content that is better targeted, etc.
Knowing the metrics means fixing any issues that arise and also optimizing what is working.
7. Debrief
Once the social media campaign has run its course, your work is not done.
You’ll need to let your clients know all the details that they want regarding the campaign’s success. (Here’s where social media reporting is crucial once more.) Provide a clear social media report so your clients have everything available to read and digest on their own time as well.
Don’t forget to debrief your team as well. Share lessons learned with one another. Go through the report together. Doing so will equip you with social media and marketing insights to carry into your next social media campaign planning.
In Conclusion
A fantastic social media campaign doesn’t happen overnight. It involves careful research, planning, and a thought-out execution.
The above step-by-step guide should help your agency create a successful social media campaign.
Use a social media management tool, such as Agorapulse, you research, publish, engage, and report on the success of your campaign.
Ravi Shukle – Country Manager Agorapulse UK & Ireland @agorapulseukirl
We did it! We took UK Social Media Awards live in London last Thursday, 8th July and it was a huge success!
It was so incredible to see you all in person. I have to say it was an emotional night for me I got a little bit teary during my welcome speech. It has, for us all, been a difficult 18 months and the UK Social Media Awards showed us the future is looking bright.
As we move towards the end of the year, we have a combination of live and virtual events taking place and I hope you will be joining us for at least one of each!
Thank you for all the support you have shown the Don’t Panic Awards, we are passionate about celebrating outstanding work across the digital industry and our judges tell us you are excelling at outstanding.
For everyone who made it to London, thank you for joining us, for those winners who couldn’t get there your trophies are on their way.
Where next? Back to London tomorrow for the UK Content Awards and then … we will back across the Globe as soon as we can make it happen.
Get involved! We love to hear your Award stories. How it felt to win, what impact it has had on your team, the response from clients to Awards and the excitement related to entering again with a new campaign or project. You can get yourselves in our newsletter and on our blog pages by contacting our Content Manager Sue. And don’t forget if you are not entering an award you can sponsor an event, award category, activities or paraphernalia that attendees can enjoy. Talk to our Sponsorship Manager, Shenai who will arrange the perfect collaboration.
Don’t Panic now own and run 29 industry recognised, trusted, ethical and fair Awards across the digital industry and around the world.
One of the first awards we launched was the Search Awards. Inspired by SAScon, a search industry conference the Don’t Panic Team organised, the awards were born because we were blown away by the positive impact and ROI, well executed SEO & PPC campaigns were having on client bottom lines.
Back then, in 2011, the Search industry had a somewhat ‘dodgy’ reputation because of ‘black hat activity’ but we recognised that outstanding ‘white hat activity’ was taking place and that this needed to be celebrated. The Search industry needed a gold standard, awards to recognise ethical and excellent work and we created one!
Working with a panel of industry experts we established categories and judging criteria that valued and measured outstanding work. The first awards was a great success and went from being UK based to the international stage you know today.
After the Search Awards were launched, we quickly realised that other Digital industries faced the same problems, there was nowhere that recognised excellence or rewarded great practice. So that led us into Content, Biddable, Agency, eCommerce, Business Tech, Marketing, App and in 2021 Company Culture.
All Don’t Panic Awards are judged by esteemed, leading industry experts. Judges who work within the relevant digital fields, who are not allowed to enter the awards themselves! We believe this makes our Award accolades both industry recognised but also trustworthy to clients (existing and future) and everyone involved in digital. They are not a popularity contest, they awarded on merit and if judges feel that a category does not have a deserving winner, they won’t award one!
Judges sign a ‘judging code of conduct’ to ensure confidentiality and to provide peace of mind to entrants. Judging discussions are confidential and material is not shared with anyone outside of the judging panel before or after the ceremony. Neither will judging papers be shared with third parties and they are deleted immediately after judging has taken place.
Don’t Panic Awards have been awarded the Awards Trust Mark, an independent accreditation programme which validates the ethical process on all their awards. As part of the Awards Trust Mark all entrants receive qualitative feedback they can trust on their entries, which we believe provides opportunity for development, growth and direction for future entries.
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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