Meet the 2023 SMA Judges part two: busting the 'fix' myth

Every year a minority of naysayers claim the Sales and Markeitng Awards are either a fix or are won by the same companies every year. Our panel explains why the awards are independent and why some companies can win multiple times

To win a CRN award, a company must first put in an entry to a CRN award. It really is as simple as that.

Granted, that entry needs to be of a certain standard and follow the guidelines clearly laid out in the criteria for each category, but without an entry, a company cannot win.

One of the biggest bugbears of the Sales and Marketing Awards judging panel (in fact, every CRN judging panel), is the claim that the awards have been bought because of sponsorship or high volume of table sales. It is just not true. A CRN award cannot be bought because the judges are fiercely independent.

Disclaimer: CRN does ask that anyone entering an award does commit to at least sending a representative along to the awards on the night - why enter if you have no intention of actually being there? Even worse, you could win and there is nobody there to collect the award. It does happen, and it really doesn't do your company any favours, particularly among the other shortlisted companies who made the effort to attend.

Many companies take the time to submit an SMA entry every year, and perhaps some of those companies have won more than once, but that is because their entry is head and shoulders above the other entries in the category. It is certainly not a foregone conclusion. Every single year is a clean slate.

Gemma Telford, founder of She/Her (middle right of image), agreed. "What's the answer to the criticism that the ‘same people always win'? Well I would say its probably because the same people tend to enter each year, and the reason they enter is because whether you win or not, entering helps to raise your profile among your peers, customers and the industry as a whole," she said.

"Some companies, especially smaller ones, may be put off by the size of other people they see habitually entering but I would say don't be put off! Just because you might not have a big marketing team who can produce a ‘slick' entry, it really doesn't matter."

Darren Spence, CRO at Smartbox.ai (bottom left of image), said companies need to be in it to win it.

"Many of the same companies do enter awards every year, so it will be no surprise that many of the same companies win awards. What people don't appreciate however, is that while there are some very good entries each year, there are also some very lazy, half-hearted entries. So if sufficient thought, weight, priority and effort is put into an award entry, it is highly likely that the entry will make it to the shortlist."

Spence added: "My advice is to be bold, ambitious, and be confident in your success, then use these awards to shout about it."

Former CRN editor, now freelance journalist and editor Sara Driscoll (third row, centre of image), said it boils down to who makes the effort to enter.

"Sometimes it can feel a bit like Ant and Dec at the National Television Awards," she explained. "But if it feels like that it is because these organisations are fully engaged in the awards, they prioritise them throughout the year (not just a month before the deadline) and they put the time, effort and resources into their entry, adding some originality year on year."

Luke Budka, director of SEO and PR at Definition Agency (top right of image), said one company changed its mind last year about the whole process.

"I sat on a table with a shortlisted company last year - they said they'd been lumped with the judges because they hadn't bought a table, and because they hadn't bought a table, they didn't expect to win anything. Then they won."

He added: "If you're not winning, it's because your entries are lacking. Some companies always put a lot of effort in, others submit a couple of hundred words of grammatically lacking copy an hour before deadline. You get out what you put in."

Richard Eglon, CMO at Agilitas (centre of image), said it is worth the wait.

"The history of these awards means we have seen multiple winners across the same categories. These vary from small start-ups right the way through to the household names in our industry," he explained. "I would encourage people to keep going, even if they miss out for the first few times of entering. It feels even better, the moment you finally land the accolade."

Gina Hough, owner of MCC International (centre left of image), explained that the judges put a lot of time and effort into the process to ensure it is fully independent.

"Every single judge on the panel does the judging with no financial incentive. It's time-consuming, and often difficult to fit in around a busy work schedule, but we happily do it because we love the Channel, we've all been working in it for years and we believe that companies deserve recognition for the good work that they do," she said.

Hough added: "Everyone marks the entries independently and then we come together to discuss why we feel so strongly about the results. We are independent and impartial with no hidden agenda. We just want the best entries to get well-deserved scores. To hold back on giving high scores because we feel one company consistently does well would be very unfair. This is why we urge lots of others to get involved every year, to bring a fresh perspective."

The deadline for entering the Sales and Marketing Awards is Friday 31 March. To submit your entry and find out more, please visit the official website here.