Friday, 5 July 2013

Industry Awards – You have got to be in it to win it

MCC International Agency Director Graham Thatcher reflects on another awards success!

Looking back over the first six months of 2013 one of the highlights has been seeing many of our clients receiving accolades for their product innovations. The latest to collect a trophy is LaCie,  winning the coveted MacWorld Awards 2013 category for Best Consumer Storage for its superb LaCie CloudBox product. The awards, which are now in their 18th year, recognise the best and brightest products and vendors that cater for the now diverse Apple-compatible products industry. In such a competitive industry it is testament to LaCie’s excellence and innovation that it won the coveted award.

The CloudBox is one of those products that every gadget obsessed techie and non techie member of the MCC team wants! Essentially it is a very attractive box designed by Neil Poulton in which you and your family can store all of your music, movies, photos and files (it is available in 1TB, 2TB, 3TB and 4TB versions, which even the most hungry digital content consumer will struggle to fill). Plug it in to a power supply and connect to your home network and you, your family and friends have easy and instant access to all of your content wherever you are (just so long as you have an Internet connection), whether you are using a smartphone, tablet, laptop or desktop PC. What is more  it has UPnP™ which mean your movies can be streamed to XBOX or PS3, iPad®, or any network-connected computer and TV. It even includes backup software for PC and Mac,  automatically backing up multiple computers in the home to ensure all files are safe - from movies and music collections to family photos.

Here at MCC we know that in order to win such an award you need to start with a fantastic product that meets are real market need. However, so many great innovations fail to get the kudos they deserve simply because they are not entered in to the right award programmes, or they entry doesn’t do the product justice. That is why so many of our clients ask us to take the reins of their award programmes, to give themselves the best possible opportunity to put on the tuxedo/or glamorous frock and receive the adulation from their team (and scorn of their competitors), as they collect their silver and glassware at a glitzy hotel in London from a comedian who you recognise from Mock The Week, but you don’t know their name!

There really are so many benefits to entering and more importantly winning award programmes. They provide a fantastic morale boost for staff,  reinforce the desirability of your products to your business partners and give you a wealth of marketing opportunities to capitialise on for a full 12 months until the next award season comes around. So, if you have a product that should be standing out from the crowd for all of the right reasons then give us a call.

If you would like to talk to us about how an award entry can benefit your organisation give us a call on 02380 111977 or visit www.mccint.com