Just something I was wondering about: what would be the most productive way to get something more out of a competition?
I mean, imagine that you win a competion. Or better yet: imagine that you get a second prize award. Simply put: you might get a little bit of publicity directly from the competition-organisers themselves (plus a little cash) and that would be about it.
Would you send out a press release yourself? Or would you send a "newsflash" to people in your network? Or would you make a list of people that are potential clients in the field of the project, and let them know "that you've got the skills" for such a commission?
Is such a strategy useful, and does it actually work?
The same goes (albeit a bit more difficult) for a competition you've entered without any positive result. Would you use it to acquire new jobs?
Well, competitions, are in one sense, a chance for designers to create ideas and images. Do you have a website? Feature the images from the competition on the website.
Images are like currency in our realm, so do whatever you can with the images, update your professional portfolio, add it to your resume, and make sure all of this is out there in all the usual ways.
'Push' marketing is, I imagine, less effective than simply having the thing there and available whenever someone goes looking for it. When people hear about your practice in a positive way, they're going to google you, ask yourself what you want them to find.
Think about the positive experience of finding something that you didn't expect, versus the negative experience of receiving something unsolicited that you didn't want.
work is work is work. if you have done it, then flaunt it. i would say yes to all the questions above.
this all presumes that the work is well done and of interest. then by all means, use whatever modes of dissemination exist to get it out. if it is not visible, then no one will know it exists.
I agree, just making your work available to link to is the most important.
Most competitions exist to increase awareness of the organizers or the competition idea which means in most cases they will do the push to the press for you. That being said, you can always drop a note to high profile blogs, digg, etc. There's a good article somewhere about how to pimp your work to places like coolhunting, gizmodo, etc.
I do know the last firm I was at issued press releases to various media outlets (Arch Record, local media, etc.) whenever we won anything. When it was something minor it was released on our website as "news"
Even if you don't win its a good idea to host that project somewhere and make a note on your site/resume that you entered, especially if it is representative of work you'd like to be doing.
You can also spin it if you don't win. You'll notice some firms won't mention it was for a competition if they lost and just call that work conceptual or a case study/proposal, rather than 'competition entry'.
As far a sending to "potential" clients, I'm not sure I know some of the people on our prospects list would be offended by the pushy marketing. Might be better to see the readership of whatever media outlets cover the competition as your potential base. Anything that gets your name out there is a positive light can't be a bad thing.
the aftermath of competitions
Just something I was wondering about: what would be the most productive way to get something more out of a competition?
I mean, imagine that you win a competion. Or better yet: imagine that you get a second prize award. Simply put: you might get a little bit of publicity directly from the competition-organisers themselves (plus a little cash) and that would be about it.
Would you send out a press release yourself? Or would you send a "newsflash" to people in your network? Or would you make a list of people that are potential clients in the field of the project, and let them know "that you've got the skills" for such a commission?
Is such a strategy useful, and does it actually work?
The same goes (albeit a bit more difficult) for a competition you've entered without any positive result. Would you use it to acquire new jobs?
Well, competitions, are in one sense, a chance for designers to create ideas and images. Do you have a website? Feature the images from the competition on the website.
Images are like currency in our realm, so do whatever you can with the images, update your professional portfolio, add it to your resume, and make sure all of this is out there in all the usual ways.
'Push' marketing is, I imagine, less effective than simply having the thing there and available whenever someone goes looking for it. When people hear about your practice in a positive way, they're going to google you, ask yourself what you want them to find.
Think about the positive experience of finding something that you didn't expect, versus the negative experience of receiving something unsolicited that you didn't want.
i think it depends on the competition.
but generally with most competitions, there is a bit of newspress, you just have to know where to find it.
work is work is work. if you have done it, then flaunt it. i would say yes to all the questions above.
this all presumes that the work is well done and of interest. then by all means, use whatever modes of dissemination exist to get it out. if it is not visible, then no one will know it exists.
I agree, just making your work available to link to is the most important.
Most competitions exist to increase awareness of the organizers or the competition idea which means in most cases they will do the push to the press for you. That being said, you can always drop a note to high profile blogs, digg, etc. There's a good article somewhere about how to pimp your work to places like coolhunting, gizmodo, etc.
I do know the last firm I was at issued press releases to various media outlets (Arch Record, local media, etc.) whenever we won anything. When it was something minor it was released on our website as "news"
Even if you don't win its a good idea to host that project somewhere and make a note on your site/resume that you entered, especially if it is representative of work you'd like to be doing.
You can also spin it if you don't win. You'll notice some firms won't mention it was for a competition if they lost and just call that work conceptual or a case study/proposal, rather than 'competition entry'.
As far a sending to "potential" clients, I'm not sure I know some of the people on our prospects list would be offended by the pushy marketing. Might be better to see the readership of whatever media outlets cover the competition as your potential base. Anything that gets your name out there is a positive light can't be a bad thing.
....wow I ramble way too much.
is like beauty contest... the best looking is always the second & third and they usually get the most jobs in entertainment afterwards.
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