Entering (and winning!) awards in your business sector can do wonders for your reputation. It not only gets your name out there but it associates quality with your name. Sponsoring awards tells your customers and potential customers that you care about the future of your industry and speaks volumes about your core values.

Winning awards gains industry recognition and builds reputation in quantum leaps. It can generate considerable media coverage. One of Blue Click PR's clients was shortlisted as a finalist for Computing magazine's IT Training Company of the Year Award 2001. Our proposal focused on delegates travelling from 24 countries to get specialist Cisco training from this highly regarded supplier. So Horizon MTS were listed in the awards news items for several weeks, reaching a circulation of 135,000 repeatedly. Opportunities to See (OTS) were over a quarter of a million. If you are in a pitch, you may find the contract goes to an award-winner because it acts as a seal of approval, a bit like ISO 9000 accreditation. Buyers are people too - they need reassurance and peace of mind, especially where large value purchases are involved. Can you afford to lose out by being an unknown player?

Blue Chips

One of the most effective ways of getting your company noticed is by capitalising on your intangible assets; goodwill and your own client-base. What are the most well-known clients you work with?

Do you have any joint projects with specific milestones that could be announced to the media? Your client may value the opportunity to create some positive media coverage for you both, through a joint press release. If you make the offer and it is accepted, your public relations agency will write it, get your approval and then go through the approval process with your client and their own public relations department or agency. It can be long-winded but it usually results in much wider take-up of the story by the press and you tend to get more column inches too.

However, be careful. Some large organisations have a specific policy preventing third party endorsements. Check this out before you begin. A UK approval can be overruled by the client's parent company overseas. The important thing is to ask. Our IT recruitment client was surprised by how keen their own customer was to get into the news headlines. And we're talking a major blue chip, high street building society here!

On behalf of our clients, Blue Click PR has secured technical input, approvals and quotes from Microsoft, Cisco USA & Europe and Cable & Wireless for joint press releases.