In Bruce Mau’s “Incomplete Manifesto for Growth” the Canadian design legend plainly states “Don’t enter awards competitions. Just don’t. It’s not good for you.” And for a long time we felt the same way. After all, our clients are more focused on real world results. Does the work sell more products, drive more traffic, build greater brand recognition? These are the metrics by which we are really judged – not the number of gleaming gongs displayed in our office.

This may sound like a sour grapes condemnation by folks who’ve been edged out in scores of creative competitions. But that’s just not the case. We’ve won dozens of creative awards in our past lives. Take this Lombardi Sports spot for example – written and produced by Iron CD John Walsh, back when he was freelancing for Hub Strategy.

It won the whole ball of wax in the National Admark awards – and while it was certainly good for Lombardi’s business, helping to establish them as THE Bay Area sports retailer, that would have been the case whether or not it had been entered in the Addy’s. That said, when talking about awards, it’s important to distinguish what kinds of awards you’re talking about. In our opinion, creative awards like the Addy’s are nice, but mean little. On the other hand, American Marketing Association awards (alright, we just won one) mean a lot – because they are judged based on results.

So we’re not saying we shouldn’t be ego-maniacal award-mongers. We should just make sure the awards we’re winning are the right awards.