Crystal Award Categories
Branding
The all-important brand and style guidelines. THE rule book on how to communicate your brand. For this category, you must show how your brand guidelines or style guide ensured that brand elements were used consistently and concisely, across the board. How did you set the standard, roll them out, and how did you measure the success of your Brand Guidelines or Style Guide.
Logos can be daring, beautiful, interesting, or all of the above. Logos set the stage, help define who you are, and draw in potential clients. For this category, our judges want to know how your successful logo design – it’s quality and aesthetics – reeled in clients and helped position your company in the marketplace.
Marketing Research
Successful market research represents the voice of the consumer. From developing new products to positioning a brand, market successful research provides a road map into consumer behavior. For this category, our judges want to hear about your qualitative initiatives – objectives, methodologies, implementation, and be sure to home in on the results and how your research findings led to successful business decisions.
Successful market research represents the voice of the consumer. From developing new products to positioning a brand, market successful research provides a road map into consumer behavior. For this category, our judges want to hear about your quantitative initiatives – objectives, methodologies, implementation, and be sure to home in on the results and how your research findings led to successful business decisions.
Communications & Public Relations
A passionate speech can inspire and empower. It can move the needle to increase your brand footprint, retain customers, and gain market share. A great speech can also rally citizens or increase donations to a fund or non-profit. Whether it’s a CEO giving a speech to clients or employees, a politician at a podium, or a community leader providing key information to their citizens, great speeches can work marketing miracles. For this category, our judges want to know about your company or organization’s speech from its origins to – most importantly – its outcome.
PR campaigns can enhance a brand, expand reach, and work to promote new products or services. Great PR campaigns, the kind that win a Crystal Award, show how they bridged the gap between company and client or drove sales and revenue. Show our judges how your PR campaign established clear objectives, what strategic messaging and tools were used, and how it was measured to reach your end goal.
Our internal teams can be our most important audience. Keeping employees informed and engaged turns them into brand champions. For this category, show our judges how you built an inside army of brand ambassadors by building and executing a strong internal relation, or communications program. What tools did you use, what were the messages, and most importantly, what results did you achieve?
While there are more ways to communicate with customers than ever before, a great newsletter marketing strategy is a ticket to success. In fact, 60 percent of consumers say they’ve made a purchase because of a newsletter. Newsletters remain low-risk and high-reward. Show our judges how your newsletter generated leads and boosted your bottom line.
A marketable annual report doesn’t just include a balance sheet, income statement, and financial summary. It highlights achievements, promotes the company, and represents corporate culture – all the things that make marketers giddy. Our judges want to know how you used that beautiful annual report as a marketing tool.
NOTE: Judges may break this category into Public and Non-Profit depending on the number and types of submissions.
In the realm of PR, feature stories can be an excellent way to get your client or company media exposure that can enhance awareness and boost your brand. For this category, show the judges what your feature story was and how it came to be, where it was published, and the results – the mileage gained from it.
A seasoned marketing and PR professional knows that a brand’s reputation happens whether you manage it or not. Having a solid crisis communications plan allows you to control that narrative when the unexpected occurs. For this category, show the judges how you disseminated information to the public to address a crisis that impacted your customers or your organization, what tools you leveraged, and what the results were.
Social responsibility campaigns can make a difference in brand reputation or perception, market impact, and even promote social change, but they must come from a place of authenticity. Genuine social responsibility campaigns can impact both your business and the wider socio-political world. Show the judges how your campaign “walked the talk”, believed in real change, and in turn, made a measurable difference in the community or for your company.
Did you produce a results-driven technical article or trade journal piece last year? Examples of technical articles can be but are not limited to energy transformation, user manuals, SOP, API documentation, project management reports.
Accordion Content
High-quality, informative content can generate leads for your business, organization, product, or service lines. Case studies and white papers are two of the most powerful forms of marketing content and our judges want to see how you leveraged these mediums to rein in real results.
Expert copywriting is essential. It drives profitability, earns ROI, and achieves goals by convincing your target market that your product or service will solve their needs and deliver value. Copywriting can sparkle and inspire, but our judges are looking for copywriting that, while beautifully written, produces stellar results.
Numbers are important, but many times company culture is what drives overall achievement. This is your opportunity to showcase how your efforts toward building or improving your team and/or company’s culture have made a difference in your bottom line. How did you improve leadership and your team dynamic to create success? Efforts can include marketing team leadership training and team building for a marketing company or team. Judges will evaluate entry success based on:
- Employee satisfaction survey scores
- Employee retention metrics
- Revenue changes impacted by employee effort year over year
Special Event Marketing
Event marketing is more than pretty design. Great event marketers know that it’s a process of developing a theme and strategically applying it to promote their product, service, cause, or organization at an event. Show our judges how you built awareness, increased audience attendance, and engagement, and educated prospects/customers/attendees to help pull off a successful single event.
Entries in this category can be for in-person or hybrid events. Depending on the number the entries, the judges reserve the right to break the category into two sub-categories – one for in-person, and one for hybrid.
Event marketing is more than pretty design. Great event marketers know that it’s a process of developing a theme and strategically applying it to promote their product, service, cause, or organization at an event. Show our judges how you built awareness, increased audience attendance, and engagement, and educated prospects/customers/attendees to help pull off successful events (2 or more)
Entries in this category can be for in-person or hybrid events. Depending on the number the entries, the judges reserve the right to break the category into two sub-categories – one for in-person, and one for hybrid.
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)
In this category, judges want to know how you used internal marketing tactics to share news and information about your corporate DEI practices. What messages did you share? What platforms did you use, and what fresh ideas did you implement? Be sure to explain how your company culture was impacted and how you engaged your team. Additionally, entrants must show how these new practices are built to last.
For this category, show how your organization or company responded to the national focus on DEI through external communications (email, social media, advertising, PR, etc.). Did you have a successful messaging campaign? Did you shift your product or service offerings to account for a more diverse audience, and how did you get the word out? Judges are looking for sustainable market responses that reflect a permanent part of your company or organization’s culture and/or operating procedures.
Examples of work in this category may include but are not limited to – purposefully including images that reflect a diverse audience, targeted campaigns to include a wider base, and leveraging your internal commitment to DEI as an external marketing campaign by sharing messages, brand pillars, or company values.
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Print Collateral & Direct Marketing
The all-important brand and style guidelines. THE rule book on how to communicate your brand. For this category, you must show how your brand guidelines or style guide ensured that brand elements were used consistently and concisely, across the board. How did you set the standard, roll them out, and how did you measure the success of your Brand Guidelines or Style Guide.
Did you produce amazing direct mail last year? Did you set and accomplish clear and concise goals, and what metrics did you use to gauge your direct mail success? Judges are interested in the bottom-line results and the ROI. Be sure to showcase your conversion, close, and/or customer retention rates generated from your stellar direct mail. Entries in this category may be a single piece of direct mail or a campaign of two (2) or more pieces.
Depending on the number of entries, the judges may elect to break this category into two: one for single direct mail and one for direct mail campaigns (2 or more pieces).
Technical collateral like sales sheets, data sheets, and product and service catalogs contain critical pieces of information about your company. They serve as a storefront and can be carefully curated and organized showcases of your products and services. But even the most visually appealing storefronts can fall short if they don’t produce any real results. For this category, judges want to see how your technical collateral increased sales and generated new business. Did these pieces help retain current customers by securing buy-in for current or new products or services? What did they communicate, what was the call-to-action, and most importantly, did your call-to-action lead to real results for your company?
Showcasing your products or services in printed brochures remains an important part of the marketing mix. The ability to track the success of those brochures, and how they translate to new business, more business, or more market share is key. For this category, show the judges how your product or service brochure or brochures helped achieve, or even surpassed your marketing goals.
Showcasing your products or services in printed brochures remains an important part of the marketing mix. The ability to track the success of those brochures, and how they translate to new business, more business, or more market share is key. For this category, show the judges how your product or service brochure or brochures helped achieve, or even surpassed your marketing goals.
Promotional Products, Packaging & POP
Promo products have evolved in so many ways over the years. From the simple pen to new and unique 21st-century items, promo continues to serve as an integral part of our marketing. In this category, judges want to see how your promotional product became a lead generator that increased sales. Your submission could be a single promo item, or a series of items in a longer campaign.
Depending on the number and type of entries, judges may break this category into single promo product and promo product campaign (2 or more items).
Iconic packaging like a robin’s egg blue box or anything Apple, is functional but also immediately recognizable. Product packaging is one of the best ways to increase sales and communicate your purpose. Judges for this category want to see powerful product packaging that differentiates your brand from the rest of the pack. Be sure to focus on the results – how your packaging helped increase sales.
Point-of-purchase (POP) printed or digital displays help customers make purchasing decisions. A marketing campaign may drive customers to your business or brand, but POP displays focus on a customer’s in-store experience by highlighting specific brands or services. Show the judges how your POP display enhanced the customer experience, and more importantly, how it positively impacted your bottom line.
Events, Tradeshows & Displays
The global pandemic caused marketers and event planners to pivot and take traditionally in-person conferences, galas, and other live events into the virtual realm. But even today, “back to business” doesn’t mean “business as usual,” and hybrid events allow us to meet the demands of this new normal.
Hybrid is here to stay, and it allows us to reach more attendees without any geographic limitations. Show the judges how you created a successful hybrid event, the tools you leveraged, and the steps you took to engage your virtual audience to make them feel a part of the live experience. Events in this category can be hybrid tradeshows, galas, or meetings.
Even smaller tradeshow exhibits, those 500 square feet or less, can impact a customer’s buying potential. Show the judges how your tradeshow exhibit helped collect and generate business leads for your company, client, or organization.
A fixed installation in a building’s lobby or even a public area, like a park or museum, can bring a brand and content alive. Whether it’s a flat graphic or an art piece, or an A/V integration, our judges want to see how your fixed installation increased brand or location awareness, communicated to your audience, and even possibly drove business or attendance to the area it served.
Many events, conferences, and galas offer companies, sponsors or partners the opportunity to have a booth or exhibit. These non-tradeshow exhibits have the same potential as booths at industry tradeshows to really help drive potential customers to your business, increase lead generation, and help grow your brand. For this category, explain to the judges what your non-tradeshow promo exhibit consisted of and how it met your goals to generate leads and your ROI.
Tradeshow exhibits can impact a customer’s buying potential. Show the judges how your large (500 square feet or larger) tradeshow exhibit helped collect and generate business leads for your company, client, or organization.
Digital Marketing
AI is everywhere in our world. It is only getting more concentrated and effective, not less. How we manage change determines our success, and AI is no different. Leveraging AI as a tool can effectively contribute to the success of a company, in many forms such as online, web, research, copy and design.
For this new category, show the judges how well your AI marketing performed. Provide quantifiable measures like accuracy, precision, and recall. Did you track performance metrics like Mean Squared Error (MSE)? You may want to also showcase specific metrics like click-through rates, conversion rates, and engagement rates to give the judges insight into the effectiveness of your AI-driven strategies.
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Influencer marketing uses social media influencers that appear as experts or trustworthy sources of information and exercise a significant effect on purchase decisions within a particular target audience. Judges will be evaluating KPIs such as:
- Increase the number of followers of the brand/client
- Views of posts or videos pushed by influencer
- Post interactions like number of shares, reposts, and organic comments
- Ultimately, sales of products or services marketed
How have you used marketing automation to contribute to the success of your marketing campaign? This can include the utilization of a CRM or an automated email nurture campaign that helps to increase followers, engagement, and sales. Marketing automation can include work in any of the following areas: email marketing, surveys, follow-up messaging, event scheduling, social media posting, advertising campaigns, or content marketing. Show the judges how your marketing automation efforts created a pathway for you to grow relationships with customers and prospects.
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Interactive, Multimedia & Video
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Experiential marketing, engagement, or live marketing involves creating immersive and interactive experiences. This type of marketing goes beyond traditional methods by establishing a two-way dialogue between the brand and the consumer. Through engaging all the senses and creating unforgettable experiences, experiential marketing events have the power to generate real results and increase ROI. For this new category, the judges want to see solid metrics such as number of attendees, social media engagement, leads generated, sales conversions, or customer feedback.
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This category includes all manner of social media video, including YouTube SINGLE videos. Entries regarding multiple YouTube Videos (2 or more or a YouTube Channel, should be entered into the category Video: You Tube Channel (Two or more).
This category includes all manner of social media video, including YouTube SINGLE videos. Entries regarding multiple YouTube Videos (2 or more or a YouTube Channel, should be entered into the category Video: You Tube Channel (Two or more).
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Advertising
Billboard displays along Houston’s highways and byways are something our city is known for and thanks to the ever-creative marketers of Houston they keep getting better year after year. Which is proof that billboard advertising works and will remain a staple in the advertising arena. In this category, show our judges how your printed or digital billboard displays worked – what was the call-to-action, how did it for lead generation, and how did your billboard advertising reap real results?
Online paid displays broaden your customer base but also increase your ROI. For this category, the judges want to see the end results – what impressions were delivered, what was the engagement rate, clicks to the website, etc. Most importantly, how did your paid display drive new business and generate revenue?
Who doesn’t use social media to research products or services before making a buying decision? Great marketers know that a solid social media ad campaign will get you a higher ROI. For this category, the judges want to see the results – clicks, impressions, conversion rates, post engagements, etc. for your paid social media campaign (2 or more ads).Who doesn’t use social media to research products or services before making a buying decision? Even one paid social ad can net you a higher ROI. For this category, the judges want to see the results – clicks, impressions, conversion rates, post engagements, etc. for your paid social media single ad.
Print advertising* isn’t dead! Newspaper and magazine ads remain relevant when it comes to marketing to specific demographics of consumers. Print advertising means you are speaking to an audience who will be attentive to your message because they trust the information in that particular paper. Show our judges how your print ad increased leads and revenue.
*Depending on entries, the judges reserve the right to divide this category into Print Advertising: Newspaper, and Print Advertising: Magazine
In our digitally driven world, radio still holds potential for brands. Radio ads increase awareness, build customer loyalty, and promote your products and services usually at a lower cost than other forms of advertising. Our judges want to know how you measured the success of your radio ad or ad campaign and how those metrics increased your business or organization’s bottom line.
The podcast world can be pretty saturated. To make your podcast stand out, you must measure the benefits you’re getting from your investment in terms of awareness, brand uplift, relationships built, and of course revenue. For this new category, the judges want to see the effectiveness of your podcasting strategy and its impact on your overall goals. How did your podcast measure up in terms of audience growth, engagement, and revenue, and how did it help enhance your brand’s market share?
Captivating photography is essential in advertising. An image that draws a potential buyer in and encourages them to read the copy and take action can drive profitability, earn ROI, and achieve your advertising goals. Photography can be artful and inspiring, and it can stir our emotions, but our judges are looking for photography that, while beautiful, helped produce stellar results.
TV ads remain an effective advertising medium and it’s likely that TV will continue to be a significant piece of effective marketing. How did your TV ad or campaign create widespread audience awareness and benefit your overall marketing strategy?
Marketing Campaign (three or more media required)
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B2B Marketing and Sales have been friends for years, and Account-based Marketing (ABM) has helped move that relationship into BFF territory. You’re now working hand-in-hand to target your ideal clients, reel in those whales, and make your stakeholders look good. In 2020, did your team create a successful ABM campaign that helped achieve the highest possible ROI? Show us your ABM strategies that exceeded your marketing goals to locate, engage, and land those accounts that matter the most.
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Savvy marketers know how to stretch even the smallest of budgets to get results. Show the judges exactly how you worked your micro-marketing-budget to the max to reap the rewards.
We have all witnessed some widely divisive political campaigns from the local to the federal level, and marketing plays a huge part in that. From promoting candidates, mobilizing voters, and promoting causes, this category is a chance to showcase the political marketing work your company or organization did last year.
AMA Members Only Categories
As marketers, we’re encouraged to take risks, and while sometimes these risks pay off in big ways, there are other times when great ideas just don’t pan out. That’s when Plan B comes in. We want to know about your Plan A, why it didn’t work out, and – most importantly – how your Plan B paid off BIG.
The best marketers dare themselves to think differently and demonstrate creativity, independence, grit, and guts. Maverick marketing prompts a unique response, and the nonconformists behind its creation are doing something that has never been done before. Regardless of the media leveraged, maverick marketing gets noticed.
Great things can be done with very little capital. Shoestring marketers stretch whatever budget they may have to create innovative campaigns that achieve great outcomes. Show us how you used your special talents and finesse to make the most of a small budget to achieve amazing results. This category is open to any manner of marketing, communications, PR, etc.
This one is for the do-gooders, the givers, those that believe great marketing can help make the world a better place. Tell us about your amazing marketing that helped better a particular community, organization, or society as a whole.
Your entry can be a fundraising campaign for a particular organization or charity, a program put in place to bring awareness to a social or economic issue, or a sustainability campaign. The company or party that developed the program MUST be within the State of Texas, but the event or program can take place anywhere.
