A guide to understanding investment industry awards

For investment managers and related service providers, awards are everywhere.

Media organizations write articles on their awards and the winners. Pictures from awards galas are posted on social media. Winners announce their success and display awards logos on their websites and marketing materials.

Awards are a visible part of the investment management industry, but how do they work? And are they really worth doing? In this article we tackle these and other key questions.

Are awards worth doing?

For most firms, the answer is a clear YES. As a marketing tactic, awards combine a unique range of benefits. Being named a finalist or winner can involve:

• Media Coverage: many awards are given by media organizations that publish articles on the finalists and winners.
• Event Participation: most awards have an event that offers branding exposure and networking.
• Marketing Materials Enhancement: wins can be posted on your website and marketing materials, adding credibility to your brand.
• Social Media: awards event pictures and descriptions can be shared on your company and employee social media accounts.
• SEO: awards media coverage, listings and announcements increase your visibility in online search results.
• New Sales: you can announce an award win to prospects via email campaigns. Also, prospective buyers of your fund or services look at lists of awards winners and finalists to find top firms to contact.

Few marketing tactics can have such an effective and multi-faceted impact as awards.

What are the types of awards?

There are many types of awards and it’s important to understand the options. We classify awards into three categories:

• Company: the award is given to the company as a whole.
• Product/Fund: a specific product, fund or capability is recognized.
• Individual: given to a person based on their individual accomplishments.

Within these categories, awards are given for a host of reasons, such as business or product success, fund performance, industry contribution, notable deals, innovation, positive change (ESG, DEI, etc.) and company/workplace culture.

The variety of award types and options means that for most investment managers and service providers, there’s likely to be some aspect of their business that stands out and could be competitive for an award.  

How do you enter awards?

Most awards programs are run by media organizations. The balance are given by industry associations, membership groups, conference organizers, or industry participants themselves.

Awards organizers look for nominees in one of three ways:

• Self-Nomination: firms (or their representatives) can nominate themselves and submit supporting information, usually following a public call for entries.
• Nomination by Others: the organizer looks to other groups, such as customers or industry participants, to nominate those they think should be considered.
• Organizer-Nominated: the awards organizer, such as journalists at a media publication, independently come up with who should be considered.

Obviously it’s easiest to enter awards that allow self-nomination. With the other methods, you may have to ask others to put you forward for consideration.

How are winners picked?

Every awards program uses unique criteria to pick finalists and winners, but in general we see three methods:

• Quantitative: the award is purely based on numbers. The typical example is a “best fund” awards programs that picks winners based on fund performance.
• Qualitative: winners are selected based on a subjective evaluation of qualitative (and sometimes quantitative) information.
• Survey-Based: industry peers or constituents are formally or informally surveyed.

For awards that are purely quantitative, there's not much an entrant can do to influence its chances – the numbers are the numbers.

However, most awards use qualitative assessments. For these awards, winners tend to be selected based on three things:

• Awards Criteria: the judges evaluate how well the nominee’s entry information lines up against what the award is intended to recognize.
• Entry Quality: all things being equal, a well-written, well-organized entry that contains all needed information has a better chance of winning vs. incomplete or poorly presented information.
• Reputation: firms with recognized brands and positive reputations are usually seen as “safer” bets for the organizer to pick.

This means that in the near-term, focusing on entry quality can improve your chances. Longer-term, developing a stronger brand will help.

What do awards cost?

Entering awards is usually free. A few, particularly ones that have an involved evaluation process, may require a small entry fee.

Some awards run by media organizations give winners the option to be profiled in a special report for an extra fee.  Also, some organizers sell usage of the awards logo to winners and shortlisted firms.

The largest cost is usually related to attending an awards event. Some awards announce winners in advance and recognize them at a reception or dinner. But most awards announce winners at the event, which is attended by finalists and their guests.

There is usually no commitment for finalists or winners to buy tickets or a table; however this raises the question of whether they should.

In general, we strongly recommend attending. It’s a bad look if you win and are not present to accept. Also, organizers incur costs to run awards, and awards bring benefits to shortlisted firms and winners. Attending the event shows you respect that give and take.

How do you identify good vs. bad awards?

Though they are rare, some awards aren’t legitimate. An illegitimate awards organizer will contact firms telling them they are going to win, and to receive the award they just need to purchase something – such as an awards logo, plaque, or write-up in a fake magazine.

To measure the legitimacy and quality of an award, we perform some due diligence, asking questions such as:

• Who’s the awards organizer and what’s their reputation?
• How are winners selected?
• Who are the past shortlisted firms and winners?
• Is the judging process independent from the business side of the awards?

Characteristics of high-quality awards are reputable organizers and winners, and a selection process based on qualifications, rather than willingness to pay.

When are awards NOT worth doing?

While there are many benefits to doing awards, there are also some reasons why you shouldn’t enter them:

• Cost: entrants should be aware of the full costs involved, particularly for attending the event. If the costs related to an award aren’t feasible, we don’t recommend entering.
• Practicality: be realistic about whether a firm, product or fund is truly competitive for an award. Save your time and efforts (as well as the awards organizer's time) by only entering awards categories where you have a realistic chance of competing.
• Outlook: awards by their nature are based on past success or performance. If more recent information materially differs, a firm shouldn’t enter the category. For example, for awards based on fund performance over the prior year, you wouldn’t want to enter a fund that just had a major, unannounced drawdown.
• Brand Attributes: for the most part, appearing as an awards winner or finalist comes across as promotional. It implies that a firm is looking to grow and gain more business. For firms that cultivate a brand that is exclusive or discrete, frequent awards participation may undermine this image.

How do you find awards to enter?

You are likely already aware of the handful of major awards in your industry. These should be evaluated first since they have broad acceptance and visibility.

However, that’s a limited view of the opportunity set. The full range of options includes:

• Awards focused on your industry
• Awards focused on an adjacent industry, but which have categories you can enter
• Awards which operate across industries

For example, an investment manager should look at awards in its sector, but can also search for manager-related categories in institutional investing, wealth management or other audiences the manager serves.

Or a service provider would evaluate service provider awards, but can also research awards among its customer sectors, which may have some service provider categories.

Researching these adjacent awards takes time, but the effort can be worth it given the opportunity for direct exposure to potential clients.

Summary

Similar to how we approach conferences and events, we recommend a strategic process with awards programs. This involves:

• Clarifying the business and marketing goals to be achieved (audiences, products, messages, etc.)
• Researching the range of awards options
• Evaluating which awards are relevant and realistic, and most likely to support business goals
• Understanding deadlines, information needed, and potential costs
• Creating high quality entry materials
• Knowing how to best leverage the impact of being a finalist or winner

Awards take resources in terms of time and cost, but they can return that cost many times over. For investment managers and related service providers, awards can help accelerate growth by expanding brand awareness, increasing credibility, supporting sales efforts, and driving inbound inquiries from potential clients.