The deadline was yesterday
A client's marketing director asks in a monthly meeting whether they are entering the industry's main awards this year, since they won a category two years ago. The account manager checks the agency's awards spreadsheet. The deadline listed is next month. She checks the awards website. The deadline was moved forward and closed yesterday. An extended deadline with a late fee exists for some categories, not the one the client wanted.
Across the agency, awards are managed like this for a dozen clients: consumer, trade, regional and PR industry awards, each with categories, early bird dates, extensions, shortlists and ceremonies.
Why awards dates keep slipping past
- Awards organisers change dates year to year, and extensions are announced by email.
- One spreadsheet holds awards for all clients, but nobody owns keeping it current.
- Categories change, merge or are renamed, so last year's plan does not fit.
- The real deadline for an entry is weeks before the closing date, once evidence and client sign-off are allowed for.
- Early bird fees, extensions and late fees add dates that matter for budgets.
What a missed deadline costs
Awards matter to many clients more than agencies expect: leadership teams like a trophy on the wall and a line in the sales deck. Missing one is visible and hard to explain. Rushing an entry in the last days produces a weaker entry, often with thin evidence, which wastes the entry fee. And the agency's own awards entries suffer the same fate.
There is a quieter cost in budgets. Entry fees, early bird discounts and ceremony tables are often recharged to clients, and a client who agreed a budget based on early bird fees is not pleased to be asked for the full fee because the agency moved late. Agencies also end up entering the same client for the same category year after year out of habit, because nobody looks across the season and asks which entries are actually worth the effort.
How we build the awards calendar
- Each award is a record: organiser, website, categories, entry fee, key dates such as early bird, closing, extension, shortlist announcement and ceremony.
- The organisers' pages and emails are checked for changes on a schedule, and a changed date raises a flag for a person to confirm rather than silently updating.
- For each client, the account team chooses target awards and categories, and the calendar creates an entry plan.
- Each entry plan works back from the closing date: evidence request to the client, first draft, client review, final sign-off, submission, with dates you can adjust.
- Reminders go to the owner of each step by email or Teams, and overdue steps are shown to the account lead.
- A single agency view shows every entry in progress across clients, colour coded by stage, so directors can see the whole season.
The calendar also keeps last year's results against each award: entered, shortlisted, won or not placed, with any judges' feedback the organiser shares. That makes the start-of-year conversation with a client easier, because the account lead can show which awards have suited them and which have not, rather than relying on memory.
| Step | Worked back from closing date | Owner |
|---|---|---|
| Decide to enter | Well ahead | Account lead and client |
| Request evidence from client | After decision | Account manager |
| First draft | After evidence arrives | Writer |
| Client review | Before final sign-off | Client contact |
| Submit | Before closing date | Account manager |
Awards season, planned
At the start of the year the account team reviews the calendar with each client and picks target awards. The calendar builds entry plans. When an organiser moves a closing date forward, the change is flagged, confirmed by the coordinator, and every entry plan for that award shifts, with the owners told.
The marketing director's awards are on the calendar months in advance. Evidence is requested with plenty of time, and the entry is submitted before the early bird date.
Do these sound familiar?
- Awards deadlines live in one spreadsheet.
- A client has missed an award because a date moved.
- Entries are written in the last week before closing.
- Nobody can see all entries in progress across clients.
- Early bird fees are often missed.