Why do Companies still pay for Awards.

Awards are often presented as proof of excellence. Shiny trophies. Logos on websites. Photos from gala dinners.

But in many organisations, awards play a very different role. They are not evidence of performance. They are substitutes for it. When campaigns fail to generate demand, when results are weak, when impact is unclear, awards become a convenient form of validation. Not because they solve anything. But because they look like success.

Awards are easier than accountability

Accountability is uncomfortable. It requires answering questions like the following:

• Did this campaign move the business?

• Did it influence revenue, pipeline, or retention?

• Was this the best use of the budget?

• What would we do differently next time?

These questions expose gaps in strategy, execution, and leadership. Awards do not. Awards offer a faster, safer narrative: “Hey, we won.”

No context. No benchmarks. No commercial linkage. Just applause. For organisations that struggle to demonstrate real impact, this is extremely attractive.

The performance vacuum

In high-performing organisations, awards are secondary. Nice to have. Occasionally useful. Never central.

In underperforming organisations, awards often become the story. They fill a vacuum. When demand generation is weak. When conversion rates are low. When pipelines are thin.

Awards step in as proof that “something is working”, even if nothing measurable actually is.

This is not malicious. It is psychological. People want to believe their work matters. Awards offer that belief without forcing proof.

The optics of success

Awards are public. They create visibility. Visibility feels like progress. But visibility is not a value.

A campaign can be award-winning and commercially irrelevant. A campaign can be commercially powerful and never win an award.

Conflating the two is one of the most expensive mistakes marketing teams make. Because it shifts focus from business outcomes to industry applause.

When validation replaces strategy

A dangerous pattern emerges:

Instead of asking, “How do we increase demand?” Teams start asking: “How do we win awards?”

These are not the same problems. One is about growth. The other is about perception. Over time, creative choices start optimising for juries, not customers.

Messaging becomes abstract. Execution becomes performative.
Results become secondary. The organisation may look sophisticated. It becomes strategically hollow.

Awards don’t fix weak fundamentals

Awards cannot fix:

• Unclear positioning

• Generic messaging

• Poor targeting

• Broken funnels

• Weak sales alignment

They do not repair structural problems. They decorate them. And decoration is cheaper than transformation. That is why many companies choose it.

The uncomfortable truth

Some organisations use awards to avoid facing their own limitations. Not because people are dishonest. But because confronting failure is hard.

It is easier to celebrate something external than to admit something internal is broken. Awards become emotional insulation. They soften the discomfort of underperformance. They make stagnation feel respectable.

What real confidence looks like

Confident organisations obsess over:

• Demand generation

• Conversion efficiency

• Customer lifetime value

• Retention

• Share of wallet

They may still enter awards. But awards are not used as proof of effectiveness; results are!

When performance is strong, external recognition becomes optional. When performance is weak, external recognition becomes addictive.

A useful diagnostic

Ask one simple question:

“If we removed awards from our communication, would we still be able to prove that marketing is working?”

If the answer is no, you do not have an awards strategy. You have a performance problem.

A final thought

Awards are not inherently bad. But they become dangerous when they are being used as a replacement for demand, impact, and accountability. Companies that truly believe in their marketing do not need trophies to feel successful. They have something better.

It’s called Results. And results don’t need gala dinners to validate them.

About the Author

Steve Gardiner (exec MBA) is a senior marketing and commercial leader at Lighthouse PR, bringing global experience from Accenture, Electronic Arts, Virgin Media, Telekom, and Etisalat. As VP Business at Etisalat, he was responsible for $1.8B in revenue.

Today, Steve applies his strategic, marketing, and growth expertise to support Lighthouse PR clients as part of the agency’s service offering.