Pride In Print: Awards Come To Those Who Plan

Awards Come To Those Who Plan

Companies which plan ahead for their Pride In Print Awards entries enjoy a success ratio that is better than the industry average — rewarding their meticulous internal preparation.

Pride In Print Awards Manager Sue Archibald is encouraging companies to appoint people in their organisation to look after entries. “The idea being that if someone is appointed to take charge a few things will probably happen, principally the entries will get sent in, and you may have a higher success rate,” she says.

The feedback from several companies with a high success rate bears out that statement. They say that the hours spent selecting and preparing their entries are paid back in the Awards tally year upon year.

Dan Blackbourn, GM Operations for APN Print, a consistent winner in the newspaper section, said the concept of the Pride In Print was taken very seriously by the company.

“APN Print has focused on entering industry awards to ensure that products printed by APN Print plants are judged by their peers, and that through these industry awards, APN Print is recognised by the industry as a quality coldset printer,” he said.

“All APN Print sites submit entries to the APN Print Pre-production Manager and these entries go through a vigorous and articulated judging process prior to communication going back to the site whether their submissions have been accepted or not.

“There is a further collective meeting of all site representatives to then select the best of the best. These submissions are collected throughout the year with plant managers having a number of submissions per month included in their key performance indicators, further enforcing the commitment that APN Print shows to the PIP process.”

Wellington’s Service Printers considers its upcoming Pride In Print entries on a pro-active basis throughout the year.

Managing director Dean Oliver says sales reps and production managers earmark any potential jobs which take the eye, and these go into a dedicated storage area for decision-making at Awards entry time.

“When we have our quiet time in January and February we go through everything to decide which are the best. We all have knowledge of the Awards criteria here and so we consider everything carefully before selecting our entries.

“In particular, we look for any marks or flaws on the submissions, because we know that is a thing that will have them rejected immediately.”

A viewpoint from a different angle comes from Huntech Digital Décor, a company that works within the printing industry and has printers as its clients, rather than being the end user.

Phil Whitelaw, Sales Manager for Huntech says it is important for the company to have a presence in the Awards because the print industry understands the value of Gold Medals.

“As Sales Manager I get to see a lot of the work that goes through our company and I continually keep a look out for the jobs with that ‘wow factor’, that amalgam of print quality, design and finishing that sets some jobs apart.

“Sometimes one of the staff might bring a job to my attention. At the end of the year I/we critique these jobs and we make a selection of entries.”

Phil says there is no big deal about this, just good preparation.

“All you need is an understanding of the requirements of the various categories. You just need someone to drive it. In our case this falls to me. I see the big picture here and the importance of these things and how it can affect our place in the market and our niche in our industry, so I have just taken it on board myself.”

The value of Pride In Print success as a marketing tool is borne out by winning entrants who say that the competition provides an invaluable benchmarking opportunity, and also by customers who are pleased to see their choice of quality printer being rewarded.

After the last Awards, print-buyer Team Factors’ director Ron Pol said he was “delighted” to learn the “excellent work” of his design team and printer had seen his Legal Department Benchmarking Report earn a Gold Medal in the Awards’ Book Category.

“This is especially significant as we are a tiny company without any of the resources available to big corporates and Government departments, and is all credit to their design excellence, commitment to their profession and teamwork,” he said.

Mr Pol said previous Awards achievements proved pivotal in the decision to assemble this particular production team.

Entries for next year’s Pride In Print Awards Entries are now open. Entries cover work printed in the period January 1 to December 31 2011 so companies need to think about their entries now.

Companies need to act quickly to take advantage of the Earlybird entry discounts. Earlybird entries close on December 21.

Entry forms can be downloaded from www.prideinprintawards.co.nz

ENDS

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