Looking Ahead to New Orleans

Now that you’re through Christmas and into planning mode for 2007, you can start visualising yourself picking up a MAXI Award at the 2007 ICSC Fall Conference in New Orleans, USA. According to Maxi judges from last year’s competition, answering the following questions will help you identify which programmes make good award entries.

Q1: Does your marketing programme address your centre’s core issues, as identified in your award entry (i.e. The Situation)? How does your entry score on the index of relevance and direction?

Q2: Is there a strategic fit? Is your marketing programme authentic in relation to you core brand and values?

Q3: Does it have the ultimate kick? Does it demonstrate the impact of your creativity in delivering results that fit within your set goals and core values?

Q4: Does your marketing programme go beyond the ordinary or the expected?

Q5: Does it address the big picture and show your ability to devise integrated marketing schemes?

Q6: Is there a consistent level of quality?
Good programmes, the judges say, can take sometimes as long as 12 to 18 months to develop. The more time you dedicate to working out the details of your programme ahead of time, the more likely will be your ability to deliver high quality programmes that will turn your centre into a destination.

Q7: Does your marketing programme avoid over-engineering?
Recognise the impact of simplicity. Make your marketing programmes easy for consumers to grasp and get excited about. Try to do fewer things, but do them well. The same goes for your award entry. It should be easy to follow and understand. Forget about trying to dazzle or entertain the judges; that won’t increase your chances of grabbing thier attention or winning an award.

Q8: Does your marketing scheme achieve substantial bang for the buck?
Don’t be defeated by your centre’s need to develop programmes within small budgets. Even modest budgets can support clever programmes that provide significant return on investment and have real impact on centre sales and profits.

Q9: Do the results add up?
Don’t underestimate the importance of measuring quantitative results in detail. Give the judges information they can understand. Be detailed in the cost-breakdowns you provide—even free goods and services have a monetary value, so write everything down. For example, don’t just say that your centre received €50,000 worth of free publicity. Tell the judges how many column inches of coverage you got from the press and how many minutes of coverage on television and/or the radio. Attach a value to each element and then quote the overall value of the publicity.
You should know before you execute a programme whether or not you will enter it in the Maxi competition. This will enable you to document your programme development, expenditures and results efficiently and accurately.

Q10: Is your Maxi entry of good quality?
Supply good quality visuals, respect the guidelines and use a layout that will enable the judges to review you entry easily.
Once you’re ready to prepare your submissions for the MAXI competition, take the necessary time to develop a clear and concise entry summary. The judges stressed how critical that element was in their ability to determine the winners from the rest of the pack. Give the MAXI judges what they want: an accurate account of sound marketing. .