Cameron Stack
Winning an award can be useful. But entering an award is not automatically a good investment.
Before you spend money and time on an application, think about what you actually want the recognition to accomplish. Maybe you want more credibility with potential clients, recognition within your industry, press opportunities, or something you can use in your marketing.
The biggest award isn’t necessarily the most useful award. What matters is whether the recognition means something to the people you want to reach.
Here are the things worth thinking about before you apply.
Start with the outcome, not the award.
Are you looking for sponsor credibility? Press? Industry recognition? Speaking opportunities? Audience growth? A stunning trophy?
Different awards can serve very different purposes.
An award that is well known within your industry may be useful for business development but mean very little to your general audience. A smaller, niche award might be much more relevant to the people you actually want to reach.
Before applying, you should be able to explain why you want the recognition and what you plan to do with it if you receive it.
An award only creates useful social proof if someone cares about it. Think about the people you want to reach. Do potential clients, people in your industry, sponsors, journalists, potential guests, or business partners recognize the award and understand what it represents?
A smaller award that is well known within your target industry can be more relevant to you than a larger, broad award that your audience has never heard of or that has little impact on the people you want to reach.
The question isn’t simply: Is this a well-known award?
It’s: Well known to whom?
Before paying an entry fee, find out who is behind the program.
Look for a named organization, an official website, a history of previous ceremonies or award cycles, publicly listed winners, and clear contact information.
You should be able to understand who operates the program and find a record of the recognition it has given out.
If you can’t establish who runs the award, that can be a huge red flag, depending on other factors.
Every award has a different level of transparency, and the way judges evaluate your podcast can vary significantly.
Some use industry professionals as judges, some use members or committees, and others use public voting, audience data, or another system entirely.
It’s important to research who is judging, what they are judging, and how much information the award provides about the process before you apply.
Read the criteria before you start writing your application.
What are judges actually looking for? Storytelling? Production quality? Creativity? Innovation? Audience results? Business impact? Community impact?
Then ask whether your work actually fits what the category is designed to recognize.
Being eligible for an award doesn’t necessarily mean it’s a good fit for your work.
Not every award judges the same thing. You might be entering an entire podcast, a specific episode, a trailer, sonic branding, your cover art or another specific part of the work.
Carefully review the entry requirements and make sure you understand exactly what you’re being asked to submit. Is it a five-minute clip, three episodes, a trailer, an entire season, or something else? The submission requirements can vary significantly between awards and category types, so make sure you choose the right material for the award you’re entering.
The entry fee is only part of the cost.
Consider additional category entries, late fees, membership costs, your time preparing the submission, travel, ceremony tickets, accommodation, promotional materials, and anything else the program charges for.
If you’re considering multiple categories, be selective. More entries don’t automatically mean more value.
Find out what the award actually provides.
Do winners receive a trophy, certificate, official winner page, archive listing, promotional support, press coverage, social promotion, or something else?
Then look at previous winners. Do they resemble the type of work you’re entering? Are they publicly listed?
A few minutes looking at past winners can tell you a lot about an award.
Every award submission takes time and money.
The question isn’t just whether you can afford the entry fee. It’s whether this is the best use of that money and time.
If you have a limited awards budget, you may get more from entering a few highly relevant programs than submitting to everything that looks interesting.
Award lists can become outdated quickly. A program that appeared on an article two years ago may now be closed, paused, postponed, reorganized, or defunct.
Check the award’s current status, deadline, eligibility requirements, and entry information before you consider applying.
Awards are only one form of recognition.
Depending on your goals, there may also be competitions, rankings, lists, grants, fellowships, certifications, showcases, and other recognition programs worth considering.
Don’t limit your search to programs that call themselves awards. The right opportunity may use a completely different format.
This is an important question to ask before you apply.
Awards can measure very different things. Some focus on production quality or creative work. Others emphasize audience size, popularity, industry opinion, community impact, or another specific outcome.
A public-vote award demonstrates something different from a jury-selected award. A metric-based recognition demonstrates something different from a creative competition.
Understand what the recognition represents before you decide how much value to place on it.
Read more from RECOGNIZED:
- What Is the Recognition Economy?: An introduction to the growing ecosystem behind awards, recognition, and the businesses that support them.
- The Beauty and Brilliance of Award Shows: A look at why award shows still matter and what gives them lasting cultural value.
- Types of Podcast Awards: A practical guide to the podcast awards landscape and how to think about it strategically.
- You Wouldn’t Have Podcasting Without These People: Standing on the Shoulders of Giants: The People Who Built Audio
- Awards & Podcast Resources, Articles & Rabbit Holes: A curated collection of resources, articles, and discoveries worth exploring across the world of awards, podcasting, and recognition.
- Your Podcast Awards Roundup for September: A monthly roundup of podcast awards, deadlines, new programs, and recognition opportunities worth knowing about.
- The Reference Guide to Australian Awards: A paid deep dive into the Australian awards landscape and what it reveals about the broader recognition economy.
- The Ambies in Transition: A reflection on a changing awards program and what the shift means for the industry.
- Podcast Hall of Fame Behind-the-Scenes: A behind-the-scenes look at how recognition programs are built and presented.
- Awards Industry Glossary: A glossary of key terms for navigating the awards and recognition space.
- Cheating Scandals You Probably Never Heard Of: A tour of cheating and impropriety across mainstream and niche awards.
If you like what you’re reading, please tell a friend or colleague!
Don’t wait until after the ceremony to think about how you’ll use the recognition.
If you’re nominated, become a finalist, or win, make the recognition easy for other people to verify. Link to the official nominees, finalists, or winners page whenever possible rather than simply saying you are “award-winning.” The official listing gives potential clients, sponsors, journalists, guests, and other people you want to impress a way to confirm the recognition for themselves.
Then look for places where the recognition can strengthen your credibility. Add it to your media kit, sponsor deck, guest pitches, podcast website, speaker bio, company bio, LinkedIn profile, email signature, or other places where someone may be deciding whether to work with you. If the award is particularly relevant to your industry, make that context clear rather than assuming people will understand why it matters.
If you receive a physical trophy or certificate, consider photographing or filming it as part of that content.
The goal isn’t simply to say that you won an award. It’s to make the recognition visible, verifiable, and relevant to the people you want it to influence.
Most importantly, pay attention to what happens after the recognition.
Track whether it leads to sponsor replies, guest bookings, press mentions, speaking invitations, partnership inquiries, or website inquiries.
An award may create value for you, but you won’t know how much unless you pay attention to what happens next.
The better question is whether the recognition would be useful if you received it.
The goal isn’t to collect as many awards as possible. It’s to pursue recognition that means something to the people you want to reach and gives you something useful to do with it afterward.
For current award deadlines, fees, eligibility requirements, and program status, explore the Recognized.fm Podcast Awards Database and follow Recognized on Substack for ongoing research into awards, competitions, rankings, credentials, and the broader recognition economy.
