Industry awards and why they matter; the value of 3rd party market validation

An industry award is a powerful marketing tool; it's one of the ultimate forms of 3rd-party market validation. Building credibility is essential for any startup or established company – regardless of size, market validation is a critical cog that companies shouldn't discount or overlook. In the tech and business industry, there are many coveted awards, including those from CES, SXSW, Fast Company Fast 50, Inc. 500, Ernst & Young's Entrepreneur Of The Year, Deloitte Technology Fast 500, Forbes America's Most Promising Companies, etc.

Why are industry awards important? 
When someone sees that your product or service has won an award, it gives prospective customers peace of mind that the product or service must be good — or at least better than similar products or services from other vendors. This scenario is especially true if your competition didn't win one. And industry recognition isn't just about winning over new customers; it's also about retaining existing ones and keeping them happy with their purchase decision. But there's more to it than just winning awards.

Whether you successfully secured your award through a popular vote (i.e., People's Choice) or your company or executive was selected by an esteemed panel of experts, who weighed in on the winners, the reality is that an industry award helps separate you from the rest of the pack. When you win an industry award, people assume that the judges know what they're doing and they usually do.

Moreover, awards build valuable credibility, which is critical – especially for startups building their footprint, market share, and brand awareness. Industry awards help generate buzz for your brand, attract and retain top talent, and establish your company as an industry leader. And a little humblebrag doesn't hurt, either.

The best awards are those announced by 3rd parties with no financial interest in the company. These industry awards are often called "editorial" or "best-of" recognition. They are typically given in magazines, newspapers and online publications or announced by independent organizations.

Awards are like industry conferences; they are abundant and happen throughout the year. Sometimes award opportunities occur with regularity, while many pop up randomly. They all have deadlines, and some have entry fees (usually, the fee amount is nominal, under $1K). Also, awards are "long-lead," meaning the submission window is around 4-6 months in advance. Typically awards come in three categories: individual, corporation/organization, and product or service. Companies should strive to secure validation across each of these categories to strengthen the company's brand. 

Humblebrag
On the awards front alone, Ignite X has helped our clients secure hundreds of awards — and the most coveted ones too; a sample of awards that our clients have secured through our support include: TechCrunch’s Startup Battlefield SF Disrupt winner, Wall Street Journal’s Best Software Company, Best Consumer AI Technology, Best of CES, GSMA’s Best Cloud Technology and many more. 

Ignite X is proud to have been recently selected again by Expertise as one of the top PR agencies within the San Francisco Bay Area region. Akin to the Good Housekeeping Seal, Expertise is a national organization that evaluates a range of service providers in more than 200 industries across the U.S. Its independent research covers legal, home, and businesses as well as a plethora of other services. Expertise's findings and subsequent awards help businesses and consumers make better-informed decisions about their business investment or purchasing decisions.

Since 2017, Expertise has named Ignite X one of the top PR agencies in San Francisco. With more than 700 PR firms operating in the San Francisco Bay Area, this is a challenging feat to accomplish. We also congratulate the other public relations agencies that have gained Expertise's top recognition. 

If you want to grow your company's presence, expand market validation or scale your business, contact Ignite X or give us a ring at 650-576-6444, so we can partner and help you. 

Cloud computing sky rockets: how Ignite PR’s clients play a role

Back in January 2008, we posted about cloud computing as a growing trend—2 years before it really took off into the clouds.  We highlighted initiatives that a handful of the largest corporations were just starting to get underway, and now these industry leaders are taking even bigger steps embracing cloud computing.  For example, HP and Microsoft just announced they will jointly invest $250M to develop cloud-based systems.  Cloud computing is undoubtedly one of the hottest IT initiatives today.

Cloud Computing Skyrockets 2010

Since 2008, interest in “cloud computing” has increased 3,233%.  CIOs are making adoption of the cloud a priority in 2010, and industry analysts predict that by 2012 cloud computing will be so pervasive that 1 out of 5 businesses will be completely in the cloud.

The advent of cloud computing has clearly made the economies of launching a business far more affordable, spurring hundreds of startups across many industries to offer a wide range of cloud-based services and solutions.  In lockstep, we had an opportunity to work with some innovative tech startups that are pushing the envelope by enabling companies to be far more nimble and competitive at how they operate their business and enable their users to be more efficient. Here’s a snapshot of 3 Ignite clients that are playing a unique role in the cloud computing landscape.

Syncplicity

Syncplicity is the leading provider of centralized file management, backup, instant synchronization and collaboration -- all in one integrated solution. The company seamlessly integrates desktop files and apps with the cloud, eliminating the problem of multiple islands of data across users' multitude of computers, devices, and web stores.

Backed by True Ventures, Syncplicity’s cloud service just announced a partnership with Google, expanding its Business Edition’s cloud-to-desktop functionality by deepening its integration with Google Docs and Google Apps. While Google Docs allows each user to store up to 1 GB each for free into Google Docs and file sizes can be up to 250 MB.  Through Syncplicity, Google Docs and Apps customers can store any size document in the cloud today, and can store any amount of data with no limits in the cloud. Syncplicity is essentially bridging the desktop-cloud divide across more than 5,000 joint Syncplicity and Google customers, who are using their products together to sync nearly 1 million files each day.

LongJump

Ignite showcased our client LongJump, an early player in the cloud market with a Platform-as-a-Service (PaaS) offering. When LongJump launched in 2007, the company quickly moved to the forefront, introducing the industry’s first on-demand database (DaaS). LongJump is continuing to cultivate its expertise in the cloud domain and pundits are taking note.  LongJump has been called the “Holy Grail in Cloud Computing” for its flexible hosting options (enterprises can choose to host the platform on-demand, in the cloud, or on-premise), and in 2009, the company earned industry validation, including:

• The only company with a PaaS offering positioned in Gartner’s Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Application Servers

• The only PaaS provider named by Gartner a “Cool Vendor” in its Cloud Computing report

• The recipient of XChange’s XCellence award in the category of “Most Innovative Technology”

Reductive Labs

Reductive Labs is a leader in next-gen, enterprise IT automation. Its flagship offering, Puppet, is an open source software framework to automate infrastructure, which fundamentally changes how companies can configure, provision, manage and scale their IT infrastructure using software tools rather than IT staff.  While both virtualization and cloud computing offer cost-effective ways to expand storage, services and processing capacities without further cash outlays for new hardware infrastructure. Puppet's automation capabilities alleviate management complexities and expenses introduced by both of these technologies. IT departments can leverage Puppet to flexibly move services back and forth from the cloud to behind the company’s firewall.

Gartner estimates that enterprise software delivered in the cloud as a service will total over $12B by 2012 and grow at 17.7% each year.  It will be interesting to see how the market shakes out – with stalwarts looking to more aggressively add cloud computing strategies and initiatives to their war chests (ie: acquisitions).