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What are ‘vanity awards’ and why you should NEVER enter them?

So, what are ‘vanity awards’?

In a nutshell, a ‘vanity award’ is an ‘award scheme in which the recipient purchases the award and/or marketing services to give the false appearance of a legitimate honour’. Mmm… says it all, right?

Categories often start with words like ‘Best Global…’ or ‘Top 50…’ but how on earth can they be the ‘Best’ if the recipient has paid for the honour rather than their merits judged by a panel of independent experts?

There’s no independent judging panel – they are all representatives from the company running the scheme.

You’ll be told that your ‘win’ (when you pay the extortionate ‘marketing package’ fee) will appear in some random publication that you have never heard of, yet it has a circulation of 4 million.

There’s likely be an overuse of stock or AI generated imagery on the website, pointing at the fact there is never an event or evidence of genuine presentations.

It’s when you start delving into previous winners that the alarm bells should start ringing. Just look at how many other companies have been awarded a ‘win’. Most are listed in alphabetical order as there are so many; often 2-300! You’ll also notice the distinct lack of household brands. They’ll also probably be loads of other, similarly named awards linking from the website and a ‘catch all’ approach to cover multiple regions and/or countries.

Whilst researching, I came across this fabulous blog by Helen Dewdney and a pretty accurate summary of what vanity awards are, how to spot the signs, and how wrong (but sadly legal) they really are.

Why is that wrong?

Simply, these ‘vanity awards’ prey on small businesses that are trying to make their companies stand out in their industry. There is also the very dubious ‘massive exposure’ that is promised along with them; often paying large sums of money for a DPS in a magazine you’ve never heard of and only see in the copy you get sent.

The emails to recipients often arrive with flamboyant congratulatory wording; suggesting that their nomination is a great honour; and even worse, a nomination that sounds like someone they know has nominated them! (I can safely say I’ve received about 20 of these in the last 2 years; all from the same 2-3 organisations).

Why should you never enter?

Do you or your organisation really want to be a part of a ‘Pay-to-Win’ award… really? Wouldn’t you feel more pride knowing you’d won on merit, following a rigorous judging process?

In 2018, an imaginary law film was set up by a legal gossip website (using a photo of actor Danny Glover as their CEO!) to expose the shortcomings of the UK’s many legal awards. And it won… twice! Once with Corporate International and the other with Finance Monthly. You can read the article here in The Guardian. If that’s not an incentive enough, I don’t know what is!

The Better Business Bureau, based in the USA & Canada, created a video about the warning signs of vanity awards here.

Who are the main ‘vanity’ and ‘Pay-to-Win’ organisations?

AI Global Media aka ‘Acquisition International’ – they run a lot of ‘brands’ with attached award schemes. These awards work on the model that they contact you out of the blue to say you have been shortlisted for this awesome award you have never heard of and that it won’t cost you anything. In fact, they make their money by charging a large sum to have coverage in their brochure, or use of the logo to market your win and so on. They bluster about the massive exposure, which is dubious. I think you can enter them and pay nothing, it’s just very limited what you will receive.

If you google ‘AI Global Media’, the Complaints Board shows 4 complaints. There’s also an upheld Advertising Standards Agency complaint against them here. You can read more here from Peter Coleman, who was asked to undertake due diligence on them; discovering that they were handing out awards to the highest bidder…some paying $10,000 for an award; but pay ten times that and your award will be presented by a member of the Royal Family. This Reputation site doesn’t put them in a great light either.

The Global Green Business Awards particularly interested me, but just look at the vast list of winners…how can they have all ‘won’? There are hundreds!

World HR Congress – these guys run about 50+ schemes and the giveaway is that their websites all look very similar. Listed in Mumbai, their email is usually secretariat@ and are classic ‘Pay-to-Win’ schemes. I’ve listed below just the awards in 2022…click on the link in the box and there will be a lot more!

European Business Assembly – Oxford ‘based’, EBA advertises itself as being an ‘Oxford institution’ but is not affiliated or otherwise linked with the university at all, other than that the company director was a former student. More about them here.

Awards Intelligence – another scheme handing out awards to what looks like, going by these 22 pages of companies, unlimited winners! They also offer an awards writing service; a service that was exposed here by The Daily Mail for drafting an honours nomination for James Caan to obtain a CBE? Legal yes, but moral…?

The List!

Here’s a more comprehensive list of those award schemes that I’ve been made aware of, but if you know of others, please do share them with me and I can update this blog. Equally, if your organisation is on this list and don’t think it should be, please do get in touch with evidence that you run a robust judging process and I’d be happy to remove it.

* We’ll let you find them online, to avoid giving them additional SEO!

What awards should you enter?

For every vanity award scheme out there, there are a dozen reputable ones too, whereby organisations enter themselves and go through a thorough judging process. There are several things to look for on a scheme’s website to check if they are ethical and reputable:

1. All entry details, fees and processes are clearly shown from the launch of their cycle.
2. A list and profile of the judging panel – even better if the judges return for multiple years running.
3. They will not ask for money for trophies, PR, use of logos, photos or anything else to promote your ‘win’ (in addition to any entry fee they may charge) and it will not be compulsory to attend a ceremony.
4. They don’t charge a fee to ‘register’ – only paying when an entry is submitted.
5. Check previous winners against previous and current sponsors; if there is a large cross-over, it’s a sign that sponsors are offered free entries or other incentives to enter.
6. You may find they are accredited with an ‘Awards Trust Mark’.

If you’re still not sure, Awards List is a great resource for finding reputable awards schemes as they won’t list ‘vanity awards’.

So, by the time I got to the end of writing this blog, I’d been approached by no less than another three awards schemes. I rest my case.

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