Design competitions and award programs are deeply ingrained in the culture of architecture. Architects look to awards winning projects and products for insight into what the ever-changing norms of their industry are.

This creates opportunities for building product manufacturers to gain exposure and plaudits for their products by being associated with award winning projects. It is also a chance to garner goodwill among customers.

One of my clients took advantage of this recently by helping two of its customers enter an award program. The client is East Coast Lightning Equipment, Inc. (www.ecle.biz) and the competition is the Lightning Protection Institute’s Innovation Award. East Coasts customers are small to medium sized contractors that do not have marketing programs. So East Coast offered to have me prepare the nomination for the customers.

Results: Both of the nominations I prepared won top honors! The winning projects, including my client’s products, will receive widespread publicity. My client and their customers, and their customer’s customer (the building owners) will get bragging rights and material they can use social media, websites, advertising, and other promotional programs. My client’s customers appreciate the marketing support they received.

And I get to tell you this story.