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For Immediate Release:
Earth, September 26th, 2019 – ToolGuyd, an industry-leading online tool review and news publication is proud to announce that we have won a Best Tool Review Blog on the Planet award. The judges recognized the quality and integrity of our content and coverage, and we are deeply honored to win this award.
Disclosure: We paid an entry fee (in chocolate). The judges cannot read yet, but we explained why we should win, and they agreed. No other companies paid to enter for an award in this category.
In All Seriousness…
Read More About Pay to Play Product Awards
Some companies and organizations host product awards, and that’s okay. To each their own. What really grinds my gears are the press releases that skew everything out of proportion.
“Breaking News: Brand X products win 4 industry awards!” Oh really?
Other emails read like this: “Our products won tool awards! Will you review or feature them on your website now that we have an award under our belt?”
Here at ToolGuyd we keep up to date with new tool developments and launches. And so when I receive press releases or emails boasting about tool awards, and I see awards for products that didn’t see new competition in the award year, it raises a skeptical eyebrow.
Did the brand pay for consideration?
What was the criteria for winning?
How many competing products were in the running for each award?
Was the product even tested?
Earlier this week we received a press release from a power tool brand, boasting about the awards their products won for this year. I asked them this list of questions, and after some back and forth they said: “Some [of the tools we received awards for] just hit the market and have not been tested yet.”
I previously asked a different brand about one of their “tool award-winning” products. That particular hand tool was never produced and never reached the market. They told me: “To answer your question, no, this product has never existed.” So how did it win an award?
A journalist doesn’t win a Pulitzer on articles that cannot yet be read. Actors and actresses do not win Oscars for movies that have not yet been filmed.
In some cases, unreleased products can still be tested for award consideration. But if there’s no transparency, there’s no way to tell. A brand might slap a big award logo in a press release, their website, or Instagram, but what is the award actually for if not even prototypes were tested?
How many awards are given for one-runner races? And if the runner isn’t even ready to race, how do they still win first place?
Even one home improvement retailer started giving out their own “Innovation Awards.”
The winning products are recognized for delivering unique innovation, value and efficiency across multiple home improvement categories. [Redacted] is appreciative of and proud to celebrate the work that our vendor partners put in year over year. Along with the new Innovation Award comes the introduction of the Innovation Award Seal, designed to make it easy for customers to identify and shop our best-in-class products.
How does that work? Did all of the retailer’s partners and suppliers submit tools for consideration?
Transparency is important. As tool users, we should demand it.
Many industry product awards have registration fees, some of them considerably high. But, they also have juries of industry experts that adjudicate the awards. Unfortunately, there isn’t any sort of peer review process by which product design or innovation awards can be validated.
Did Brand X receive an award for best Thingamajig because there were no other new Thingamajigs this year, or no new Thingamajigs that paid to enter? Did Brand Y win an award for “Best Red Thingamajig” and Brand Z for “Best Green Thingamajig” so that they could each take home “honors?”
This is why transparency is so important.
Luckily, as tool and product users, we have the ability to ask questions, and it’s easier than ever. Brands love when their users engage with them via social media. So why not ask them for more information?
Did the brand pay for consideration?
What was the criteria for winning?
How many competing products were in the running for each award?
Was the product even tested?
I’ve started asking these questions whenever I receive a press release about industry awards.
The typical answers that I’ve received to the last two questions are the ones that frustrate and disappoint me most. How many competing products were in the running for the award? We don’t know. What does an award mean if it’s a one-player race?
Was the product even tested? Sometimes the answer is yes, other times no. So what’s being judged, a one-page sell sheet? An advertisement? What does an award mean if a production sample wasn’t even tested?
Maybe our questions could be simplified. When brands boast about the awards their products won, this is what we’re going to start asking: Are you the only brand to pay to enter a product in this category, and was the actual product tested?
