How to promote the honors you receive

Have you won a massive award lately, or even a non-massive award? What are you doing with that award to make money for you?

Mike Bausch
Owner, Andolini’s Pizzeria, Tulsa, OK

Look at Pabst’s Blue Ribbon. The name of the beer is Blue Ribbon, predicated upon their win in 1896 at a fair. This is a beer company that is still riding high on a win from over 120 years ago. You can’t hate the hustle!

So, what to do when you win is the question. It really depends on what your store’s current status is and what you’re looking to get from it. Namely, more sales, more people coming into your doors. But, how do you manipulate the accolade wisely?

Pizza Expo is great for gaining wins because just by going you can market as a win that you compete on a national stage. Let’s say you can go and maybe you don’t win a baking contest, but you come in third in your region. Now you’re one of the third best pizza places in all of the Midwest. It’s a great thing. You’re the third best on a national stage. Even if you’re not leaving Pizza Expo with a big trophy, you now have photos of you and your team making food there. That can be turned into a press release. They might call you on a slow week to do an interview, maybe even a food demo and now you have more eyes on you, your brand, your pizzeria and more money to your restaurant.

Now let’s say you win a massive award. If you’re at all like me and not good with handling praise, it might be a little bit socially awkward to go and be super braggadocios. Nonetheless, I’m able to do it when I have the good fortune to win something because I know the greatest good is getting more money into my restaurant (which turns into more jobs, which turns into my ability to donate and help the community more). So I’ll suck up my social anxiety about being in front of the camera and play it up for the win.

My style when I do win something is to try and be humble, to try and accept that this is a gift and not act like, “Of course this happened,” or “Why would we not win? We’re the best.” I think that’s a really bad approach to take. It comes down to being thankful and pushing that you take the product seriously, and letting other people know that they have something special going on in their town or community.

So, to reiterate. If you win something:

A. Be humble. Success teaches us near nothing and believing you’re the best is the greatest way to ensure your win becomes a one-time fluke.

B. Get a press release. Make sure it contains all the details of your win and contact information, along with some photos that the press could use.

C. Be ready to market it even if the news doesn’t pick it up. That means videos on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook, as well as posts, announcements and e-mail blasts. These are all great, very affordable ways to let people know about your accomplishment.

Also, when you get a noteworthy award or article, you’ll be hounded by a lot of other outside companies to buy a plaque or announcements for your reward. These are not associated with the newspapers that they market; it’s a separate company. With that said, if you want to buy one of them, by all means, go for it. Or just frame the article yourself. Just do something to promote your win!

MIKE BAUSCH is the owner of Andolini’s Pizzeria in Tulsa, Oklahoma. He is a frequent speaker at the International Pizza Expo family of tradeshows.