Client case study One-stop solution: One World Media Awards grows entries and revenue with Award Force Reviewer:Will Jameson,Events and Partnerships Manager Reviewer: Will Jameson, Events and Partnerships Manager Fast facts about One World Media Industry: Media awards Location: London, UK Award Force client: Client since 2022 Employees: 0-50 employees Background An awards program recognising the best in global journalism OWM’s Director, Vivienne Francis, addresses the audience One World Media Awards work to recognise the best in global journalism, highlighting the best media coverage of the global south. Since the program’s inception in 1988, the One World Media Awards have recognised the work of over 1000 journalists and filmmakers highlighting stories from around the world on a range of issues. In addition to their awards program, they also offer a fellowship program to serve as a springboard for new talent covering stories globally with creativity and integrity. Selected fellows receive a £1,000 production grant, one-to-one mentoring and a year-round program of industry workshops and webinars, while they produce a non-fiction piece of media. About the program Hundreds of entries, across fifteen awards chapters For their awards program every year, hundreds of entries worldwide are judged by panels of distinguished professionals carefully selected from the media and non-profit sectors for their wide-ranging experience and expertise. Across 15 categories, the awards celebrate and recognise the best media coverage of the global south; stories that break through stereotypes, change the narrative and connect people across cultures. The awards work to champion stories that demonstrate originality, creativity and the potential to catalyse change. The entries highlight underreported stories or issues, or explore new angles on familiar topics. Program challenges before Award Force Goodbye clunky, outdated system. Hello Award Force. The program’s previous awards management system was out of date and clunky, said Will Jameson, Events & Partnerships Manager at One World Media. “We needed several training sessions and an actual manual to learn how to use it. Even then it wasn’t a smooth system. The support for it was a phone call to the support team which we were charged for each time. It was a challenge to get new staff trained up, it was easy to make mistakes when setting it up and the design wasn’t great for users either.” Others Out of date Clunky Required training Not smooth Support charges Bad design Award Force Modern Sophisticated and agile No training required Seamless Transparent pricing Customisable design The Award Force choice A one-stop awards solution to modernise their awards The design of Award Force is brilliant,” Jameson said.“It looks slick and it also all makes sense—for an entrant or a platform manager. The massive plus is the option to live edit and change an entry form, and seeing it from a user’s perspective. Being able to drag and drop different sections is excellent.” With two separate submission programs, their organisation deals with a hefty program management load. Award Force has quickly become their one-stop solution. “It’s made updates to all our programs so much easier as it’s an easy-to-use interface. Things like copying over a season speeds everything up during the set-up. We constantly review our terms and conditions and the wording of our entry form and questions; being able to do this in the user view and live edit is so helpful!” They also take advantage of Award Force’s support options. “The help button is brilliant and if that fails then the support team always responds within about 30 minutes and works hard to fix any query we have,” Jameson said. Favourite features Entry form, judging modes and broadcast Judging modes “Aside from the main entry form we use the judging mode(s) a lot. For our awards, we have two rounds of judging: longlisting by our wider team and then shortlisting by VIP judges. I love the weighted scoring, the option for judges’ comments and points,” Jameson said. Broadcasting “We use broadcasts a lot as well—to keep users updated and then to update everyone when a new season is about to begin.” Broadcasting “We use broadcasts a lot as well—to keep users updated and then to update everyone when a new season is about to begin.” The Award Force results Increased entries Happy community Expanded reach More revenue Increased entries “Our entries are up!” Jameson said. “Entries have increased from around 450 when we started using Award Force in 2021 to over 600 in 2023 from over 110 countries.” Happy community “We ask our nominees and winners for feedback on the entry process and they all describe it as smooth and hassle-free,” Jameson said. “It’s definitely helping expand our reach and generating us more revenue in entry fees.” Read more testimonials