Ethics and Confidentiality

In our role as award entry writers we are put in a position of trust by both our clients and awards organisers. Our clients need to know we will not mishandle their confidential information or misrepresent them, and awards organisers need to know that we will not try and mislead the judges. For this reason we work to a strict code of conduct.

Conflict of interest

We do not write competing submissions for the same single-winner awards categories, however in some awards where there are multiple winners (e.g. the Queen’s Awards and National Training Awards) this rule does not apply.

Honesty in submissions

When we write awards submissions our aim is to do you justice, and help find the evidence needed to substantiate your claims. We do not endorse or encourage exaggeration or fabrication.

Being honest about your chances

We are not the judges, so cannot predict with certainty what will get through to the finals or win. We will, however, use our extensive experience to give you an honest assessment of your chances. For example, if our search for evidence that you are outstanding fails to uncover anything that might earn you a place in the finals, then we might possibly recommend pulling the plug on the submission. This does not mean we won't charge for time already invested, but it does mean saving time, money and disappointment in the long run.

Confidentiality

We regularly sign non-disclosure agreements, and are always happy to do so. Whether we sign one or not, we will treat all information provided as confidential and will not share it outside the Boost team. We will also not publish the fact that we work with you on our website or in marketing communications of any sort without your permission.

We believe a client should take all the credit, and where possible keep our involvement in the writing of an award submission under wraps.

Honesty in charging

When a quote or upper limit is agreed for a project, we will only charge up to this point.

We keep accurate timesheets and where possible we charge less than we quote. This happens regularly.

Independence

Boost will not accept any commission from awards organisers for encouraging people to enter their awards. We also do not own or part-own any awards programmes.

An honest win rate

The good news is that we are so successful that we do not need to fiddle our figures to make us look more successful than we really are.

As the first award entry specialists, rather than PR specialists or journalists who dabble in awards, we have mastered techniques that are unique to Boost and which dramatically increase the likelihood of our clients winning credible awards which often have 30-100 applications per category, yet almost 40% of our submissions win.

Our win rate varies between 35% and 40% and is calculated by dividing the number of genuine third party awards won by the number of entries we wrote or co-wrote for clients (across the entire time we have been trading).

We do not employ any of the following tactics, that we have seen amongst less reputable marketing and PR service providers , to make them appear more successful when it comes to award entry writing:

• Treating commendations as wins (this would almost double our win rate if we did).
• Run any type of home-made awards programme where we act as the awarding body as well as the award entry writers – this sounds shocking, but it happens.
• Focus our clients on awards that are easy to win, but lack prestige. Our aim is to add value to their brands, and unknown or “pay-to-win” awards do not achieve this.

Our corporate social responsibility

• Our Awards Planner tool generates money for Great Ormond Street Hospital (20% of fees).
• We write a lot of CSR award submissions, and have seen numerous examples of best practice which could apply to other organisations. We regularly share these tips and tricks and help clients improve their corporate social responsibility as a result.
• We actively try to reduce our carbon footprint by supporting home working, travelling primarily by train to client meetings, and minimising our use of paper.
• Our team actively work with the community through voluntary work and Boost makes regular charitable donations.

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