Hot take: Not all awards programs are created equal…and that’s ok.
Another year, another season of the Top 100 CMA Awards by Base. Our LinkedIn feeds have been flooded for weeks with “nominate your favorite CMA pro” followed by “vote for me” posts. And now, we await the winners announcement to see who makes this year’s coveted list.
Take a quick look around and you will realize these awards spark both celebration and skepticism. Fans of the program emphasize the peer-to-peer support and positive optics for the CMA practice. Skeptics call it a spammy, glorified popularity contest. So, which is it? Let’s break it down.
Nominations: Open to practically anyone (as long as you’re in the CMA field). You can even nominate yourself and voila, you’re a nominee!
Voting: A free-for-all; your own neighbor could cast a ballot. Open nominations mean an obscene amount of potential winners—a whopping 658 this year... or somewhere around there. It’s a scrolling abyss to cast your vote and you can vote for as many as you’d like!
Winning: A bit hazy here. While there is a panel of judges and nominees are asked to respond to a few qualifying questions, it’s not clear what weighting is put on votes versus judges’ feedback.
What’s Working
In many ways, the Top 100 campaign is doing exactly what it was created to do…be a powerful marketing campaign for Base.
The awards are an incredibly savvy, brand-building play first launched by Ari Hoffman back in 2022. Since then, Base has boldly resurrected the campaign each year and enjoys non-stop tagging and exposure by nominees for a good two week period, not to mention the winner announcements that come later.
Humble brags, double as free ads!
And let’s be real. Participants aren’t oblivious to this. If you’re gonna play the game, might as well lean in! Many use the awards for clout, celebrating team recognition and resume padding. At the end of the day, many practitioners have concluded this is an equal exchange of value - and who can argue with that?
Top100 also fulfills the very positive role of getting the word out about Customer Marketing and Advocacy. Practitioners have the opportunity to ask peers for votes, both within their organization and without. This provides an opportunity for curiosity and learning around CMA as a practice. Some also argue that it democratizes recognition, allowing the professionals who lack a recognizable brand behind them, or who might be overlooked by traditional accolades, to have a shot at an industry award.
Last, and certainly not least, this award program leads to some pretty funny memes. And we all love a good laugh!
What Doesn’t Work
There’s room for the skeptics as well. For a program seemingly based on the number of votes, one could reason that nominees from smaller companies don’t have a fighting chance in anything involving a community vote. At face value, this program seems to reward popularity over vetted results. As a practice striving for a seat at the table and trying to elevate itself above “happy customer fluff”, should our award programs have more emphasis on measurable impact?
In addition, the sheer number of nominees is questionable, often creating a sense of “not-belonging” for those who don’t have someone to nominate them and can’t bring themselves to the point of nominating themselves. Even the number of “winners” is large enough to leave you feeling that you’ve missed an invitation to the club!
Yay or Nah?
So where do you fall? If your goal is networking and brand exposure, the program delivers in spades. If it’s industry street cred and recognition of the work, then maybe seek out awards that actually ask for receipts, like the CAP Awards (coming soon—you know we had to plug it).
As a lightweight, scaled and quick-impact campaign, we give Base kudos. The Top 100 CMA Awards are a great marketing campaign, increasing Base’s awareness while giving participants a badge of visibility.
As an industry benchmark or measurement by which to determine a practitioner’s level of skill and quality of work? Don’t let a win or fail impact your sense of standing as a CMA pro. They’re entertaining, sparkly, and they always get us talking. But they’re not the Oscars of customer marketing and advocacy. Maybe more like the People’s Choice Awards: heavy on vibes, light on receipts.
At the end of the day, not all programs are created equal, but they can all serve a purpose…and that’s ok.
Where do you stand on Top100? Love ‘em or hate ‘em? Let us know by replying to this email. We may share some of the best (or spiciest) opinions (with your permission, of course)!
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