How We Define Marketing Innovation

We define innovation simply as changing or challenging the status quo of your organisation or your industry for the better – better for your customers, and/or better for your company and/or better for your other stakeholders. The innovation could, for example, involve adopting or adapting a new technology; introducing new ways of thinking into the marketing processes and customer experience; or refocusing or restructuring teams to deliver new benefits – or current benefits more effectively.

But none of this should be innovation just for innovation's sake. As with The Financial Services Forum's main awards, the keyword is effectiveness. You need to be able to demonstrate to the judges that your innovation – in whatever form – has been truly effective in delivering additional and demonstrable benefits to your customers, your company and/or your other stakeholders.

The awards thus focus on the overall impact the innovation has had in meeting existing or emerging customer needs and expectations; or in embracing changing organisational priorities or imperatives; or in recognising and creating totally new opportunities. It is also important that entries discuss the broader picture – in particular the extent to which the project impacts (negatively or positively) other company activities, and also the balance between short-term and longer-term impacts for both company and customers.

An additional innovation on our part is to recognise the increasing importance of and focus on environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) issues and especially, within the social element, diversity. We have added an extra question to explore the extent to which, if at all, the innovations described have been influenced by the company's ESG strategy or by diversity considerations in respect of customers or the company itself. This is not to say that ESG or diversity must be a specific element: if it is, and this is well explained in the entry, good marks will be awarded; if it is not, and this is well explained in the entry, equally good marks will be awarded.