A Data-Driven Approach to Creating Award Categories That Make Sense

When did you last check whether your award categories have kept pace with industry changes? Using the data you already collect, you can make smart, confident decisions about your awards program’s future.

How to Use Data to Manage Award Categories

A data-driven approach to award categories means looking at three things: submission trends over time, who’s applying (and who isn’t), and feedback from everyone involved. This approach helps you create and update categories to match what’s happening in your industry right now.

Why Associations Should Evaluate Award Categories Regularly

Your award categories should align with what you want to accomplish.

• Do you want to boost your association’s reputation?
• Stay relevant as your industry changes?
• Attract members who’ve never participated before?
• Raise awareness about industry challenges?
• Celebrate innovation?

Get clear on your goals first.

When your categories feel stuck in the past, members notice. Regular reviews keep your categories aligned with both what you want to achieve and what your members need.

3 Essential Data Sources for Award Category Decisions

Track Historical Submission Data

Your awards management system (or spreadsheets) already tracks entry numbers. Pull three to five years of data per category and look at what’s happening. Are entries growing in some categories and dropping in others? These patterns tell you something.

A healthcare association noticed its ‘Telehealth Innovation’ category went from five entries three years ago to 45 this year. This growth is a clear sign that the industry is changing fast. The association responded by creating subcategories for different telehealth applications.

Compare Member Demographics to Applicants

Compare applicants to your overall membership. If you can get industry-wide demographics too, even better—you’ll spot groups you’re not reaching yet.

Look for mismatches between who’s eligible and who’s applying. If 30% of your members are early career but only 10% apply for awards, you need categories for what they’re accomplishing. The same goes for company size, region, or whatever demographic factor matters in your industry.

Collect Qualitative Feedback

Surveys tell you what numbers can’t. Ask entrants, judges, and sponsors about missing categories or confusing descriptions. When judges keep saying entries don’t quite fit a category, that’s your cue to rewrite the description or rethink the criteria.

Throughout the year, take note (literally) when members say, “I wish there was a category for this” or “I never know which category to enter.”

How to Use Data to Identify New Award Categories

Identify Gaps in Your Award Categories

Notice what’s going on in your industry that your categories ignore. Check demographic data for groups you’re missing. Think about whether your most popular categories are too broad. Maybe they’d work better as two or three more focused options.

A manufacturing association realized large companies with dedicated safety teams and big budgets dominated its ‘Safety Excellence’ category. Smaller operations doing impressive work with limited resources rarely made it past the first round. Creating separate size-based categories gave everyone a legitimate shot at recognition.

Conduct Market Research Before Finalizing Categories

Before launching a new category, assess the potential applicant pool. Will they come from inside or outside your membership, or employer nominations? Figure out whether you’ll get enough entries to make a new category worthwhile. Test interest with member surveys, polls, or focus groups.

Segment Categories to Create Fair Competition

Sometimes the issue isn’t a missing category, but an overly broad category. Consider segmenting by:

• • Organization size, budget, or staff
  • Years in practice or business age
  • Region, if your industry has regional variations

A state bar association split ‘Pro Bono Excellence’ into solo practitioner, small firm, and large firm categories after data showed large firms won 90% of the time. The change increased both entry numbers and the diversity of winners.

When to Consolidate or Retire Underperforming Award Categories

Data Red Flags Signaling Category Problems

If a category has low entries for two or more years, you have a problem. Declining participation is worth watching too, even if the numbers aren’t rock bottom yet.

Watch for categories that overlap and cause confusion. You’ll know because applicants ask, “Which one do I pick?” and judges get entries that fit in two or three categories. If a category no longer aligns with program goals, that’s your biggest red flag.

How to Build a Case for Category Consolidation or Retirement

When you pitch consolidation to your boss or committee, show them three to five years of trends, not just one disappointing year. Explain how combining weak categories creates more competition, which makes winning more meaningful. Show them how outdated categories don’t match what your association wants to accomplish.

An engineering society had three tech categories that together pulled nine entries a year. After two years of those numbers, they consolidated into one ‘Emerging Technology’ category, with triple the entries in the first year. Now they don’t have to rename categories every time a new platform goes viral.

How to Refine Existing Award Categories

When to Refresh Categories Instead of Retiring Them

If judges say the criteria are fuzzy, applicants tell you they’re confused, or you keep getting entries that don’t quite fit what you had in mind—the category doesn’t need to die, it needs a rewrite.

Strategies for Reframing Award Categories

Look at what your data says: broaden categories that aren’t getting enough entries and narrow ones that are too crowded to be meaningful. Update category names to match how people in your industry talk today, not how they talked five years ago.

Revise descriptions to clarify intent and criteria. Sometimes the category concept is fine, but the description isn’t doing its job. One association changed ‘Social Media Excellence’ to ‘Digital Community Engagement’ to capture platforms beyond the usual social media, and entries jumped.

Award Category Review Process: Annual and Long-Term

Conduct Annual Award Category Health Checks

Every year, look at the numbers: which categories are up, which are down, who’s applying. Ask your entrants, judges, and sponsors what they think at least once a year—they see things you don’t.

Do a Major Category Review Every 3-5 Years

Every three to five years, do a thorough analysis of your entire program. Look at long-term patterns to distinguish a trend versus a one-year blip. Check whether your categories still match what you want to achieve, see how your industry and membership have shifted, and don’t be afraid to make big changes.

Present Data-Backed Category Recommendations to Leadership

When you’re pitching changes to your committee, boss, or volunteer leaders, skip the spreadsheet. Show them charts with trend lines—they’re much easier to understand than columns of numbers. Explain the connection between your category decisions and what you want to accomplish.

When you regularly update award categories based on real data, people notice. It shows you’re paying attention to what’s happening in your industry, not just running the same program you’ve always run. Your responsiveness helps you stay relevant and keep members’ trust.

Ready to take a more strategic approach to your entire awards program? Check out The Ultimate Guide to Association Awards for advice on building and managing an awards program that delivers value to your members, industry, and association.