The Golden Globes recently kicked off the entertainment industry’s awards season and sparked the typical feeding frenzy over red carpet hits and misses that will last through the Academy Awards in March.
It’s the business of awards season that caught my attention as TechPoint prepares for our own “Oscars of technology and entrepreneurship” – the 15th annual Mira Awards. Tech execs and entrepreneurs may take a page from the Hollywood playbook and turn their Mira participation into sales and marketing success.
Winning Oscars, Golden Globes or other high profile awards boosts the box-office draw of actors and strengthens the market positions of studios. Winning Miras can increase sales, boost name recognition and brand awareness, and open doors for winners and nominees.
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For example, Santiago Jaramillo was selected as TechPoint’s “Rising Star” last year, and his mobile app development company Bluebridge Digital was a runner-up for the Startup of the Year award. With media relations and marketing support from TechPoint, Jaramillo was:
  • Profiled in The Indianapolis Star as a “Rising Star”
  • Interviewed on WIBC radio’s “Pete the Planner” program
  • Named to Inc. magazine’s “30 Under 30: World’s Coolest Entrepreneurs”
  • Featured in an Inc. magazine article titled “Young. Smart. Unstoppable.”
  • Invited to the White House by the Obama Administration to be a part of the “Champions of Change: Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Innovators” ceremony.
Jaramillo’s company employed four people at the time of the Mira Awards. Less than one year later, Governor Pence announced that Bluebridge Digital inked a deal with the state of Indiana to invest more than $300,000 in new office space and add up to 199 new jobs over eight years. According to Jaramillo, the experience of winning an award, the benefits of the networking and exposure, and the doors that it opened had a positive impact on his business and certainly contributed to the company’s success.
Of course, this extraordinary outcome with Santiago and Blue Bridge Digital can’t be expected with every nominee and winner, but it does demonstrate the powerful marketing opportunities and opened doors that can result from taking the first step and nominating companies, startups, schools and individuals, or applying for yourself.
The 2014 TechPoint Mira Award categories include:
Product or Team Achievement 
  • Tech Innovation of the Year
  • Tech Services Award (Revised)
  • Tech Sales and Marketing Award (New in 2014)
Company Success
  • Tech Startup of the Year (Established Under 3 Years)
  • Emerging Tech Company of the Year (Under 100 Employees)
  • Tech Company of the Year
Industry-Specific Excellence 
  • Marketing Tech Award
  • Mobile Tech Award
  • Health Tech Award
  • Education Tech Award
Individual Achievement 
  • Tech Educator(s) of the Year (Individual or Team)
  • TechPoint Rising Star (Revised)
  • TechPoint Foundation for Youth Bridge Builder Award
  • TechPoint Trailblazer in Technology Award

More Sales & Marketing Success Stories

Press coverage of IVM, Inc.’s 2012 Mira win sparked 14 prospective new customer contacts in the week following the announcement.  Winning the award helped the vending and distribution solutions technology company land new customer Hewlett Packard, the $120.4 billion printer, personal computer, and software services provider.
Slingshot SEO, can tie 4 new client sales and more than $1 million in new business to their 2011 Mira win. Traffic to the company’s website, SlingshotSEO.com, peaked at the highest point in their history the day following the win – topping the day they achieved national press for ranking No. 58 on the Inc. 500 Fastest Growing Companies in America list. The award also served as a strong recruiting tool.