The Net Awards

It’s always a topic of discussion. Some love them, some loathe them. Do we really need such a thing, do we need more? It’s all up for grabs.

Last year, I had a vested interest in them. I’d appeared on a podcast a couple of times that was up for Podcast of the year and I’d also freelanced a while back for one of the agencies up for Agency of the Year so I felt a bit of pride to see them up both for the fact that I had done something with them and also because they were my friends. Aside from those awards, I really didn’t have much of an opinion on the rest. If I’m honest, I’d never heard of half the people.

Fast forward to this year and truth be told, I know even less. I know some of the names on there but I’ve never worked with or really hung out with them so to me, I can’t really justify a vote.

However and I keen to point out here, it’s plain to see to all nominated are doing something right as people did nominate in the beginning and I’ve gone away and researched some of the people and agencies and yeah, it looks like you are doing some good stuff.

It does make me think though. Let’s say I hadn’t worked with the nominated. What would I be basing my vote on? Would I have voted? I probably would have voted as they were friends. So I’m not sure if that is the right thing to do or not?

Does it come down to popularity?

I guess it does to a point. Social media in whatever format is driving this. Whether it’s Twitter, Dribbble or whatever. Being popular on these things get you noticed. I don’t think that’s actually a bad thing. But is it fair? Is it a true reflection on someone’s talent?

What is clear though, it’s hard to get this sort of thing right. I was speaking to a mate about it and who we would nominate and I tried to do it as fair as I could. It was bloody hard without it being down to who I got on with and knew rather than the work they were producing.

So yeah, the Net Awards. It’s a tricky one. Whilst I think it’s important people get recognised for good work. I’d question the nominators at times. Why are you nominating and is it a fair nomination. But hey, not my business to tell people how to vote is it.

At the end of the day though, we shouldn’t take these things too seriously (says the guy writing about them). They are but a bit of fun. I’m not really into awards. I know where I used to work was big into it. I guess my focus is on making good stuff and the real reward is people using the stuff I make, everything else is just noise yet I know a couple of lads and lasses pretty well that have benefited from being up there and whilst we might not agree with some of them, it’s good we have the chance to vote for stuff we like.

It shouldn’t be a serious thing. It’s a distraction more than anything but it comes second to what matters most in business, and that’s making money and paying bills.

Good luck to everyone nominated and to the people organising it.

And that folks was the Net Awards.