Event industry veteran Simon Burton has launched a new agency dedicated to awards and awards campaigns. Iconify starts with three projects in its portfolio: Charity Film Awards, Young Guns (an emerging art awards) and World Exhibition Stand Awards (a joint venture with Mash Media). Two more launches, World Sports Photography Awards and Blockbusters (the International Blockchain Awards) are planned for the coming months.
Burton, whose event industry background includes successful exhibition launches and exits through trade sales, established his successful event PR agency Exposure Communications in 2000. He has been involved in several high-profile awards in recent years including Great British Entrepreneur Awards, Football Business Awards and Sports Business Awards.
The new business will create its own awards properties as well as working with partners and rights holders to develop awards campaigns. Burton’s co-founder in the project is Marc D’Azzo, who will take the role of commercial director.
Speaking about the launch Burton said: “Awards are the modern event format. They are content rich and generate great stories across an extended timeline; they bring communities together and celebrate success. They are also a hugely adaptable and flexible format. Our philosophy is to think about them as interactive campaigns rather than simply events. They are the perfect expression of live plus digital.”
