Oct 21, 2014

ICON HONORS 2015: The Call for Entries Opens Now

The ICON HONORS 2015 call for entries opens today in pursuit of top achievers competing for recognition in the home and gift industry’s most celebrated and coveted mark of accomplishment.

The sixth-annual ICON HONORS extends to retailers, manufacturers, sales agencies and service providers the invitation to seek their place on a global stage reserved for those whose professional and personal achievements are declared superior in rigorous adjudication across a field of 16 distinct categories of competition.

ICON HONORS is produced and staged by AmericasMart® Atlanta in exclusive partnership with the Gift & Home Trade Association (GHTA) and Progressive Business Media, and in affiliation with Gift For Life.

With a coterie of 60 Honorees recorded over its first five years—from every dimension of the home and gift industry—ICON HONORS in 2015 will again recognize the highest levels of achievement from a diverse field of submissions and nominations posted across the call for entries period ending March 16, 2015. ICON HONORS are conferred annually in July in conjunction with The Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market® on what is universally recognized as the most anticipated and important night in the home and gift industry.

All ICON HONORS submissions and nominations are made exclusively online at ICONHONORS.com. New to ICON HONORS 2015—and conferred separately from entries received in open submissions and nominations—is the Progressive Business Media Marketing Messaging to Retailers Honor. The new Honor recognizes superior achievement in manufacturing and sales organizations creating multi-channel business-to-business marketing campaigns that have produced successful sales results and strong brand value propositions.

The four ICON HONORS recognition categories, with their individual subsections, include:

INNOVATION

Innovation 1: Technology Innovations/Marketing; Technology Innovations/Networking; and Technology Innovations/Selling.

Innovation 2: Product Innovations/New Products; Product Innovations/Redesigned Products; and Product Innovations/Licensed Products.

Innovation 3: Packaging Innovations/New Designs; Packaging Innovations/New Material; and Packaging Innovations/Eco-Friendly.

CONTRIBUTION

Contribution 1: Community Influence/Business Development and Community Influence/Outreach.

Contribution 2: Industry Influence/Leadership and Industry Influence/Cause-Related Product.

BRANDING

Branding/Identity: Brand Identity Development/Brand Launch; Brand Identity Development/Brand Continuity; and Brand Identity Development/Rebranding.

ACHIEVEMENT

Achievement 1: New Achiever.

Achievement 2: Career Achiever.

ICON HONORS additionally confers special recognition through the Lifetime Achievement Honor, AmericasMart Medal of Excellence Honor and The GHTA/Gift For Life Honor of Excellence. These Honors are conferred at the sole discretion of the ICON HONORS governing board representing the partners. Those named as Honorees in this level of recognition include truly iconic brands such as Hallmark, Barbara Bradley Baekgaard (Vera Bradley), catstudio, Century Furniture, Restoration Hardware, The Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) Retail, Anthropologie, the Williamsburg Brand of The Colonial Williamsburg Foundation and others.

Honorees are selected through extensive adjudication by highly qualified experts drawn from the world of design, manufacturing and product development. The 2015 call for entries continues through March 16, 2015, with adjudication immediately following. The2015 ICON HONORS celebration is set for Thursday, July 9 as the signature event of The Atlanta International Gift & Home Furnishings Market®.