Best of Houzz Awards

A Houzz community award for home design & remodeling professionals.

Best of Houzz is a community-based award given at the beginning of each year determined by the prior year's work. These awards are based on the saves and reviews of millions of Houzz users all over the world. The two awards are a given to home renovation professionals who have contributed beautiful content to the Houzz community and who provide excellent customer service to their clients. Because the rules on how to win the badges run parallel, it is possible for professionals to win both the design and service Best of Houzz award.

The overall objective of the community award, is to motivate home professionals on the Houzz platform to showcase their high-end work through photography, designs and client 5-star reviews.

The Solution

Over the past two years, I built up the Best of Houzz awards program substantially with the Senior Manager of Sales Enablement to where it stands today as a 360 experience. As this award influences both sides of the business (homeowners and home renovation professionals) I had to problem solve for different audiences for the various touch points. Not only did these touch points need to educate the home renovation community on what Best of Houzz is, but motivate professionals to actively earn the award, and for homeowners to want to hire these pros.

The Deliverables

Updated Badges,
Winners Promotional Kit,
Winners Showcase Page,
Evergreen Landing Page,
Social Media Assets,
Product Banners,

Team

Becca Cauzza, Global Senior Manager, Sales Enablement
Andrea Novo, Sr. Designer / Design Lead
Yeseul Son, Designer & Illustrator

2023 Badge of Honor Campaign Messaging

In the home remodeling business, every task is a triumph. String together enough wins and you never know what you’ll celebrate next. That’s what Houzz is designed for. We help homeowners and professionals achieve the experience they need to earn success—however they define it. From the new dad finding the perfect builder for his family home, to the seasoned designer going above and beyond to update clients, Houzz helps all kinds of people to work smarter and take pride in their progress.

For those wins that really went the extra mile, cue the ultimate industry badge of honor: “Best of Houzz”.

The Growth of Best of Houzz.

In 2020 I had the opportunity to help manage and elevate the Best of Houzz Awards. Once becoming more involved and collaborating with the Sales Enablement team, the awards program grew over the to where it stands today as a 360 degree experience with some of trial and error. With the learnings gained, the Best of Houzz Awards scope now involves many moving parts including several landing pages, social media campaigns, product advertising, editorial articles, videos and pro profile badges as seen below.

Cross Functional Collaboration

While managing the creative side of the Best of Houzz Awards, I also streamlined the cross functional collaborative process. Working with so many teams, the process needed very organized, clear, and efficient. This meant setting up guidelines, check-ins, meetings, timelines, and due dates for all teams.

Brand & Campaign Copy

Also part of the creative team, the Copy team owned the over all campaign messaging on all touch points.

Localization

As Best of Houzz Winners are spread through out the world, the localization team ensured consistency and accuracy of all copy for all local touch points.

The Current Best of Houzz Touch Points

One of the biggest pain points of the Best of Houzz Awards was staying organized with so many moving parts. By organizing all assets into touch point buckets, all involved teams knew what they owned. This also helped teams organize what content was needed, and how include the creative teams (design and copy) on deliverables to achieve their goals.

The Creative

Collaborating with the copy team, the design team developed two concepts for the 2023 Best of Houzz Awards.

01 | Structural Lines

“Connections are what this business is built on. But today, it’s not just who you know that helps—it’s how you know them. For millions of homeowners, remodelers, and designers, Houzz is how. By connecting homeowners to pros and pros to the tools they need, every match made on Houzz proves it’s more than the sum of its software. It’s a place where collaboration happens and productivity is all part of the plan. And when those pieces connect just right, they lead to work worthy of a second look with ‘Best of Houzz’.”

This first visual concept was based on our interpretation of the first write up, and was influenced by not the line work of architectural plans, and the geometric shapes found in furniture and home interiors. You can see within the illustrations abstract lines of iconic furniture and home features. Wanting to bring in the high-end celebratory vibe, the design’s color palette caters to a mature home renovation pros, but incorporates pops of colors and showcases the Best of Houzz badges.

02 | Banner Year

In the home remodeling business, every task is a triumph. String together enough wins and you never know what you’ll celebrate next. That’s what Houzz is designed for. We help homeowners and professionals achieve the experience they need to earn success—however they define it. From the new dad finding the perfect builder for his family home, to the seasoned designer going above and beyond to update clients, Houzz helps all kinds of people to work smarter and take pride in their progress. For those wins that really went the extra mile, cue the ultimate industry badge of honor: “Best of Houzz”.

This second visual concept was based the design team’s interpretation of how home renovation professionals showcase their triumphs and successes through metals, accolades and badges. We wanted this direction to feel very cheerful and celebratory. Ultimately this concept was not used, but saved for future use as the visual concept skewed younger than our demographic’s age.