{"id":1014,"slug":"rule-hba-current-year-award-badge-archive-past-year","title":"Rule (Ontario builder/renovator sites): display the current-year award badge prominently; archive past-year badges (dated) on the Awards or About page once the next year's program closes","kind":"rule","scope":"business","status":"current","audiences":["kevin","claude-code","smb-owner","candid-team"],"topics":["agency-methodology","editorial-discipline","trust-signals","gc-vertical","hba-membership"],"reference_body":"On Ontario builder and renovator client websites that hold HBA awards:\n\n1. **Current-year badge gets the top spot.** Above-the-fold on the homepage and/or in the page hero of relevant project pages.\n2. **Past-year badges move to a dated archive** on the Awards or About page once the next year's program closes (typically September for OHBA AoD; May for CHBA Nationals).\n3. **Always include the year text alongside the badge** — e.g., *\"2025 CHBA National Marketing Excellence Award.\"* Year as plain text, not embedded in the image.\n4. Use the **official downloadable emblems** from each program (e.g., the *\"2024 OHBA AoD Winners Emblem\"* on ohbaaod.ca).\n\n**Why:**\n\n- Industry convention is to display **current-year prominently** and **keep past wins dated**. A page showing a 2017 award badge with no year context looks stale.\n- **Specific written rules limiting how long a winner can display a current-year emblem are not publicly published** — best practice is to **move past-year wins to an archive after the next year's program closes**.\n- This matches the **year-text discipline** applied to credentials elsewhere — see [[rule-renomark-link-to-profile-and-show-year]] (*\"RenoMark Verified 2026\"* as plain text).\n\n**How to apply:**\n\n- **Calendar a January refresh** for HBA + RenoMark badges (year rollover) and a **September refresh** for OHBA AoD badges (winners announced).\n- The Awards / About page is the **dated archive** — list past wins chronologically with the program, year, category, and project name. *Don't* delete past wins; **archive them** so the body of work compounds.\n- For **multi-tier wins** (same campaign winning at local + provincial + national), display the highest tier above-the-fold and reference the lower-tier wins in the archive — see the **Devron 101 Spadina** worked example at [[chba-national-awards-2025-2026-counts]].","rationale_body":null,"metadata":null,"links":{"outgoing":[{"slug":"rule-renomark-link-to-profile-and-show-year","title":"Rule (renovator client sites): link the RenoMark logo to the contractor's renomark.ca profile AND show \"RenoMark Verified 20YY\" beside it — the highest-leverage tweaks almost nobody does","kind":"rule","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"},{"slug":"hba-award-stack-local-provincial-national-progression","title":"HBA award stack progression: local (WRHBA SAM / BILD Awards / GOHBA Design Awards / WEHBA AoD) → provincial (OHBA Awards of Distinction, 49–50 categories) → national (CHBA National Awards for Housing Excellence, 48–49 categories)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"depends-on"}],"incoming":[{"slug":"research-brief-canadian-hba-stack","title":"Research brief: The Canadian HBA stack — CHBA / OHBA / BILD / WRHBA federated three-tier model, with marketing implications for Ontario builders and renovators (May 24, 2026)","kind":"reference","scope":"business","link_type":"relates-to"}]},"created_at":"2026-05-24T16:32:33.864Z","updated_at":"2026-05-24T16:32:33.864Z"}