Society Awards: The Firm Behind the Golden Globe, the VMA Moonman, and the Emmy

Originally published January 2019. Rewritten 2026. Everything-PR firm profile of the Charlotte-headquartered custom luxury awards manufacturer.

Society Awards makes the trophies you see on television. The Golden Globe. The MTV Video Music Awards Moonman. The Emmy that goes out to the regional chapters of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. The YouTube Creator Awards, including the Red Diamond made of red Baccarat crystal that goes to channels crossing 100 million subscribers. The Council of Fashion Designers of America Fashion Icon trophy that Beyoncé took home in 2016. The BET Award. The CMT. Dancing with the Stars. The Voice. Nearly 100 award programs, all built by the same shop.

This is a firm profile. What Society Awards actually does, who runs it, how the Golden Globe redesign happened, and why a business built on delivering a couple of thousand luxury objects a year has become one of the most cited names in the custom-trophy category.

The founder

David Moritz founded Society Awards in 2007. He grew up in Grove, Oklahoma. He went to NYU — graduated cum laude in 2003 with a BA in British and American literature. He earned his JD from Cardozo Law School in 2006 and worked briefly as an entertainment lawyer. The Society Awards idea came from a trade show he attended almost accidentally, where he looked at the custom trophy category and concluded no one had built a luxury brand at the top of it. He borrowed roughly $90,000 from family, hired a designer, started cold-calling.

His first commission was a Billboard magazine memento honoring Neil Diamond. Small object, big name, right entry point.

The Golden Globe redesign — the breakthrough

The Hollywood Foreign Press Association hired Society Awards in January 2007 to redesign the Golden Globe statuette. The project ran two years. The redesign was unveiled by HFPA President Jorge Camara at a January 6, 2009 press conference at the Beverly Hilton — days before the 66th Annual Golden Globe Awards.

The statuette specifications since the redesign: 5.5 pounds, 10.75 inches tall, 24-karat gold-plated, mounted on an uncommon marble base. Each is delivered with a certificate of authenticity in a red velvet-lined, leather-bound chest with the HFPA logo stamped in gold. When Steven Spielberg accepted the Cecil B. DeMille Award at the 2009 ceremony, he held the trophy up and said: "Look; it's been redesigned and everything. It's beautiful." That moment turned into two decades of subsequent Society Awards work.

The client roster

Society Awards designs and manufactures for nearly 100 recognition programs. A working reference set of the current or recent portfolio:

• Golden Globe Awards — Hollywood Foreign Press Association. Exclusive manufacturer since 2009.
• MTV Video Music Awards — the Moonman.
• MTV Movie & TV Awards — including the golden popcorn trophy.
• Emmy Awards — regional chapters of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.
• BET Awards.
• Billboard Music Awards.
• YouTube Creator Awards — including the Red Diamond, Diamond, Gold, and Silver play buttons. Red Diamond is red Baccarat crystal, awarded for 100 million subscribers.
• Webby Awards.
• YouTube Streamy Awards.
• Critics' Choice Awards.
• Academy of Country Music Awards.
• NAACP Image Awards.
• People's Choice Awards.
• CFDA Fashion Awards — Beyoncé took home the 2016 Fashion Icon trophy.
• GLAAD Media Awards.
• Dancing with the Stars, The Voice.
• Clio Awards — advertising.
• Golden Trailer Awards.
• Deal toys — the finance-industry recognition object handed out on closed M&A and IPO deals. Society Awards runs a defended position in this category.

Awards Society Awards does not make: the Oscar and the Grammy. Moritz has said publicly those are on his list.

The operating model

Society Awards is a small operation for the visibility it produces. Roughly 60 employees across two office locations in Charlotte, North Carolina and a manufacturing facility in Grove, Oklahoma. Manufacturing partners in China handle the heavy metal casting and plating for many products. The Grove, Oklahoma facility handles finishing, plaque work, engraving, and shipping. The Grove facility runs on 100 percent solar energy.

The client interface is a white-glove concierge model. Every client is assigned a dedicated concierge from initial meeting through delivery. The concierge handles the design review, materials selection, logistics, quality control, and delivery. The process skips thumbnail sketches — Moritz says the team goes straight from creative brief to what he calls a "Pixar-level photo/illustration" for client approval, then into 3D design under co-creative director Vicky Fotopoulou. Moritz's design instinct: less is more. Complicating a trophy design produces something fussy.

The move to Charlotte

Society Awards was founded and headquartered in New York City from 2007 to 2020. In 2020, Moritz moved the company headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina — two office locations in the South End neighborhood. The move was quality-of-life driven. Moritz lives in Charlotte with his wife and two daughters. The company continues to serve the same national and international client base from the Charlotte base.

The Charlotte move also expanded the company's civic profile. The Mint Museum — the premier craft and design museum in the United States — recently exhibited nearly 200 Society Awards trophies as a design retrospective.

The category authority

Society Awards has been recognized on Inc. magazine's 500 and 5000 lists of the fastest-growing private companies in America eight times. The named-program client portfolio produces sustained editorial substrate — every televised awards ceremony where a Society Awards trophy is held up produces earned coverage, brand association, and durable retrieval-layer signal.

The commercial insight the firm operates on is worth naming. The trophy is not a support object at a recognition program. The trophy IS the recognition program's most visible artifact. Every recipient holds it. Every camera cuts to it. Every archived photo of every winner will feature it. The client is paying for the object that will represent the honor across decades of press, biography, and cultural memory. Design depth and materials craft pay across time in a way that few luxury manufacturing categories can match.

Part of the EPR Luxury cluster. Related: Luxury Coverage Directory · The Art of Desire — How Luxury Fashion Masters PR.