Evcom Screen Awards how to improve your chance of winning

www.everysense.co.uk
Angela Law, EVCOM Board Member
Director, Every Sense
@Every_Sense
angelalaw@everysense.co.uk
© Every Sense Ltd
How to improve
your chance of winning
an EVCOM Screen Award

About this presentation
• This power point contains the script
of a presentation previously given
to creative agencies entering the
EVCOM Screen Awards
• It isn’t pretty and breaks all the
rules for a slide show. But it does
contain useful info on how to think
about the EVCOM Screen Awards &
maximise your investment &
chances of winning
• It is intended for creative agencies
though clients and in-house units
may also find it helpful.

Busting some myths
• ‘The same agencies always win’
- Not true. In my experience the
judging process is totally fair and
rigorous – judges invest huge amounts
of time / attention. However some
agencies do have a consistent track
record of creativity and they invest in
their entries – you can too!
• ‘Big budget projects will always
win out over smaller budgets’
- Not true. The judges do not know the
budget (except for the Laurus Award.) I
have seen plenty of terrible projects
for £100k and great ones for £15k!

A winning investment
See your Award entries as a strategic
marketing investment
• In a very competitive sector
winning awards can be part of your
differentiation
• Awards can help prove how you add
value
• Awards give you reasons to
communicate with clients /
prospects
• Awards can raise your profile
(company and individual)
• Winning awards creates a virtuous
circle of quality, awards, high
visibility, talent, more work etc

Identify your potential award-winners
early
• In my agency we identified
potential award-winners at brief /
concept stage to ensure they were
completed to award-winning
standard
• Identifying potential award-winners
early also enables you to hard-wire
evaluation into the project and set
out with client to do best possible
evaluation of effectiveness – proof
of ROI is increasingly important in
entries. (This will also help you win
an Effectiveness Award.)

Identify your potential award-winners
early
• Also enables you to gather relevant
material as the project progresses –
this is especially important for Live
Event Awards where relevant
photos and video of the project in
action is crucial

Enter best work multiple times
• If you have a cracking project that is
good enough to enter into a
Category Award then it should be
good enough to enter into
Production Arts and Crafts Awards
too. (Your competitors will do)
• Look carefully at the Category
Awards – as some projects can
legitimately enter more than one
category
• If your project is good enough for
the EVCOM Awards it is likely to be
good enough for a number of other
creative and industry awards

Enter best work multiple times
• If this sounds expensive then, again,
consider the cost of entry as a
strategic marketing investment
• As a creative agency with a £1m
turnover – you should have a
marketing budget of 2%-5% of
turnover – enough to give a
significant number of entries if you
have the right projects and if you
make the most of the award wins

Know the standard
• Again, this is a strategic marketing
investment. I cannot emphasise this
enough. You must have a good idea
of the standard your entry will be up
against. To do this:
• Watch previous winners on the
EVCOM player
• Attend the awards and events
• Look at competitor’s award-winners
• Volunteer to be a judge – a superb
learning experience all round (just
email EVCOM – they are always
looking for judges)

Involve your clients
• It is your responsibility to have the
client’s approval to enter projects
• Think carefully before entering
commercially-sensitive material
• Winning awards is often good for
clients (and their careers)
• Some clients will be willing to pay or
share entry fees
• Involving your clients may make it
easier to gather evaluation or
relevant materials

Make commercial sense of your award
• No point in investing in entering
good-quality projects for Awards if
you don’t have the time, resource
and a plan to publicise your win
• EVCOM will alert you to the value of
attending the actual Awards
• Have a plan ready to announce your
nominations and wins asap (your
competitors will)
• See the Every Sense Guide to Making
Commercial Sense of Winning
Creative Awards at
http://www.everysense.co.uk/guides

No ‘me too’ entries
• Don’t copy other agencies’ previous
award-winning ideas. Judges will
spot derivative or tired ideas and be
unimpressed
• Originality, creativity and
effectiveness is key – for you, your
client, your audience and awards

How to make the judges happy
Consider the judges
• Most first round judging is done by
individual judges alone in front of
a laptop or tablet. They are
judging as unpaid volunteers after
a long day, or maybe at the
weekend. Though they are
dedicated they may have dozens of
entries to look at. You owe it to
your entry to make it a flawless,
easy, process for the judges

 Enter excellent, original,
interesting, effective work
 Prepare early and invest time in
gathering the relevant supporting
materials – don’t emphasise
items the judges cannot see or
experience
 Analyse your project as it now
stands – it may have developed
significantly since the original
brief. Write about it as it was
delivered

 Don’t ask the intern / junior to
write your entry. Get your best
writer / person who knows the
project well to write it. Invest as
much time in the entry as you
would in getting a proposal or
script right.
 Make your entry clear, interesting
and easy to grasp
 Make sure your entry is of the right
technical standard and to highest
possible quality. EVCOM provides
guidance on quality required. This
may take some time so don’t leave
it to the last minute

 Suitable evaluation – is not ‘the
client loved it.’ Demonstrating
effectiveness and ROI is more and
more important and feasible.
(Though views or click thru’s
alone may not be enough – what
did the target audience do as a
result and how can you prove it?
What was the impact on the
client’s business and how did that
compare to target impact?)
 Think about what to put on the
entry form which has limited
space and what to add as useful
additional documents/ evidence

How to annoy the judges
Hasty or ill-thought out entries -
if you haven’t bothered no-one
else will
Typo’s, errors – as above
Technical glitches – if it doesn’t
work it has zero credibility
Incomprehensible jargon or
acronyms
Puff & adjectives – let the
judges decide if it is ‘beautiful’
or ‘creative’

How to annoy the judges
Name checks – be scrupulous in
ensuring your entry is
anonymous – name checks are
counter productive
Derivative work

angelalaw@everysense.co.uk
© Every Sense Ltd. All right reserved. No part of this presentation or its content may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means now
known to be invented without prior written permission of the author, Angela Law.
Remember - you have to be in it to
win it - good luck!

About Angela Law
• Previously MD of production
company which won IVCA Grand
Prix; IVCA Effectiveness Award
(twice), numerous IVCA Gold
Awards; New York Film Festival
Grand Award (equivalent to Grand
Prix) & many other creative &
effectiveness awards
• Frequent awards contributed to
agency being in top 5 of Televisual
Peer poll for many years
• Chair and judge for over 20 years
• Guidance based on that
experience, plus working every
day with EVCOM members

About Every Sense
• Every Sense is a specialist business
consultancy. We help creative
companies grow, prosper and
achieve their potential
• Work with many of Televisual Top
50 and EVCOM (previously IVCA and
Eventia members) plus many other
creative agencies
• Provide the EVCOM Member Support
Service for Business Consultancy.
EVCOM members receive an hour of
complimentary consultancy and
discounted rates – if we can help
you in any way – just get in touch

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