This document provides tips for entering and winning awards at the DMA awards competition. It discusses identifying award-worthy work, choosing the right categories to enter, crafting strong yet concise entries that appeal to judges, and getting objective feedback on entries. The key steps are to select distinctive, groundbreaking work with a clear strategy and measurable results, choose categories where the work is a strong fit, write entries that make the strategic thinking and results clear for judges, and have others review entries to ensure they are understandable and interesting.

1. How to win awards, bag the grand prix, ruin your new shoes and get promotedGoldwag consultancy limitedWanda Goldwag

2. Presentation agendaWho am I?How to identify what to enter?Choosing the category?How to present the work?Some invaluable tips

3. Who am I?DMA awardsMember of the awards committeeClient , agency and supplier experienceChaired the awards twiceReal lifeSmedvig Venture CapitalTrue North Human CapitalChallenge ConsultancyYou at Work HoldingsPerforming Right SocietyPostcomm Commissioner

4. What makes the DMA awards so special?STRATEGY CREATIVITY RESULTS

5. When should we start thinking about the DMA awards?Keep awards in mind from the moment the work is briefedIt is EVERYONE’s responsibility to think about creating award winning work – not just creative’s. Some new categories this year are aimed at planners and media buyers

6. How to win a DMA award Identify the work with an absolutely spot on strategy Where the creative and strategy are intertwined and the results were good and measurable

7. Ask yourselfIs it distinctive?Is it groundbreaking?Is it industry leading?

8. How to identify which work to enter?Judges fall into two camps, creative focussed v results focussed - you must satisfy bothRemember A ‘great strategy’ with poor results and poor creative was not a great strategy

9. How to select candidate work?Your first filter is creative Ask everyone in the agency to nominate the work (that they’ve worked on or seen) that has wowed them creatively Including the receptionistThen check that it has solid results to support itIf it’s great work the planner will be able to provide the solid strategic thinking behind it

10. RememberDMA’s shouldn’t be an exercise in post-rationalisation or fiction. The judges can spot it a mile offSo, there’s no power point masterpiece that the client agreed to. Just the workWhere did the idea behind the activity come from? A pub conversation for example? Something must have stimulated it? What was the nugget? What was the strategic imperative that ran through the work?

11. 100’s of entries, soClarity=More time for the judges to understand your work

12. Choosing the categoryThe expensive, time consuming approachThrow everything at it and see what sticksEntering every bit of work into every possible categoryBut do you want to write (and pay for) 100 entries?

13. Choosing the categoryA more considered approachPick your best work Based on creative and results. Or at least just creative (can go into creative categories)Be ruthless -mediocre work won’t shine through. Be objective, just because the people who’ve worked on it thinks it’s great isn’t enoughSometimes they don’t think it is, (maybe it’s been a painful job) but it might be and they’re not seeing it

14. Tactics to consider.Consider grouping work togetherInvestigate the opportunity to present longer term strategic thinking by showing the progress of a campaignAvoid clashes within categoryExcept where two client’s work needs to go into the same category

15. Which category?1 category is judged at a time and most judges judge only 1 categorySo consider entering your work into several categories, as long as they’re appropriate

16. Dumb mistakesMake sure it fits the criteria, read the rulesThere will be at least one category that your work fits, make sure it’s in the right one (sounds obvious but it doesn’t always happen) Read, re-read and re-read again the category criteriaAnd if you’re not sure, call Janet Attwater for advice

17. Craft the entriesThey take weeks (so if you haven’t started yet, get a move on!)Not some half hearted last minute panicIf a planner writes them get a writer to sprinkle magic dust on themPut together the entry so all the many elements make perfect sense

18. How to present it in its best lightDon’t cut and pasteIf you’re entering more than one category don’t replicate the entry across eachThink carefully about each category’s criteria and what you’re likely to be competing against

19. Who to involve?Get an objective viewGet people who aren’t familiar with the account to read your entry. Do they understand it?

20. How to “manage” the judgesThink about how to interest the judgesThey may have 40 entries to read. How can you make them ‘sit up and listen’? The introductory section (convince them about ‘what is wonderful about this work’) are your most important words. Try and cover your strategy, creative solution and resultsSustain their interest. Be clear and concise. Make sure there are no mistakes -if you can’t be bothered with your entry, why should a judge be?

21. Improving your chancesStudy the form bookChoose your categories wiselyForm completion is not an administrative taskDon’t skimp on the resultsAvoid hyperbole, self-referentialism and bull***tAbove all, think about how the work is judged…and present it accordingly

22. Thank you