Demystifying The Addy’s Recap
The 2018 American Advertising Awards (Addy’s) are right around the corner. This year, AAF took the guesswork out of entering with tips and tricks for presenting your award-winning work to the judges.
On Tuesday, November 27, AAF Cape Girardeau hosted “Demystifying the Addy’s” – a workshop that took an in-depth look at the Addy entry and judging process.
The workshop broke down the award categories, which includes various online and interactive media categories (websites, social media, app design, etc.). The Addy theme this year is “The Future of Advertising,” so AAF Cape Girardeau is putting an emphasis on marketing professionals and designers to submit their digital work, in addition to traditional deliverables and tactics.
During Demystifying the Addy’s, a presentation reviewed how each category is judged and gave tips for submitting work to maximize chances of winning. That presentation can be downloaded at the end of this post. Some of the key tips included:
- Download the rules and categories for 2018-2019 at aafcape.com/addys/
- Submit your work how it should be presented to judges. If your entry requires construction, deliver the entry constructed – do not trust the volunteers to know how to display your work.
- Only enter the key, strong elements – if only 4 out of 6 elements show strong creativity, only enter those 4.
- Don’t enter the same design resized for different formats as a campaign. Enter the piece as an individual ad.
- Enter the correct category, however, judges can move a piece if they feel it fits best in a different category.
- Some categories allow a description. This is your opportunity to provide context about your entry. Do this – you can create a digital walkthrough or 250-word description when allowed.
- If it looks fake or too edgy, include tear sheets to show how it was presented.
- Double check that your web address is correct and that it is live (if entry requires web address).
- Contact person must be available during judging weekend
- Turn in quality prints and executions if physical entries are required.
- Show the context of the entry. If your entry is complex, supply a photo for clarity (examples include screenshots of online banners or photographs of large scale or outdoor entries).
- Enter more stuff to increase your odds of winning. Enter campaign elements individually, as well.
- Your favorite won’t always win. You might be surprised by what does! Get unbiased feedback before submitting.
Another topic at the workshop was judging. In short, the Addy judges are different each year and come from out of market, meaning they are unfamiliar with our region’s marketing businesses, professionals and landscape. Each of the three judges is a seasoned professional from varying areas of marketing expertise (creative directors, copywriters, marketing managers, photo/videographers, web designers, interactive designers, etc.). They do not know who won in previous years and judge the entries individually.
A reminder was given that entry fees for AAF Cape Girardeau members are $49 per entry. Non-members pay $79 per entry, and students pay $32 per entry. All submissions that win gold will automatically get forwarded to the next tier (District 9). Silver winners can pay $55 to be forwarded – AAF encourages silver winners to forward their work because in the past silvers have placed gold at the District 9 Addy Awards.
Demystifying the Addy’s was a success and AAF hopes to receive more entries than ever this year! Don’t miss out on the recognition you deserve and submit your work at aafcape.com/addys! We look forward to seeing you this year at the 2019 Addy Awards! Reach out with questions at info@tristateamp.com.
