This year’s line-up of judges for the DMA (UK) Awards includes a raft of client and agency-side high-fliers who are taking part for the first time.
Industry leaders such as Clive Humby (Chairman, Dunhumby) and Amanda Phillips (Managing Director, Proximity) as well as creative figureheads and client side marketers from brands including Land Rover, Xerox, Wateraid, Air Miles and PDSA have joined the 200-strong panel.
The prestige of the DMA Awards is underpinned by its rigorous three-day judging process and the judges scrutinise each entry to assess its merits in terms of strategy, creativity and results. First time judges need to satisfy strict criteria in order to qualify and the selection process was devised by Awards Committee members.
“The quality of the judges is indicative of the gravitas of the DMA Awards,” says Heather Westgate, Chair of the DMA Awards Committee. “This year we wanted to recruit more new judges whilst maintaining the Awards’ reputation for having a robust judging procedure.
“First timers and previous judges alike bring a wealth of experience from a range of backgrounds and their diversity reflects the changing face of today’s direct marketing industry. The one thing they all have in common is that they are at the top of their game and have the expertise and nous needed to pin down exactly what makes a piece of work outstanding by considering strategy, creativity and results in equal measure. This is what enables the DMA Awards to objectively select and showcase the very best work in the industry.”
Further information about the DMA Awards is available at www.dmaawards.org.ukand the deadline for entries is 15 September.
Media contact: Mary Hamblyn at Beyond Public Relations, 0845 450 6090, mary_h@beyondpublicrelations.com
Notes to editors
About the DMA (UK) Awards judging procedure
Each judging panel has a group leader, an art director, a copywriter, a planner, a media buyer, a data planner and at least two clients and/or category specialists. It takes three solid days of rigorous judging to find the winners. Each judge marks each entry individually, without conferring, and then the marks are collated and up to 10 entries are put through to the second stage. These entries are discussed in great detail to make sure they excel in the tripartite criteria – strategy, creativity and results. Having discussed all 10 entries, the judges without conferring, select the Gold, Silver and Bronze winners.
Usually, a clear winner will emerge but if the level of excellence demands it, the eventual placings are finalised by extra voting or debate.
Judges are not allowed to vote for work from their own brands, organisations or work in which they have any kind of interest and no reference to the agency that produced the work should appear on samples or within the entry form (other than the front page which the judges do not see).
Every judge signs a confidentiality agreement to protect commercially sensitive information and to ensure the results are not revealed until the Awards Ball on 5 December when the winners will be announced.
About the Direct Marketing Association (UK) Awards
The DMA (UK) Awards, in association with Royal Mail, have been running for over 25 years and are renowned in the industry for being of the highest standard. There are around 30 categories covering a range of sectors and channels, with new categories regularly introduced to keep pace with the industry as it evolves.
Entrants need to demonstrate excellence in three core areas – strategy, creativity and results – to satisfy the stringent judging procedures. Results are used to measure the effectiveness of a campaign against the control, demonstrating the power of the strategy and creative. They are held in the strictest confidence.
The DMA is the largest trade association in the marketing communications sector, with over 900 corporate members. The DMA’s mission is to maximise value for members, whilst maintaining and enhancing consumer trust and confidence in the direct marketing industry.
To assist, the DMA administers a portfolio of Preference Services that allow consumers to register their contact details, free of charge, should they choose to reduce the amount of direct marketing approaches they receive via mail, telephone, fax and email.
Sales attributed to direct marketing activity total £107 billion each year, £67 billion of this from consumer sales and £40 billion resulting from business to business direct marketing. As an industry, direct marketing generates around 9% of consumer sales on a yearly basis as well as employing roughly 814,000 people (both directly and indirectly) and supporting 3% of all employment in the UK. In 2004 organisations spent a total of £37 billion on direct marketing, of which over £14 billion can be attributed to media spend.
DMA members benefit from added protection, intelligence and growth, which together we call the Power of Association. Within these three areas, DMA member services include government lobbying, free legal advice, training & development, representation on DMA Councils, networking opportunities, regular updates of current dm issues/legislation, research, use of the DMA logo, promotion of member companies and discounts on a range of dm products/services.
For further information please visit http://www.dma.org.uk/For details on the benefits of becoming a DMA member please call 020 7291 3388 to speak to the membership team, email membership@dma.org.uk or visit http://www.dmamembership.org.uk/.<. To find out more about the DMA Awards visit: http://www.dmaawards.org.uk/.
