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| Author | Zoe Aresti |
As the Cannes Lions recedes in the rear-view mirror, our attention's turning to the new awards scheme that everyone's talking about: the inaugural Digital Cinema Media Awards.
In association with Media Week and Campaign, Digital Cinema Media (DCM) has launched an industry awards scheme to celebrate and reward the best advertising work showcased in cinema by the media industry over the last year.
The cinema industry continues to show strong double digit growth, with both box office figures and advertising revenue growing over the first half of the year. It's a powerful and immersive medium; ever-changing and unique environment that gives brands the opportunity to reach highly-engaged, captive audiences.
DCM, Campaign and Media Week want to know how you have used cinema to deliver exceptional payback on your clients’ advertising investment. It’s time to champion this work. It’s time to champion cinema.
If you believe your work has the wow factor, these five tips will help you on your journey to making your campaign red carpet worthy.
1. Stand out. Make your entry stand out from the outset to grab the judges’ attention. Keep relevant to the brief by summarising what your objectives were, take the time to explain why that thing that you did was really clever and why certain key decisions were made when planning your campaign.
2. Storytelling. We love stories and we’re ready to listen to yours. So get ready to entertain us. While saying what you did is important, you have to turn it into a story to win an award. Stick to a well-written, concise entry that is easy to read. Importantly, don’t fill your entry with confusing terminology. Use plain English to explain the importance of your work.
3. Results driven. While it’s tempting to highlight every single aspect of your campaign, to stand a chance of winning you have to pull out the results, explain how objectives were met and showcase proof that the campaign worked.
4. Submit accompanying assets. Amplify your entry by submitting a link to the ad in question or providing additional assets. To make the process as smooth as possible, you’ll also want to secure client approval from the outset to avoid any last minute hiccups.
5. Don’t be boring. The second your entry becomes boring, the judges will lose interest. So don’t give them a chance to. Get someone else to read it prior to submission for a fresh pair of eyes. This will also catch any typos and grammatical errors that could undermine the quality of your paper.
The Digital Cinema Media Awards cover five categories:
- Best use of dynamic targeting in cinema
- Best use of cinema in an integrated campaign
- Best long-term cinema campaign
- Best newcomer to cinema
- Best use of innovation in cinema
There is also an overall Grand Prix for the most effective and forward-thinking campaign of the last year.
The judging panel will be chaired by Claire Beale, global editor-in-chief of Campaign. She is joined by Karen Stacey, CEO of Digital Cinema Media, and figures from the worlds of advertising, cinema and the media, including Jenny Biggam, owner of the7stars, Karen Blackett, CEO of MediaCom, Andy Edge, Commercial Director at Odeon and Barry Louth, head of media planning at BskyB.
The deadline for entries in 10 July, and winners will be revealed at the Ham Yard Hotel in London on 23 September. Find out more at www.dcm.co.uk/awards.
This article first appeared on Media Week.