Tips on writing a winning entry

Notes for entrants

There are 19 award categories in the Fairfax Employment Marketing Awards in 2008. Not all categories require written documentation; however, the majority do call for an accompanying summary of 500 words and up to 1,500 words for a number of major awards.

The key to winning an award is to maximise the written documentation with a compelling overview of the submission.

The judges' scoring criteria is outlined in each respective category, which should form the basis for the formulation of the written documentation for an entry.

Some tips for writing a winning entry

  1. Refer to the FEMA call for entries and category information to determine the best category fit for your entry.
  2. Once you have established the most appropriate category, review the judges' scoring criteria.
  3. Ensure that you plan the number of words across each of the criteria so that you can cover each component succinctly.
  4. When describing the objective of a campaign try to describe it with specific, measurable and time-related goals. There may be short-, mid- and long-term objectives that need to be outlined.
  5. When describing the strategy for a creative entry, try to cover the creative and media strategy as relevant. If it is a brand strategy, it is important to go into the detail of how you are differentiating and what the key components were of the strategy to achieve your goal or objective. Describing the duration and timing of the strategy is also important.
  6. As your objective, performance excellence and results are linked to specific deliverables, make sure the criteria for measurement are clearly described and put results into context to demonstrate why it is a strong outcome.
  7. In discussing why a particular creative route was chosen, describe how it would connect with the audience.
  8. Demonstrate how any promotion or campaign has been effective in delivering the planned effect on the planned audience.
  9. Provide the evidence in the detail. PricewaterhouseCoopers have been engaged to independently collate and review submissions of financial information supporting the entry. In order to maintain confidentiality of this sensitive financial information, a series of questions will be answered by the entrants and answers to these will be scored by PricewaterhouseCoopers using a weighted points system. Judges will see a weighted scoring only. Full details and the questionnaire are available on our website.
  10. When submitting, do not assume that the judges know of your firm. Judging is based on entry, not reputation.