What makes the Midas Awards uniqueNEW YORK CITY, US: 2014 Midas Awards: Interview with Alisun Armstrong, Executive Director, Midas Awards World's Best Advertising. The Midas Awards is celebrating its 13th anniversary. What makes the competition unique? What updates are in store for Midas, and how do they benefit the entrants? Alisun Armstrong, Executive Director, Midas Awards World’s Best Advertising. On the content side, we pay attention to industry trends to make sure our categories accurately reflect the ever-evolving landscape of financial services advertising and marketing and update the list each year. We also seek out ways to honour more people who are involved in these campaigns. To that end we're introducing the Midas Brand Report, which will recognise the top-scoring brands in the competition, and the first-ever Midas Award for Innovation, a special jury prize that will honour achievement in technology - an entirely new app or device, or a new way to use an existing system. On the tech front, we strive to make entering as easy as possible, and review our processes in great detail each year to make sure our entrants have a seamless, stress-free experience. Last year we introduced in-entry upload of supporting material; this year entrants will be able to select more than one category for a single entry, eliminating multiple forms. Our tech review extends to the judging platform, as well - making the process easy for our Grand Jury means all they have to worry about is looking at and scoring the work. We want our jurors to be completely free from distraction while they're reviewing entries. One thing that isn't changing, though, is our dedication to customer service. If there's something we've missed, or if an entrant has any questions, we're eager to help. What new categories were launched and what was the impetus for adding these categories? New categories for the 2014 competition include Customer Loyalty & Retention, In-House Creative Department, Apps, and Augmented Reality. This year you have initiated the Midas Brand Report. What was your rationale for creating this ranking report, and what do you hope to accomplish? How do you select the Midas Awards Grand Jury and what mix of disciplines are represented? That's the official line. But they're also people who care deeply about the industry, take the work they do very seriously, and respect the work they see in the judging platform. And they're a great group of people to work with. What are the criteria for evaluating entries, and how does the scoring process work? The Shortlisted work moves on to Round 2, and is scored on a simple 1-10 system to determine the Gold and Silver Midas winners. The highest scoring entry earns the Grand Midas. What is the Midas Report and how do you determine the agencies that are included? King Midas Grand Award. The Report is calculated with the following formula: What cultural differences, if any, have you noticed in Midas entries from around the globe? What are some examples of Midas' most innovative winning campaigns? But innovation isn't just about technology. We had several collateral/direct mail entries that brought new life to old-school tactics, like "Karva Chauth" from M&C Saatchi Direct & Digital Communications in Mumbai, "Genuinely Basic" from antwerpes ag in Cologne, and "Cut the Wire" from Commonwealth Financial Network in the US. In your opinion, why are awards important? As consumers continue to become more and more savvy about marketing and advertising, creatives must work even harder to win them over. I hope that competitions like the Midas Awards encourage people to do more of the work that the public will seek out, work that redeems the industry in the public's eyes. What advice would you give to someone entering the Midas Awards for the first time? Beyond that, I recommend thoroughly reading the rules and regulations; proofreading your entry before you hit "submit"; and knowing your work well enough to choose the right category. But my biggest bit of insight when creating an entry - for this or for any competition, really - is to be considerate of the judge's time, which comes down to "less is more": Keep your answers short and to the point, make sure any results reported are defendable, and make sure your case video (if you have one) is well-paced and trimmed to only include what's necessary. Let the work speak for itself. What is the most creative aspect of your job as executive director? What's the most fun? I have the most fun seeing the work and keeping up with what's going on in the industry in general. I also really enjoy telling people that their campaign has earned an award (though that has a flip side, the part I dislike the most: telling people they did not win). I have to say, though, my favourite part of what I do is interacting and learning from the judges. These people are pros, and have such great insight into the work, the process, and the way things work. They truly are an inspiration to me. |