Click the tabs for information about each stage of the entry process.

Awards Entries must be made online. The Awards site uses the same username and password as the main DMA website. If you have forgotten your password simply enter your username (email address) and click login for a reminder to be emailed to you.

If you require login details there are two types of registrations:

1. If your organisation is a member of the DMA you can use the ‘fast track’ route to get a DMA username and password by following Step 2 on the Login page. You are entitled to a discount on your Awards entries if you are a DMA member organisation. Your ‘fast track’ details will be checked at the DMA to ensure only DMA members receive this discount.
2. If your organisation is not a DMA member you can use the ‘fast track’ non-member route by following Step 3 on the Login page. This will provide you with a username and password for the Awards website (and the main DMA website). Non members are not entitled to the member discount on Awards entries

When you have logged onto the Awards website for the first time you will be asked to confirm a number of contact details that will appear on each Entry Form created by you. If you are entering on behalf of somebody else this is the point where you should record their details. The form will default to displaying your details and if these are the ones to appear on your Entry Forms then you can simply leave them and click ‘Submit’ to accept the form.

After you have logged in for the first time and confirmed your contact details you will be taken to the Entry Forms page. In all subsequent visits after logging in you will go directly to the Entry Forms page. The Entry Forms page lists (one per line) all current entries you have made. You can Add as many Entries as you wish, each will be listed on this page showing its unique ID number, the category entered, the client and the campaign name.

To add a new Entry simply click the ‘Create new entry’ button at the top or bottom of the page. This will load an empty Entry Form, as a minimum you must provide a category, a campaign and a client name. You may create several Entries for the same client and campaign but each must be for a different category. If you are creating several copies of the same campaign then there is a mechanism to Duplicate an Entry, this is described further below.

Once you have created one or more Entries you will see them listed on the Entry Forms page. To the right of each entry there are 3 icon buttons in the Edit group. These allow you to Edit, Delete or Duplicate your Entries. It is unlikely that you will be in a position to complete the full Entry Form at the time you first add it to the system. The Edit button allows you to return to the form as often as you wish to add more copy or make amendments and changes. If you decide not to proceed with an Entry the Delete button allows you to remove it from the list.

The Duplicate button is used to duplicate an entire Entry for use in another category. It is recommended that you complete as much of the first Entry as possible before making duplicates. Duplicates are always made so that the category defaults to the first item in the category list. Please ensure that you choose the appropriate category once a duplicate has been made.

When you are Adding or Editing your Entries please bear in mind the following:

• Save your work regularly, online systems can lose connection back to the server and work you have entered can be lost. You should save your work every 10 or 15 minutes to be safe. There are ‘Save’ buttons placed throughout the Entry Form page, they save the entire form not just the part you are working on.



• It is common for Entry copy to be created in Word or another word processor and cut and pasted into the Entry Form. Word and many other word processors use an HTML type language ‘behind the scenes’ to create the formatting and layout you see on the screen. Often when cutting and pasting some of this hidden code is copied as well as the text. This can cause problems when pasted into the Entry Form HTML page.



• If your Word document has formatting such as bullet points it is best if cutting and pasting from a word processor to paste first into a plain text editor; the Notepad application in Windows is a good choice, on a Mac the Textedit application can be used. This will strip out the hidden formatting code and leave only the text; this can then be copied and pasted from the text editor.



• Bear in mind that the online Entry Form page is not a representation of the final printed form you must submit. You should use the Print icon on the Entry Forms homepage to review how your form will look when printed and adjust the content by editing your Entries.

Once you have completed your Entry Forms and are happy with how they will appear when printed you must provide client approval of your Entry. This can be done by printing the forms and obtaining a client signature in the box provided on page 1. Alternatively the system can send a copy of the form by email to the client and they can approve it electronically.

On the Client Approval tab on the Entry Forms page all your Entries are listed with an associated Approval icon. These icon buttons start the online approval process or show online approval has been received. If you are intending to obtain an approval signature on the printed form you can ignore this tab as it relates only to the online approval process.

If you wish to use the online process click the Approval icon button for the entry you wish to have approved. You will be asked to confirm that you want to seek online approval and warned that subsequent edits will remove any approval granted. Whilst the approval process is happening you will not be able to edit or change the Entry in question. The client will need to approve or not approve the Entry before you can do further work on it.

The Entry approval process after you confirm you wish to start it will send the client an email containing a link that allows them to see a print preview of the completed Entry Form. They will have buttons to approve or not approve the Entry. If they have chosen to approve the Entry it will be marked in the system as approved, at this point it will be ‘unlocked’ and can be edited again, however, if edited the approved status will be removed. The system will treat the clicking of any ‘Save’ button on the Entry Form screen as being an edit, whether or not any part of the Entry Form is actually changed.

If the Entry is not approved it will be unlocked for editing but not marked as approved. At the point the Entry is not approved the client will be given the chance to email the agency contact to explain their non approval. They can of course decline to send an email and communicate their reasons by another method if they wish.

Once the Entries are complete and have either been approved electronically or the client is ready to approve them by signing a printed copy; they can be printed. The final tab offers options to print the Entries and make payment online or by cheque. Each entry is printed individually and choosing the print icon for an Entry displays the print preview page. Please remember to keep a printed copy of your entries for your own records.

Even though you’ve completed your form online you must still send a hard copy along with two samples of the corresponding work to the DMA Awards Office, DMA House, 70 Margaret Street, London W1W 8SS.

Each Entry is printed from its print preview page by using the browsers print option in the file menu. As these can differ from browser to browser and are dependent on the actual printer used it is difficult to describe all eventualities. In most scenarios the pages will print as displayed with no problem. If electronic approval has been given this will be indicated on the form, if no approval has been recorded a signature box will be printed for client approval.

In Internet Explorer version 6.0 there is a documented printing error that makes printing Entry Forms almost impossible. Forms printed using this browser will have the right hand edge of the copy cut off. No specific solution for this can be offered as it seems to be a fundamental problem in the browser. The simplest solution is to print the Entry using a different browser; later versions of Internet Explorer together with Firefox, Safari, Chrome etc will all work.

The other print option available is to print to PDF. This creates and displays a PDF document of the Entry Form. This can be saved locally and kept as a copy of the Entry or used to provide the final print out that will be submitted. This is an alternative solution to the IE6 printing problem if an alternative browser cannot be used.

The final process once the Entries are printed and approved is to pay for your Entries. This can be done online from the Print & Pay tab or you may pay by cheque, if you pay by cheque there is no need to click the pay buttons. If you click the Pay icon against an Entry the details of that Entry will be placed into an online shopping basket and displayed in a new window. You can either pay at that point by going to the checkout or close the window and choose another Entry. You can add Entries to your basket until you are ready to pay.

To pay simply follow the ‘Pay Now’ option in the shopping basket window and enter your credit/debit card details as requested, note that you must provide appropriate address details for the card you wish to use. Once your payment has been made you will be sent an email as a receipt and proof of your payment. If you pay by cheque an receipt will be posted to you.

Once you click the Pay icon against an Entry the icon disappears and is replaced with an ‘in basket’ icon. Please bear in mind this indicates only that the item was placed in your shopping basket and not that payment has been received. If you did not complete the payment you can click the Paid icon and send it to the shopping basket again. When your payment is finally made the icon will change to a 'Paid' green tick after a short delay.

The ‘Paid’ icons in the Entry Form list are provided for your reference and convenience and do not represent acceptance by the DMA that payment has been made. A completed online payment will provide an email receipt to you and a corresponding one to the DMA, these are the only acceptable documentary evidence that payment has been made.