Click to read 5 Easy steps on how to enter

Make sure your campaign is valid to enter
Only work that appeared between 1 August 2010 and 31 July 2011 is eligible. The exception is the Brand Building and Customer Acquisition categories, which can span two years to show long term effectiveness, but some of the work must still have appeared during 2010/11.

Allowing time to meet the deadine
The deadline for this year's entries is now extended to 3pm on the 16 September. With the DMAs, it's absolutely critical that your entry form does the work justice. If it's clear and compelling, judges will spend more time getting to grips with it - and will be more likely to defend its merits when discussion starts to get heated. So giving yourselves time to craft your entry could be the difference between a walk to the podium and saying, "If only I'd explained the target market better."

Planners, share your strategy. Creatives, rationalise your concept. And if the client needs a gentle prod to release some sales figures, it never hurts to start early.

Supplying support material
Once you’ve paid for your entry you will be allocated a Unique Reference Number (URN). You MUST make sure that you clearly mark all of your supporting collateral to your award entry with your URN. This will enable us to match it to your online entry form.

Supporting documentation should be mailed to:
DMA Awards Office, DMA House, 70 Margaret Street, London, W1W 8SS

You must include two good, clean samples of each element (not applicable to work
entered into the digital categories). All work and samples submitted for the Awards become the property of the DMA and will not be returned.

Direct Mail, Print and Press: work must NOT be mounted otherwise it will be disqualified. Loose samples only please, but include a photographic schematic if you think it will help the judges see how it works, e.g. for a pop-up or scratch-off format.

Digital Media: supply a URL to live examples of the work online wherever possible; alternatively supply live examples of the work on a disc. Please include unmounted screen grabs. Make sure any reference to your agency name has been removed from the work online and from the live or staging site.

Videos: any video support for integrated work must be only 3 minutes long and have unrelated background music. Voiceovers should be limited to a succinct explanation and not be used to "promote" the work. It must include the actual work submitted and must be a robust, serious explanation, no "showcasing". Films may only be used as a format with entries which include 3 or more media and must not mention the name of the agency or other involved partners.

TV: submit on DVD edited to 5 mins max. Remember to remove all references to the agency from the DVD and labels.

Direct Response Radio: submit on CD edited to 5 mins max. Judges will not listen to more than 3 executions of the same campaign to assess it.

Telemarketing: send call guides or scripts, not tapes.

Want to win? Here are our Dos and Don'ts

DOs

• Do not assume that the judges know about your product or brand. They may not.
• Do write it once for content, and twice for style. Judges enjoy reading a well written entry. Imagine it's a piece of copy.
• If entering a campaign in multiple categories, tailor each entry. Don’t just cut and paste.  It might be for exactly the same piece of work, but the story, the judging criteria, and the judges, will be quite different.
• Do get colleagues from different departments to review it. What turns a copywriter on might be quite different to your data planner.
• Do ensure that the form clearly relates to, and describes, what they're seeing.  Some judges look at the work first, others at the entry form.
• Be clear, precise and honest when talking about media schedules, lists and - especially - results. The judges will spot a false or empty claim a mile off. We don't publish details of results in the detailed results section unless permission is given, and every judge signs a confidentiality form prior to judging.
• Do quote actual figures. Judges have to be able to judge actual figures: responses, sales, cost per response, cost per lead, enquiry, conversion to sale, overall ROI etc rather than indexing. If you can think of an interesting way to explain why the results are award-winning - we'd welcome that, but always give us precise results.
• Do make it compelling. If you can't sell your work, you can't expect to win. Tell the judges what's so different or original about the way you approached this brief. How does what you've done compare with the way it's been done before? Why was what you were asked to do so difficult?
• Do leave time to draft and re-draft the entry, to track down the results, and to get sign off from the client.
• Do call Janet Attwater if you need help on 020 7291 3343 or email janet.attwater@dma.org.uk

DON'Ts

• Don't waffle. You don't need to write a whole case history on the award form. People waffle when there isn't that much to say.
• Don't mount your work – it will be disqualified
• Don't supply promotional videos for your work. Any video support for integrated work must be no longer than 3 mins long and have unrelated background music. Voiceovers should be limited to a succinct explanation and not be used to "promote" the work. It must include the actual work and it must be a robust, serious explanation, no "showcasing". Films may only be used as a format with entries which include three or more media and must not mention name of agency or other involved partners.
• Don't busk. Meaningless phrases such as “results exceeded expectations” or “the client was very happy” or that "initial feedback to the campaign was excellent" mean nothing without hard figures.
• Don't expect results that simply performed better than a target response rate to impress the judges. Remember the results have to be award-winning. So you need to convince the judges that the ROI of the campaign is worthy of a DMA.
• Don't reveal the name of the agency in the name and address lasering on the samples. Samples with an agency name on will be disqualified.
• Don't include spelling mistakes. If it looks like you don't care about your entry, why should the judge?
• Don't use acronyms or jargon.