You know and love the NNI Press Ad of the Year Awards and so do we. This year we‘ve decided to share that love and add more categories that will involve more people in the awards programme.

So, let’s start with the elements of the awards programme that you’ll recognise from previous years… NNI Press Ad of the Month has been moving along nicely since January and has produced an interesting shortlist of press ads and some very exciting monthly winners. Meanwhile, the regional competition has been collecting entries throughout the year.

As in previous years, these ads will move forward and compete for the much-coveted NNI Best Copywriting and NNI Best Art Direction awards and, for ads published in NNI regional titles, the NNI Regional Ad of the Year award.

But, this year, the competition won’t end there. No sirr-ee.

Changes for creative agencies

We want to give even more awards to great creative ads. Here’s why – there are lots of clever ads that do a great job within their category but that might find it difficult to compete against ads from categories that more enthusiastically embrace the creative process (or, let creatives run wild, depending on your perspective).

So, to give these ads a chance to shine, we’ve created a series of brand spanking new industry categories. Yippee!

It doesn’t matter whether you’ve entered the ad into the NNI Press Ad of the Month competition already or if you are entering it for the first time. You can even enter ads into more than one category if you like – we’re feeling generous. As long as your ad ran in at least one NNI newspaper during 2012 it’s eligible to compete. Entries into these categories should be made in hard copy on or before January 16th 2013.

The winners of all of the creative categories, including Best Copywriting and Best Art Direction will be eligible to win the grand prix, NNI Press Ad of the Year 2012.

See the full list of categories below.

Changes for media agencies

Once we’d decided to expand the competition we got really excited and tried to think of the best way to bring even more people within the NNI Press Ad of the Year Awards family. We already present awards to the media agencies that spend the most on press advertising and that increase their spend on press year-on-year, but until now we’ve never awarded media agencies or planners on the basis of HOW they invest their clients’ money.

This year, we’ve created two new awards to honour the strategists who make press work for their clients: NNI Press Agency of the Year 2012 and NNI POP Planner of the Year (for planners who have less than three years experience in the business).

The competition for these awards will seek out the most creative strategies, the best use of budgets and the campaigns that garnered the best outcomes.

Criteria for entry

NNI Press Agency of the Year

The agency must demonstrate its ability to use press effectively. We recommend the submission of three examples of national press campaigns that ran during 2012.

To be eligible, a campaign must have run in at least one NNI national title.

Campaigns may have been supported by other media.

Entries should answer each of the questions and statements below for each campaign described:

Why Press?

Please detail your key goals for this campaign.

Explain why you included newspaper advertising on your plan for this campaign.

Strategy

What strategy did you employ to make best use of your press advertising budget?

Discuss any aspects of this campaign that you consider to be innovative or unique.

Creative Execution

Did you influence the advertising creative and if so, what was your role?

Please detail how you believe your involvement with the creative impacted upon the success of the campaign.

Effectiveness

Discuss the measurement and results of the campaign.

Demonstrate the longevity of the campaign and detail long-term positive outcomes of it.

Entries should include a maximum of 600 words per campaign and three creatives per campaign. All entries must be signed by the managing director.

The judges will be looking for evidence of:

• Strategic thinking
• Best use of budget
• Creative use of the press medium
• Positive outcomes that can be attributed to the press campaign/s

Entry forms are available to download here.

POP Planner of the Year

The Power of Press (POP) Planner of the Year award will be presented to an individual planner who has been working in press for three years or less (prior to October 2012) and who is judged to have demonstrated the best use of press in the creation of media strategies for clients.

There is no limit on the number of planners who can enter from any one agency.

The entrant should describe two campaigns that they have contributed to during the course of the past year, answering the following questions for each campaign:

1. Please detail your key goals for this campaign.
2. Explain why you included newspaper advertising on your plan for this campaign.
3. What strategy did you employ to make best use of your press advertising budget?
4. Did you influence the advertising creative and if so, what was your role?
5. How effective was the entire campaign and what role did newspaper advertising play in the delivery of the results?

Entries should run to a maximum of 600 words plus three creatives per campaign. All entries must be signed by the managing director.

The judges will be looking for evidence of:

1. Strategic use of the press medium
2. Best use of budget
3. Value that can be attributed specifically to the strategies created or actions taken by the individual planner

Entry forms are available to download here.

Changes for advertisers

With all of the celebrations that we have planned it would be unforgiveable to leave out the businesses that fuel the ad industry – the clients. So, this year we’ll be presenting a very special award for NNI Press Advertiser of the Year.

The shortlist for this award will be created through nomination by NNI national newspapers. A shortlist of brands will be invited to submit a short entry to explain the benefits that they have achieved through press advertising in 2012. If you’re in the running you’ll hear from us in January 2013.

Changes for everyone

The 2012 competition promises to be more exciting than ever and we can’t wait to begin the judging process. This year, because we will be presenting more awards, judging will be completed by a judging team. The team will include experience on the creative and the media strategy side.

We’ll leave it up to you to make the judges’ jobs easier by showing them some really great press advertising – best of luck and see you at the NNI Press Ad of the Year Awards in March 2013!

Categories and how to enter