Please download the attached PDF which sets out the five key areas listed below that your entry needs to cover.

1)  Background & Objectives

We’re looking to you to clearly state the business, marketing and communications objectives that lay behind the communication investment.

• What was the competitive position of the brand and its recent marketing history?
• What were you trying to achieve and why?  Hard business objectives here are ideal.
• Do make sure your objectives are clear and relevant; it is crucial to match your final results to these objectives.

2)  The Solution

• Tell us what was your strategic solution?
• Was there a ‘big idea’?
• How did you get there and why?
• What role was TV required to play and why?

3)  The Plan

• How was the key idea executed?
• What were the main virtues of your plan?
• How did you make the most of what today’s TV has to offer?
• Describe how the use of TV was integrated with other marketing activity, whether media advertising or not.
• Make sure you include enough detail about the TV plan.  We’re happy to learn how many Facebook views the campaign achieved, but not without knowing how many saw it on TV!
• Consider the market your brand was operating within and also what competitive activity existed at the time.

Be as clear about what you did as you can; if some facts are confidential maybe indexing them or describing them in relative and not absolute terms will help.

4)  The Results

Thinkbox is dedicated to proving effectiveness, so it’s critical that you include evidence that your plans worked against the objectives you set. Include measures such as shifts in awareness, attitudes, consideration and most importantly commercial results such as shifts in revenue, profit, sales, market share.

• What happened as a result of the communication activity?
• How do you know it worked?
• What was the budget? Is the entry eligible for the low budget award? (Max £500k investment)
• Can you isolate the effect of advertising from the brand’s other marketing investment eg price-cutting, wider distribution etc?
• Was it possible to isolate the specific impact made by TV?
• Make sure you avoid overclaim and have considered what other causes might account for the effect you saw.
• Can you prove that the communications activity has been a worthwhile investment for your client? To what extent has it paid back?

5)  Client Involvement

It’s a good idea to get approval from a senior client early on. This will also ensure you only work on entries that are likely to be approved and will guide you regarding confidential data.

An endorsement from the advertiser counts for an awful lot, so include comments from the client where possible. Ask yourself whether your client would believe this to have been a successful campaign before you start.

Entry Deliverables 

Please structure your awards so that they include the following elements.

• A CONTACT – Please provide a single contact for the entry. Please provide the name, job title, phone number and email address
• AN ENTRY TITLE – Please give your entry a title (which is separate from the summary sentence)
• SUMMARY SENTENCE - Each entry should have a single sentence proposition of no more than 30 words.
• EXCECUTIVE SUMMARY - Each entry should have an Executive Summary of no more than 200 words
• ENTRY LENGTH - No entry should exceed 3,000 words but can be as short as you wish. Many winning papers have been very concise but still told a story.
• JUDGING CRITERIA - Each entry must cover off the FIVE areas above which include background & objectives, the solution, the plan, the results and client involvement. However please introduce them as you wish
• HARD COPIES - Please provide 5 hard copies of your entry, together with supporting audio visuals on CD or DVD, as well as an electronic copy of the paper. Please provide copies of the TV ads and where integrated with other media, a complete set of examples
• CASE STUDY - Finally, we want to provide further publicity for your successful campaign and entry by turning it into a case study on our website. Please clearly indicate on your entry form that you’d be happy for us to do this.
• VIDEO ENTRY – If you wish to provide a video entry we would be happy to show this and it can enhance judges’ understanding.  However we strongly recommend that you accompany this with outline details in text.

Please send your entry to:

Jamie Maskall
Head of Marketing Communications
Thinkbox
Manning House,
22 Carlisle Place,
London,
SW1P 1JA

If you have any further questions, please give Jamie a call on 020 7630 2329 or drop him an email at jamie.maskall@thinkbox.tv.