Opinion

Making the Mumbrella Awards matter – what you can tell us

Mumbrella Awards 2013 Tim Burrowes2It’s nearly time for the call for entries for the 2014 Mumbrella Awards. But before we publish this year’s categories and criteria, Mumbrella’s content director Tim Burrowes invites you to have a say…

I can still remember in excruciating detail the night we lost.

It will be nine years ago next month, at a publishing awards show.

We were shortlisted for magazine of the year. And we’d given it everything. It had been an amazing year. We’d relaunched with a sales and newsstand turnaround to show for it.

Our awards entry was an intricate production in its own right, with about the same level of effort as an edition of the magazine. There was nothing more to be done.

We even hired a stretch limo to take the team to the awards night.

And we lost. To our biggest rival.

It remains the most disappointing moment of my career. I’m ashamed to say that I walked out of the hotel the minute the ceremony was over.

Deep down I realised even then that we weren’t robbed. The jury just went a different way. But it still hurt.

I’ve lost at various publishing awards plenty of times (and had one or two wins) since. And it does get a bit easier. To be frank, win or lose, awards night drinking helps a lot.

So in the years that followed, when I’ve had awkward end-of-night conversations with disappointed (and often, at-the-time, angry) losers, I’ve genuinely understood how they are feeling.

The ones that have hurt the most are the ones where you want to win because you know the competition is fierce, and the jury is tough.

So that’s been the principle I’ve always applied to the awards we have run. If you’re going to get a trophy, it’s got to mean a lot to win, and hurt to lose.

Not least because, if there is an activity which currently tests the patience of the media and marketing community, it’s the proliferation of industry awards.

There are a lot of them, and some are more meaningful than others when it comes to winning.

I’ve always taken the view that at a time when companies are asking themselves hard questions about which awards to put their stretched resources into entering, the ones they will gravitate towards are the ones that will impress their clients.

The last couple of years, that was certainly helped by having a very tough Chairman of the Juries in Telstra CMO Mark Buckman. We even had a couple of categories where a winner was not awarded. It wasn’t popular on the night, but it said a lot about the standards across all of the categories.

Mumbrella Awards 2013 Mark Buckman2

Given that we first launched the Mumbrella Awards in 2009, we’re approaching the five year anniversary.

These are the categories we had last year:

  • Mumbrella Award for Bravery
  • Mumbrella Award for Culture
  • Mumbrella Award for Insight
  • Mumbrella Award for Innovation
  • Mumbrella Award for Data
  • Mumbrella Thinker of the year
  • Marketing team of the year
  • Sales team of the year
  • Media brand of the year
  • Ad campaign of the year
  • TV ad of the year
  • Film of the year
  • Production house of the year
  • Post-production house of the year
  • Creative agency of the year
  • PR agency of the year
  • Media agency of the year
  • Specialist agency of the year
  • APAC creative network of the year
  • APAC media network of the year

So I think it’s time to look at how we’re doing.

Mumbrella Awards 2013 Room2

I’ve been sounding out people across the industry over the last few months. It’s been a useful process, although admittedly the advice can at times be contradictory.

We’ll be announcing the final categories and criteria for the Mumbella Awards 2014 in a week’s time, but rather than present a fait accompli, I wanted to share my current thinking.

1. Changes to Media Agency of the Year

You may be aware that with Creative Agency of the Year, we are the only awards to actually send our jury into the shortlisted agencies. Last year that entailed agency visits in Sydney, Melbourne and Auckland.

Given that Media Agency of the Year is just as hotly contested, I plan to do the same in this category too.

2. Dropping the Post-Production House of the Year category

We had a small number of entries in this category last year. We’ve stuck with it for a couple of years, but I think it’s time to drop the category, as it does not appear to be of sufficient interest.

3. Changes to jury structure.

This year, we will appoint a specific captain of each jury, who will guide us in our choice of fellow jurors in that category. In part this reflects that after another big promotion, Mark Buckman isn’t able to take on the demanding role of Chairman of the Juries and is a near-impossible act to follow. Given that he set such high standards, it makes sense to split that role across a number of jury captains.

4. Media brand of the year

We’ll be inviting the top 15 media agency CEOs to vote on this category anonymously. In this category only, we’ll be open to both self nomination and a shortlist of our choosing.

5. State agency categories

I am leaning towards also recognising the work of agencies from a single office, in addition to our national categories. If we do so, rather than simply having, say, Victorian Agency of the Year, should we open it up to Victorian Team of the Year so media sales teams, for example, could enter? You tell me…

6. APAC awards – in conjunction with Mumbrella Asia

Last year DDB was our first APAC Creative Network of the Year and PHD was APAC Media Network of the Year. This year we’ll also recognise an APAC PR Network of the Year.

I’m glad to say that the widely respected Darren Woolley, founder and managing director of marketing consultancy Trinity P3, which works across Asia, has agreed to again be captain of our APAC jury.

The judging of the APAC categories will take place during the week of Mumbrella360 in Sydney, which runs across June 3, 4 and 5.

We also plan to add the new category of APAC Campaign of the Year to recognise cross border thinking.

7. Dropping the Mumbrella Award for Data category.

Last year, the jury did not select a winner in this category. Despite its importance as a discipline, my current feeling is that the type of work is not lending itself to award-based case studies. Admittedly I’m in two minds about this as the area is important.

8. Specialist Agency categories.

I’ve resisted having a Digital Agency of the Year category because every agency should surely have core digital skills. That’s made people quite cross in previous years – am I barking up the wrong tree?

However, I am contemplating categories such as Experiential Agency of the Year, Promo Marketing Agency of The Year, Emerging Agency of the Year and DM Agency of the Year. Yes or no?

9. Content Marketing Strategy of the Year and Mobile Marketing strategy of the Year.

Good things to be encouraging? Any interest?

10. Digital Services Company of the Year.

My thought is to recognise service providers who are innovating in this space, including mobile players and those driving into programmatic.

11. Holding Group of the Year.

To recognise the organisation with the best portfolio of agencies across the marketing disciplines.

12. Most promising newcomer of the year.

Recognition for an individual new to the industry. We ran a similar category at the CommsCon Awards with some success.

13. Entry process – all electronic.

No more giant, specialist-bound books and collateral. A level playing field focusing on the thinking, not the production values of the entry.

None of this is set in stone. That’s why I’m asking for your views before we formally announce the call for entries in a week’s time.

Mumbrella Awards 2013 Tim Ross

But here are a few dates for your diary:

  • Awards entries open: Monday April 8
  • Awards closing date: Friday May 2
  • Late entries closing date: Friday May 9
  • Awards night: Thursday June 5

I’ll also commit now – this isn’t a dash for easy cash. The price of entries will remain the same as last year. And the judging process is will be, at our end, a complicated and expensive one.

And we can’t run every category that people suggest – otherwise you end up with a painfully long awards night. We’re after quality, not quantity.

Whether you intend to enter or not, I welcome your thoughts – either in the comment thread below or privately to me via tim@focalattractions.com.au.

  • Tim Burrowes is content director of Mumbrella
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