The judges for the Prolific North Creative Awards have shared their top tips to help you craft a winning entry.
The Creative Awards, first launched in 2023, celebrates the talented creatives, teams and companies across the creative sector in the North of England and Scotland.
Before the final entry deadline on 19 April, some of this year’s judging panel share their advice for entering, and what they’ll be looking out for.
Vineet Raheja, Head of Creative, ITV
For Raheja, a piece of creative work that really stands out is a “brutally simple idea (based on a truth) that has been executed brilliantly”.
Here’s his five simple steps for pulling together a successful entry:
- Start by defining the problem and hence the role for comms
- Tell us how you landed on that killer insight, that “unspoken human truth”
- Then reveal your big idea
- Show us how you amplified that big idea into a 360 campaign
- Finally, share any results you have!
Justin Clark, Founder, SocialNorth
Clark, founder of community and event series SocialNorth, says his biggest piece of advice for entrants is to focus on data, results and evidence.
“If your entry makes claims about results or impact or how well your creative or campaign performed, please, please, please provide the evidence. Show us the results, the facts and figures. So many entries fall short because they don’t back up the claims made,” he explains.
“Unsubstantiated claims on performance is the biggest red flag for a judge! Entries that clearly articulate how well the creative or campaign performed and back it up with evidence stand out. It doesn’t always have to be stats.”
Positive testimonials from clients are beneficial too, he adds.
“If the person who wrote the brief or commissioned the work says what you delivered worked for them, that’s really positive evidence to back up your claims. Judges can’t make assumptions and have to work with evidence so please make sure you include it!”
Victoria Fawcett, Marketing Director, Dentsu Creative
For Fawcett, she says the Creative Awards are a great opportunity to celebrate the “fantastic work” emerging from the North. It’s a valuable way of creative businesses and agencies to unite, connect and take a moment to reflect on their work.
On her top tips for a winning entry, she said: “I want to see a good story weaving together the insight, idea, and impact in a compelling way. Judges will be reading a large amount of entries, so you need to make your entry memorable. Make sure your entry is passionate, tells an interesting story, and is backed up with results.
“Send as many visuals as you can along with the entry form – Awards Boards and case films are a lovely bonus.”
Oh, and don’t forget one very important thing, says Fawcett: “get client sign-off!”
Take a look at all the categories here and make sure you submit your entry before the deadline on 19 April.
