It’s that time of year again, entries for the 54th D&AD Professional Awards have opened and it looks set to be the most exciting year yet. If you’ve created a piece of work, a campaign, a product, a movement that has had people exclaiming “I wish I’d done that!” then this might be your year.
So as the wheels get into motion, here are some notable facts at a glance:
- There are 2 new categories for the 2016 edition of the world-famous Awards: PR and Media
- Innovative new and re-structured sub-categories are also added across all crafts for 2016
- F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi designing the campaign for Next Awards
- The judging experience is set to be the biggest ever with 8 days of activity in east London
Professional Awards – So what’s new?
This year’s call for entries has opened with two completely new categories in response to the evolving creative landscape: PRand Media. With multiple subcategories for each of these new additions, entries can be submitted for campaigns in categories as varied as use of print, branded content, events and stunts through to crisis management and use of data.
Tim Lindsay, D&AD CEO commented “Where once the function of a PR or Media department was to support and elevate a creative campaign designed by a separate agency, today the lines of creativity are blurred. Successful campaigns are no longer just crafted in the confines of creative agencies, creativity can no longer be pigeonholed in this way.”
“Celebrating and awarding creativity is at the heart of what D&AD does and so it makes sense to move with the times. Increasingly whole creative campaigns are being designed and created in-house by talented teams who are just as adept at harnessing the power of social media or data as they are creating their own content.”
“Adding new categories is an important step for us, it isn’t a decision that we take lightly, so we have brought on Marian Salzman, Chairman, Global Collective and CEO, North America, Havas PR
and Tess Alps, Chairman of Thinkbox to be the jury foremen for PR and Media respectively. This isn’t a soft launch; this is a complete commitment to honouring these categories and recognising their achievements.”
After an overwhelming response to the Book Design category in 2015, D&AD has decided to celebrate the true breadth of design that this category inspires with in-depth new subcategories. Also in design, the Product Design category is awarding contemporary innovation with new categories for 3D printed products and wearable technology. Game geeks will also have a field day with Printed Games submissions, new to Graphic Design,
Media continues to play a large role in shaping creativity and with such a diverse array of outstanding campaigns continuing to emerge in this space, D&AD has added subcategories to last year’s new Branded Film Content & Entertainment and to the Film Advertising categories. Following on from the Black Pencil winning K9FM, Radio Advertising has also expanded with a subcategory dedicated to branded audio content, as this area has seen significant growth in the past 12 months. Innovators inDigital Marketing are celebrated with the introduction of social video, confirming what everyone already knows: advertising to millennials has never been so relevant.
Full information on categories, pricing and dates can be found at http://www.dandad.org/en/professional-awards/. The first jury announcements will be made later in the year.
Next Awards
Also open for entries today are D&AD’s Next Director and Next Photographer Awards. The Next series bridges the gap between the D&AD Professional Awards and New Blood programme by identifying the best new talent and promoting them back to industry. The creative campaign for this year’s awards will be designed by Brazilian Agency F/Nazca Saatchi & Saatchi.
Shortlisted directors and photographers receive international exposure for their work, mentoring from a wide portfolio of acclaimed photographers, agents, production companies and advertising agencies, plus the chance to win funding and grants towards personal and commissioned projects.
The overall winner will then be chosen from the shortlists and announced at the D&AD Professional Awards Ceremony in May 2016, taking home a coveted D&AD Pencil and earning a place in the 2016 D&AD Annual. All shortlisted entries also get a mention in the Annual.
To find out more about eligibility criteria and how to enter the Next Director Award, visit:
http://www.dandad.org/en/next-director-award/
For the Next Photographer Award, visit:
http://www.dandad.org/en/next-photographer-award/
Judging
Following on from the success of Judging Week at the Truman Brewery in April this year, 2016 is set to be an even bigger creative extravaganza. This time, organised over 8 days, judging of the Professional Awards will take place alongside workshops, industry talks, panel sessions, parties and networking sessions as well as a concurrent New Blood fringe event.
Donal Keenan, D&AD Awards Director explains “D&AD has one of the most transparent judging approaches of any global awards. All work is judged by a jury of creative peers, but more than this it brings industry experts together to discuss the events that have really inspired them and talk about the future of the creative industry. After expanding this into a bigger event last year, we also discovered that people were captivated by the opportunity to see D&AD Judging in action.”
“So we’re going to build on last year and make it bigger and better. More tours, more talks, more insight sessions, more lectures… and more parties. It will be more international. More inclusive. There will be more co-creation. All in all it’s going to be more of what the creative community loves; all against the backdrop of the world’s finest creative work and minds.”
Work entered into the 2016 D&AD Awards must have been commercially released between 01 January 2015 and 18 March 2016and been produced in genuine response to a client brief. It must not have been entered in previous years. Submissions should be made in their original language by 17 February 2016. The Awards cost from just £85 to enter this year. All entries received by 25 November 2015 will save 10% on the cost of entry. Freelancers and sole traders that are members of D&AD are eligible to receive a 20% discount.
All awarded work appears in the D&AD Annual, released annually in September and is available to purchase exclusively through D&AD.
The Next Awards entry fees start from £20, submitted work doesn’t need to have been commercially released, but must have been completed after 1 January 2014.
For more info, images and interviews with D&AD CEO Tim Lindsay or Awards Director Donal Keenan, contact:
D&AD PR Manager Elisa Barnard| 0207 840 1131 | elisa.barnard@dandad.org
Accompanying imagery can be found in Dropbox using this link: http://bit.ly/1k1W7sA
