IPA launches 2011 Effectiveness Awards

The 2011 awards are specifically open to campaigns with a total annual marketing communications budget of up to £2.5 million. Entrants can be single, joint or fully collaborative and must submit case histories that demonstrate the commercial power and marketing payback of their ideas. The word count for single entries is 3000 and joint entries are allowed an extra 500 words in which to discuss the media strategy.

Says Charlie Snow, director of strategy at DLKWLowe and 2011 convenor of judges: "As 2011 is the 'alternate' year, restricted to marketing communications with smaller budgets, we're hoping to uncover some of the more unusual creative solutions that have clearly had a commercial or social impact, be that new ways of using traditional media, digital, mobile, PR, promotion, direct, NPD, design... Whatever it was, so long as the payback can be proven, we want to hear about it."

Special prizes for 2011 will include:

• Grand Prix
  
• Effectiveness Company of the Year
  
• The Broadbent Prize for Best Dedication to Effectiveness
  
• The Channon Prize for Best New Learning
  
• Best International
  
• Best Newcomer*
  
• Best Channel Planning* (this will replace the prizes of Best Media and Best Multi-Channel)
  
• Best Social Value* - Idea that proved to have greatest social value as well as financial value.

*New for 2011. NB: There will no longer be a prize for Best Small Budget

Key dates:

The closing date for pre-registration into the competition is 31 January 2011 and the deadline for submissions is 15 April 2011.

There will be a series of free workshops with advice on how to write winning Effectiveness awards papers in the New Year. More details will be available on www.ipaeffectivenessawards.co.uk.

The 2011 Awards are sponsored by Thinkbox and supported by Warc; official publishers of the effectiveness case histories.