Announcing the PDF Awards Show.
Here I am at the end of the year, once again knee deep in an onslaught of crappy award show entries. Rather than continue to complain about them, I'm going to offer an alternative. Call it a positive solution.
So it gives me great pleasure to announce the Call for Entries for the First Annual PDF Awards. Finally, a stripped down awards show that matches the tenor of the times. Instead of wasting time and resources on award show preparation, you can spend the month of January actually focused on new projects.
Here's how the First Annual PDF Awards will work.
Any agency, company or individual is allowed to submit up to three pieces of work that was produced any time between January 1st, 2005 and December 31st, 2005. No agency, company or individual is allowed to submit more than three entries.
The cost to enter each piece of work is $5. That's right. Five bucks.
Do not send any printed pieces or pricy Beta dubs. No shiny paper mounted on fancy board either.
Email a PDF, an MP3, a web link or a Quicktime (or whatever you need to do to show us the work – the PDF title is kind of a symbolic thing) with the creative credits to: dgemmell@blacklabfive.com.
If it's a really big file, mail a disc to: Black Lab Five, 427 E. Michigan Avenue, Suite 5, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. The deadline for entries is January 31st, 2006. Extensions? Probably not. After all, you only need to pull together an electronic file and five bucks.
Send a check made out to Black Lab Five, Inc. to the above address. (Your check, of course, will be in the amount of 5, 10 or 15 dollars, depending upon how many entries you submit. No tipping, please. We're professionals, thank you very much.)
There will be 20 PDF Award winners in 2006. There will be no ranking of those 20 – all will share equal honor as a member of the elite group of 20.
There are no categories. Zero. No campaigns that feature a gazillion different pieces such as a smart-ass window sticker that was never actually applied to any bank branch door. No opportunity to win something like Best Direct Mail (Black and White), Perishable Foods. Quite simply, entries can be any piece of communication – a :30 spot, a blog, an e-commerce site, a print ad, a billboard, a direct mail piece (even a Black and White one), a press release, an album cover. Whatever.
The three leaders of Black Lab Five are the judges. Yes, we are human so I'm sure we're biased. (You can read more of my blog if you want to try and read into my thinking and how I'll judge. But I will warn you that I'm a riddle wrapped in an enigma surrounded by a conundrum.) At least our bias is out there for everyone to examine – no mystery about who is judging in this show. Indeed, the judging will be extremely arbitrary – just like every other damn awards show already out there. Furthermore, we will not enter any of our own work in the prestigious PDF awards. That would be, well, sort of dumb.
We will announce the winners online on February 20, 2006, and post the work on this crummy blog site we developed. (If you're a winner and we haven't received your check for five bucks by February 20th, well, we can't really make you a winner. Let's try to avoid that scenario.)
There will be no expensive annual available for purchase. There will be no former SNL actors handing out gold statuettes. There will be no party with drinks and shrimp wrapped in bacon, tasty as they are. If you want a party, go out and buy some good beer, invite some friends over and look at the work on the web site.
Five bucks per entry. No more than three entries. Electronic files only. A chance to be named one of the 20 best pieces of communication in 2006.
So it gives me great pleasure to announce the Call for Entries for the First Annual PDF Awards. Finally, a stripped down awards show that matches the tenor of the times. Instead of wasting time and resources on award show preparation, you can spend the month of January actually focused on new projects.
Here's how the First Annual PDF Awards will work.
Any agency, company or individual is allowed to submit up to three pieces of work that was produced any time between January 1st, 2005 and December 31st, 2005. No agency, company or individual is allowed to submit more than three entries.
The cost to enter each piece of work is $5. That's right. Five bucks.
Do not send any printed pieces or pricy Beta dubs. No shiny paper mounted on fancy board either.
Email a PDF, an MP3, a web link or a Quicktime (or whatever you need to do to show us the work – the PDF title is kind of a symbolic thing) with the creative credits to: dgemmell@blacklabfive.com.
If it's a really big file, mail a disc to: Black Lab Five, 427 E. Michigan Avenue, Suite 5, Kalamazoo, MI 49007. The deadline for entries is January 31st, 2006. Extensions? Probably not. After all, you only need to pull together an electronic file and five bucks.
Send a check made out to Black Lab Five, Inc. to the above address. (Your check, of course, will be in the amount of 5, 10 or 15 dollars, depending upon how many entries you submit. No tipping, please. We're professionals, thank you very much.)
There will be 20 PDF Award winners in 2006. There will be no ranking of those 20 – all will share equal honor as a member of the elite group of 20.
There are no categories. Zero. No campaigns that feature a gazillion different pieces such as a smart-ass window sticker that was never actually applied to any bank branch door. No opportunity to win something like Best Direct Mail (Black and White), Perishable Foods. Quite simply, entries can be any piece of communication – a :30 spot, a blog, an e-commerce site, a print ad, a billboard, a direct mail piece (even a Black and White one), a press release, an album cover. Whatever.
The three leaders of Black Lab Five are the judges. Yes, we are human so I'm sure we're biased. (You can read more of my blog if you want to try and read into my thinking and how I'll judge. But I will warn you that I'm a riddle wrapped in an enigma surrounded by a conundrum.) At least our bias is out there for everyone to examine – no mystery about who is judging in this show. Indeed, the judging will be extremely arbitrary – just like every other damn awards show already out there. Furthermore, we will not enter any of our own work in the prestigious PDF awards. That would be, well, sort of dumb.
We will announce the winners online on February 20, 2006, and post the work on this crummy blog site we developed. (If you're a winner and we haven't received your check for five bucks by February 20th, well, we can't really make you a winner. Let's try to avoid that scenario.)
There will be no expensive annual available for purchase. There will be no former SNL actors handing out gold statuettes. There will be no party with drinks and shrimp wrapped in bacon, tasty as they are. If you want a party, go out and buy some good beer, invite some friends over and look at the work on the web site.
Five bucks per entry. No more than three entries. Electronic files only. A chance to be named one of the 20 best pieces of communication in 2006.
posted by Dean Gemmell at 11:07 AM
3 Comments:
Interesting idea.
Here I am on the verge of impulsively submitting entries only to be hampered by the payment method.
(email your pdfs, but mail your check?)
Where's the PayPal link???
Okay, Sammo. We dropped the ball.
PayPal is now enabled for the First Annual PDF Awards.
My real problem with all these crap award shows is the way they make communications professionals look like a bunch of insecure school girls desperate to win approval from someone.
Unless it's from Black Lab Five?
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