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TIPS TO INCREASE YOUR CHANCE OF WINNING AN ECHO

The ECHO competition recognizes "the whole package" - marketing strategy and tactics, creative execution, and results. To win an ECHO, you must prove you have a brilliant strategy, revolutionary creative, database technique, planning, and astounding results. And it is important to submit a good entry write up. Know the difference between objectives, strategies and tactics. The judges who read the entries know the difference and expect intelligently written entries. With your entry form, everything counts.

Here are a few pointers to increase your chance to win one.

Get started on the entry process early

The ECHO entry deadline is April 24, 2008. Read the rules and entry application, note the requirements, the number of samples you will need to gather, and in what format they must be submitted. Remember, you must get client approval each entry submitted.

Understand the categories and select carefully

There are 12 separate categories representing business segments. Unlike other awards, which are judged by media category, the ECHOs are judged by business category. Read the business category glossary carefully and select the proper business category for your entries. An auto dealer traffic-building campaign belongs in the Automotive category, not the Retailing category. A Web site for a pain clinic belongs in the Pharmaceutical/Healthcare category, not Consumer Services.

Completeness counts
Be sure to fill out the form completely. If the information requested is not relevant to the entry, or if it's confidential and the client will not approve its release, say so. But complete the form.

Spelling counts
Misspellings and grammatical errors and typos are other ways of showing carelessness—and spelling counts. Also, the DMA maintains archives of winning entries, so poorly written entries make you look bad for years to come.

Math counts
Incorrect or improperly stated figures can undermine your opportunity to show your entry at its best. For example, a few years back I read an entry where the section on results included something like this: "The new package got a 2.4% response, compared to a 1.2% response for the control. This entry should be a winner because it pulled 1.2% better than the control." Huh? An improvement of 1.2%? The new package doubled response. It improved response by 100% over the control. This kind of performance can get your entry into award consideration . . . as long as it is presented properly. So look for ways to express your results most dramatically. And share as much result information as you can in hard, numerical form. Percent response, cost per lead, conversion rates, cost per sale, ROI. Judges are impressed by hard results. And results count for 33% of your entry's score.

Content counts
 As that example about results illustrates, what you say and how you say it can be extremely important, especially when you summarize the reasons why your entry is deserving of an ECHO award. When you get to this point, focus on why your entry is so significant.

Context counts
To dramatize the importance of your entry, you often have to put your accomplishments in some kind of context. With the ECHOs, you have the opportunity to explain how the entry was measured. In the marketplace challenge and marketing strategy sections set up the context in which your program was devised and evaluated. This helps the judges know the challenges you faced.

Context counts, too, when it comes to results. If your client won't let you reveal results in terms of actual response rates or sales, express results in relative terms - like percentage improvement over control or return on investment ratio. Index results against your allowable, your past campaigns successful performance, or another standard. But if you do, be sure to explain what that standard is. Index numbers are meaningless if out of context.

Conciseness counts
Be clear and concise—pay attention to word limits within appropriate sections of the entry form. Watch the adjectives. And resist the temptation to add "stuff" to the entry.

When you have a multimedia/integrated campaign, it's not easy to say much about each step of the campaign in the Marketing Tactics section of the ECHO entry form. In such cases, add a Campaign Flow page in with the creative samples to help explain the order of the efforts and to whom they were directed. This will in explaining complicated campaigns.

Keep hotlinks live until August

The ECHO judges want actual, live samples. If you're entering a three-dimensional campaign, send actual samples instead of an electronic photograph. If you're entering electronic media, your Web site should be live, and continue live—exactly the same as it was when you entered it—until August. Judges want to see the entry in the way that the consumer would be seeing it. You can move it to a server so it is the way it was at the time of the entry. And remember to provide appropriate user ID's and passwords.

Borrow portfolios

The DMA maintains a complete collection of ECHO entries for award Winners, Leaders, and Finalists from the last several years of completion. You can request to borrow a portfolio (free for DMA members) to see which campaigns really worked and how the entry form was written. To borrow an ECHO portfolio, email the Library and Resource Center at lrc@the-dma.org.