Judging Procedures

Judging Process
Judge Benefits
Awards, Including Special Awards
Judging Nomination Form (PDF)

Judging Process

The International ECHO Awards represent the oldest and most prestigious honor in direct marketing.  Supported by the DMA, the ECHO is the only international award where judges rigorously assess entries based on strategy, creative execution and results — recognizing the whole picture of a campaign's success. 

This focus on balanced judging assessment, combined with top-notch judges and outstanding entries year in and out, has played a major role in the ECHO Awards representing so well the best that direct and interactive marketing have to offer.

Entry Categories
ECHO entries are judged by business category.  There are twelve separate categories representing business segments.  Categorizing entries by business segment enables entries to be evaluated by judging panels of direct and interactive marketing professionals with actual experience in the relevant business category.  This leads to a more intelligent and insightful evaluation of entries. Click here for the list of Categories of Entry (Business Category Explanations).

How Work is Reviewed
All International ECHO Award winners go through three rounds of judging. 

Round 1 is a screening round.  Through a combination of individual reviews and collaborative discussion, judging panels determine which entries represent an effective balance of strategy, creative execution and results; and which move on to the next round. 

In Round 2, all surviving entries are then scored numerically with regard to strategy, creative execution and results.  After scores are totaled and re-checked, the top entries advance to the third and final round.

Gold, Silver and Bronze Winners are Chosen
In Round 3, entries are reviewed individually by three judges, all of whom are senior-level, most experienced direct marketers.  All earlier scores are wiped out, so finalist entries start out on equal footing.  As in Round 2, entries are scored numerically with regard to strategy, creative execution and results.  An entry needs to reach a certain minimum score to quality for a Gold, Silver or Bronze ECHO.  Therefore, it is possible for some categories to have multiple winners at each level, while other categories might have a single Bronze winner, or no winners at all. 

Who are the ECHO Judges?
They're an elite group of senior-level professionals with years of direct marketing experience as well as specific industry experience.  Judges are nominated by the ECHO Committee and are fair, impartial, and committed to keeping the ECHOs the most meaningful Direct Marketing Award.  Judges may not vote for any entry with which they have a conflict of interest — and this is closely monitored.

Screening (round 1) and Semi-Final (round 2) judges have 7+ years of direct marketing experien