How Much?
Most entries are $125. Campaigns and specialty categories are $195. An entry can be entered in more than one category, but it is an additional fee for each category. If you need an invoice for your entry/entries, please send us an email at info@avaawards.com.
How Do I Enter?
1. Register
2. Log in
3. Enter all your submissions: title, category, client if applicable, & URL if applicable
4. Click next, select your payment method (check or credit card)
To pay later or by check select check. To pay now, select “credit card”. If needed, upload your supporting materials
5. Click Finish
6. If you abandon the entry process without finishing, your information will be saved and you can go back to it later
7. You can also add more entries or add uploads after payment
Which Category?
Choose the category that best fits what you want to be judged. You will be presented with a system of choices that will help you get to a specific category number. For instance, you will choose a parent category such as Print Media, then you will be presented with a list of secondary subsets such as Direct Mail, and then the third set of specific categories such as 1c. Digital Advertising Campaign. Judges reserve the right to move an entry to another category.
What Do I Include With My Entries?
AVA Digital Awards lets your work speak for itself. For most entries, the final product is all you need. In the case of a campaign or plan, enter work product and any explanation or recap provided to internal or external clients. Otherwise, a concise overview of objectives, challenges, and solutions will suffice.
When Do I Upload My Entries?
During the entry process, you will be given the opportunity to include a URL if the entry is online. Otherwise, you will be prompted to upload or mail in your entry after check out. Most formats are accepted, but file names should not contain spaces or special characters. Video files are fine to include as well, but our judges always appreciate a YouTube, Vimeo, or another link to view in their browser. In the rare event, your file/files can’t be opened, you will be contacted by someone on our team.
How Can I Get A Receipt?
Receipts and Paperwork will be automatically emailed to the email associated with your account immediately after checkout.
How Can I Change My Information or Add More Entries?
Through your My Account on our website, you can update a payment method, upload, edit, add to or manage your account. (If your company name needs to be updated, please contact our support team)
Adding “About Project” and “Credits”
Once you have entered your submissions and clicked the NEXT button, your entries are saved on your account page. From your account page, click the link to view your entries. Click on the edit button next to each entry. You now can add your “about project” and “credits” if you wish.
Will You Display Or Share My Work?
We recognize the need for confidentiality, permission, etc. and will not display or comment on any entries without prior permission from the entrant. However, unless otherwise requested in writing by the entrant, the client company will be included in the winner’s list. The last file that is uploaded for each entry will be the file that represents the work on our Winner page.
How and When Do We Get Results?
All winners will be announced and results will be posted to your My Account on or before February 1. Since entries are judged against a standard of excellence and not each other, some results will be posted prior to the final date. An email will automatically be sent to the email you registered with when results are posted to your My Account.
How Can I Get More Information?
During the entry process, there will be a Chat option at the bottom of the page. There is also additional entry information on our website. You can email us at info@avaawards.com, or call 214-377-3526.
I’m Having Trouble Registering. What Do I Do?
Go to http://enter.avaawards.com/ and click on “Sign Up” then you’ll be directed to the registration page. You’ll enter your first and last name, company name, company address, city, how you found out about the competition, your country*, state*, and zip code. Please hand key in your company website, company phone number, and any other optional fields you’d like to fill out.
*If you are not located in the United States, find your country in the dropdown list and where it says state, select “State/Province/Not listed” (the first one in the dropdown) or “Not Listed (will use country code)” which is the last one in the dropdown.
Then under “About Company” you will need to include your email address (where you’d like to have all communication about your entry, results, and next steps) and create a password. Then confirm your password and hit “Sign Up.”
To know you successfully registered, you’ll receive an email in the inbox in which you registered with, saying you’ve successfully registered with us and welcoming you to our competition. If you do not receive this email, you will need to re-enter your information and register again. This usually happens when you copy/paste your website or hand key in any of the fields with pre-set dropdowns.
Once you’ve successfully registered and been confirmed in your inbox, you’ll need to log into your account to begin the entry process. Luckily, our system keeps you logged in for quite some time without needing to re-enter these credentials. Please keep your username and password located somewhere safe and refer back to it should the website log you out on your next visit.
If you have problems with the entry system, please don’t hesitate to contact us at (214) 377-3524. Computer security, firewalls, and browsers can affect how our system interfaces.
Where Did The Next Button Go On My Entry?
While filling out your entry form, we have a three-tiered dropdown. You’ll need to select one for each of the three dropdowns in order to proceed to the next step. If the next button is not visible, you have not filled out the form correctly and will need to click through each field to progress. If you hit a snag, please click the “Chat Now” button at the bottom of your screen and we’ll help you out.
How Can I Send You A Wire Transfer?
Once logged into your My Account page, in the upper right-hand corner, you will see a button that says “Wire Transfer.” Please click that and you’ll be able to view our wire transfer information. There is a $20 service charge to all wire transfer transactions so we can receive your payment. AMCP is not responsible for any additional wire transfer fees incurred.
I Need A W-9.
Once logged into your My Account page, in the upper right-hand corner, you will see a button that says “W-9.” Please click that and you’ll be redirected to a PDF of our w-9 paperwork.
I Won, Now What?
First off, congratulations! Now it’s time to show off your win. You can do so by ordering your awards in the form of purchasing a statuette or ordering additional certificates in our Store located here: http://web.avaawards.com/store/. You’re granted one free certificate per winning entry which you can personalize and customize in our store. Any additional certificates are $35 each. Statuettes are $250 + shipping. For international shipping, first, place your order in the store to secure your wording and award level and add to your cart. Once in your cart, select proceed to checkout, and select “international shipping.” Then please email us for shipping costs. These are determined by your exact address and the number of statuettes in your order.
We also offer press releases, site bugs, high res-logos, high-res statuette photos, and social media icons in the graphic download section of our store here: https://web.avaawards.com/store/product/graphic-downloads/.
Why Do We Have To Pay For Trophies?
There is no obligation to purchase a trophy. Each winning entry is eligible for a free certificate. Unlike most competitions, AVA Digital entrants do not subsidize awards for the winners. Instead of charging up to several hundred dollars per entry, competition organizers decided to keep entry fees at a fraction of that cost and let the winners buy their own awards if they so choose. The result is more affordable entry fees and a higher quality award that is not a trinket, but a piece of art that anyone would be proud to display and give to a client.
What Is a Pro Bono Entry?
A pro bono entry is a project that you did for free for a nonprofit that does not employ you. In other words, you did not get paid to do the work. An example of such work would be you personally or you in your role at whatever company you work for, designing a web site for the local homeless shelter.
Only entrants who enter a regular piece in the competition are eligible to enter pro bono work at no cost. This is a perk for those who help defray costs of overhead, mailings, judging, etc. You can have up to three pro bono entries, and can only have one pro bono entry per client. If you want to submit pro bono work only, you must pay the regular entry fee.
Who Sees My Entries? Do I Need To Enclose Copyrights, Credits, Etc.?
Since many of the entries are internal or proprietary in nature or are done for someone else, the entry file will not be displayed anywhere without permission. During the entry process, entrants will be asked to check a box granting permission to possibly display the entry on our blog, gallery and/or winner list. AMCP assumes that entrants have rights to materials and the authority to enter them, so there is no need to enclose that information with entries.
How Is Judging Done?
To ensure fairness and consistency, most entries are evaluated by our judges in Washington D.C. and reviewed in Dallas. It takes two months of full-time work to judge all the entries. Each entry is judged against itself and not directly against other entries. There could be no winners in a category or multiple winners. There are no lengthy essays to persuade the judges; so all work will be evaluated solely on its own quality, creativity, and resourcefulness. Judges base their decisions on learned perceptions of creative excellence rather than an entrant’s imaginative explanation of an entry’s value.
Entries are judged at random and are not grouped by categories. Each entry is viewed and discussed individually. The judges are experienced professionals who have had projects similar to any entries submitted. The judges are cognizant of what an entrant has to work with and make their evaluations accordingly. Entries receiving scores between 90-100 points are Platinum winners. Entries with 80-89 points are Gold Winners. Entries scoring from 70-79 receive an Honorable Mention. In some cases, projects do receive a None if they do not meet our judge’s expectations.