Submission Window Closing For Global Digital Signage Awards; Why Your Firm Should Enter

September 22, 2020 by Dave Haynes

Re-upping and refreshing this post from early summer about the global Digital Signage Awards, which 16:9 helps sponsor and guide. The submission window is starting to close, and with the demise of DSE and the COVID-driven reduction in marketing opportunities, entering awards makes more sense than ever.

The DSE people did a great job driving awareness of its Apex awards program, but that’s now defunct with the show.

The UK team that puts together the awards has had to pivot, like everyone else, in the last six months. The plan was to hand them out at a dinner in Barcelona in February, during ISE 2021. Now the show has shifted to June.

Says the awards team: With the announcement by ISE that their show will move to June or later we have decided to announce the Digital Signage Awards winners on February 3, but avoid the Covid-19 risks associated with a physical event and stream the Awards presentation over the Internet.

Ideally, the online host will be Alan Deadicot, the longtime BBC announcer. He did the event back in February, and was brilliant. Very funny man.

The submission deadline is Sept. 30th.

One of the barriers to entry for awards programs has been the reticence of busy companies to allocate the time and resources to develop, complete and submit all the paperwork and materials. The DSA program has been streamlined so that is simple and fast, and the cost is nominal.

On the flip side, the benefits are big, As I have noted in the past numerous times, award-winning is a far more meaningful and impactful descriptor for a company than empty but heavily used terms like “leading”.  

I regularly see and write about stuff that I think, “Well that will win an award.” But the people behind it don’t enter. Other projects that win are often ones I didn’t even know about, so those companies “get” the value.

These are the 2021 categories for awards:

Sector categories

The best overall project executions by market sector – reflecting strategy, technical and creative decision-making, choice of network or sites, and results:

• Corporate & Workplace
• Digital Out Of Home Media
• Education & Healthcare (including libraries)
• Hotels, Resorts, Theme Parks & Attractions
• Museums & Historic Sites
• Public Spaces (including airports, mass transport, convention and exhibit centers and malls)
• Retail (including retail banking and restaurants)
• Sports & Entertainment Venues

Content & Creativity

To find the best of the campaigns and content: informing, entertaining and enhancing the customer experience. The judges will decide the winners based on:

• Creative Execution – creative for brand advertising and media
• Creative Execution – creative for other marketing or communication purposes – including workplaces, health, education, public spaces, etc
• Creative Execution – creative for visual experience, including public art
• Creative Execution – visualization of dynamic, integrated data for business purposes and utility (such as automated ferry schedules, control access into stores via sensors, or capacity notices)
• Creative Technical Achievement – including projection mapping, or new display/playback technology

Technical Design & Innovation

To find the best innovation across digital signage, including manufacturers, installers, network providers and content providers. Again, the judges may decide that there should be more than one winner as entrants must evidence technical advances in any of the following areas of expertise:

• Technical Advances and Innovation in Display and Other Devices
• Technical Advances and Innovation in Management Software, Data Integration and AI
• Excellence in Engineering Design for Installed Projects

Outstanding Individual or Company (sponsored by SIXTEEN:NINE)

Nominations are invited from around the world. If you know someone or some company is doing brilliant work to improve digital signage then you should put their name forward using the nomination form.  

Grand Prix (sponsored by Gable)

There will be one top accolade awarded by the judges to the company whose entry or entries they consider to be the best in show from all the category winners and high commendations winners.

I have nattered away numerous times in this space about the importance of companies entering awards. The short version is:

• make the effort
• spend the paltry entry fee
• reap the tangible and intangible benefits of being able to say award-nominated and award-winning 

Given all that is going on, and all that is NOT going on as a result (like trade shows, conferences, showcases and sales calls), company marketers should absolutely have the time and interest in entering this and other awards.

I am involved with this one for the key reasons that:

• ALL the judges are knowledgeable, respected industry people (and not trade journalists or others with limited grasps of what was done and why);
• There’s no pay to play (so you don’t get a prize because you bought a table for the big dinner, or advertise or sponsor). That ABSOLUTELY happens;
• It’s global.

Make the effort. More information here …