Why you should apply to Judge the DMA Awards

I’ve been involved in the DMA judging process since 2019, participating in a number of categories including B2C, Email Marketing, and Customer Loyalty & Retention. It’s genuinely one of the highlights of the year for me and an opportunity I look forward to each time it comes around.

In truth, I wasn’t sure what to expect when I joined my first judging panel. I suspect that I wasn’t alone in doubting my qualification to judge others’ work, and in questioning whether my perspectives would hold up alongside a panel of industry experts. But from the outset, it was clear how I could both contribute and learn from the experience. The other judges on the panel were a mix of experienced ‘old hands’, and people like myself with some industry knowledge and a point of view, but little understanding of how awards are, well, awarded.

We were guided by the category chair through the process and criteria for judging, before being given alone time to absorb and assess the submitted work. Once completed, the panel came together to discuss, critique and debate each entry. For me, this was and continues to be the highlight, listening to other perspectives and sharing my own with industry colleagues with often quite different experiences to my own. We then had the opportunity to review and amend our assessments and independently select gold, silver and bronze standard work from a shortlist of the best work, without knowing which of the entries were collectively judged the strongest. That was a secret which stayed kept until the DMA Awards evening!

Every year I’m struck by the brilliant contrast between the DMA’s rigorous judging process which sets a consistent standard, and the sheer breadth and variety of work submitted which never fails to throw up something inspirational. I’ve recommended judging at the DMAs to a number of colleagues, and I’d recommend it to anyone who is keen to be inspired by great work, great people, and the chance to be part of one of the industry’s best award programmes.

Dave Robinson
Customer Strategy Director, Virgin Red, Deputy Chair of the DMA Awards Committee and 2023 Category Chair

________________________________________________________________________________________

You can submit your application to judge, here.

The deadline closes on Friday 31 May.

________________________________________________________________________________________

Are you looking for even more networking and profile-building opportunities?

DMA Members access over 40 events and 17 Councils and Committees, populated by over 300 individual marketing professionals and leaders.

That’s a whole new cohort of people to link up with, learn from and do business with.

Learn more about DMA Membership, here.