Username or Email Address
Password
Remember Me
Lost your password?
International association for the measurement and evaluation of communication
Professor Jim Macnamara has run a successful measurement company in Asia before becoming one of the world’s leading authorities on evaluation. He has seen it from both sides – as an awards entrant and as a judge. In this article, Jim shares his 10 Top Tips on Writing Winning Evaluation Award Entries.
1. Read the guidelines carefully – and read them again before you start writing It is very easy to write what you think is important and miss key requirements of the award category that you are entering. Look closely at the key words of the criteria and ensure you provide what is requested. For example, if a criterion is ‘show evidence’, you must give empirical data or other proof points – not simply explain what you did. 2. Be brief and to the point Recognise that the judges are busy and are reading many entries. So come to the point. Put your biggest and best points up front. Grab their attention. They are human beings and they may be jaded from reading many applications. So make it easy for them by setting out your application with clear headings or sections. Use bullet points to highlight key points and reduce verbiage. 3. Be SMART You’ve heard it many times before, but it must be reiterated. Clearly list the objectives of your campaign or project clearly near the beginning. And they must be SMART objectives – namely, specific (e.g., they should have numbers and dates such as ‘gain 10,000 registrations by 30 June 2018); measurable, achievable, relevant (to the organisation’s overall objectives) and time-bound (what is the period and deadline). 4. Report outcomes and impact, not just outputs Don’t tell the judges about all the work you did. They don’t really care. Nor should they. They are judging results. Give only enough background to explain what your project was about why it was undertaken. Focus on outcomes and impact. 5. Give evidence In telling the judges about the outcomes and impact of your work, give evidence. Save a long description of your campaign for your memoirs. Focus on facts. When the guidelines allow, provide attachments that contain proof such as statistics, supporting statements from independent authorities, testimonials, and extracts from research reports. 6. Think quality as well as quantity Metrics are one important form of evidence. But show the quality of your results, not just quantity. A large volume of media publicity may not mean success. Was it positive? Did it contain your key messages? Also, outcomes and impact such as reputation, brand perceptions, and stakeholder relationships need qualitative methods of evaluation, not only quantitative. 7. Remember a picture tells a thousand words Include visuals as far as possible, such as charts, graphs and tables – particularly ones that contain evidence such as research findings illustrating rates of increase or decrease and trends. Visuals have impact and they allow a lot of information to be conveyed succinctly. 8. Link your results back to your objectives Show how the evidence of outcomes and impact presented in your entry link to the stated objectives to ‘close the loop’ and show that you achieved what you set out to achieve. Any old results are not sufficient; strategic communication should achieve the desired objectives. 9. Proofread carefully It sounds basic, but proofread your entry carefully and, ideally, have another independent person proof it also. Grammatical errors and typos suggest to the judges a lack of professionalism and a lack of attention to detail, which can jeopardise an otherwise worthy entry. 10. Enter in the right category Make sure you are entering the right category when you submit. Again, read the criteria carefully and make sure your entry meets the requirements. Then tailor your text to the criteria applying to that criteria. The AMEC Awards recognises and celebrates the exceptional work and accomplishments in moving communications research and measurement forward Click on this link for details of the Awards categories and details of how to enter. For questions on entry, please contact Nicola Gardiner, AMEC event manager at nicolagardiner@amecorg.com. NOTE THE DATES! EarlyBird deadline for entries is 14 February with 28 February as the final entry deadline. The awards ceremony will be held at a dinner on 14 June 2018, during the AMEC Global Summit in Barcelona. Jim Macnamara PhD, is Professor of Public Communication at the University of Technology Sydney and a Visiting Professor at London School of Economics and Political Science. He is internationally recognised for his research into evaluation of public communication and for his work on organisational listening.
This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site, you are agreeing to our use of cookies including non-essential cookies.
We may request cookies to be set on your device. We use cookies to let us know when you visit our websites, how you interact with us, to enrich your user experience, and to customize your relationship with our website.
Click on the different category headings to find out more. You can also change some of your preferences. Note that blocking some types of cookies may impact your experience on our websites and the services we are able to offer.
These cookies are strictly necessary to provide you with services available through our website and to use some of its features.
Because these cookies are strictly necessary to deliver the website, refuseing them will have impact how our site functions. You always can block or delete cookies by changing your browser settings and force blocking all cookies on this website. But this will always prompt you to accept/refuse cookies when revisiting our site.
We fully respect if you want to refuse cookies but to avoid asking you again and again kindly allow us to store a cookie for that. You are free to opt out any time or opt in for other cookies to get a better experience. If you refuse cookies we will remove all set cookies in our domain.
We provide you with a list of stored cookies on your computer in our domain so you can check what we stored. Due to security reasons we are not able to show or modify cookies from other domains. You can check these in your browser security settings.
These cookies collect information that is used either in aggregate form to help us understand how our website is being used or how effective our marketing campaigns are, or to help us customize our website and application for you in order to enhance your experience.
If you do not want that we track your visist to our site you can disable tracking in your browser here:
We also use different external services like Google Webfonts, Google Maps, and external Video providers. Since these providers may collect personal data like your IP address we allow you to block them here. Please be aware that this might heavily reduce the functionality and appearance of our site. Changes will take effect once you reload the page.
Google Webfont Settings:
Google Map Settings:
Vimeo and Youtube video embeds:
You can read about our cookies and privacy settings in detail on our Privacy Policy Page.