FAME Creative Excellence Contest

• Contest will open for entries 3/21/23.
• The contest is open to non-members. Price per entry for non-members is double the cost of member entries (see below for member entry fees). Want to pay the member rate? Become an FNAME member @ http://fname.org/join
• All entries must be original pieces and have been published between April 17, 2022, and April 11, 2023, unless otherwise specified in the category description.
• All entries must include the submission of the entire page on which the ad originally appeared.
• There is no limit to the number of entries you may submit per category.
• Magazines are eligible to enter in every category.
• Agency ads and ready-made ads from services are ineligible.
• Entrants may submit in-house or outsourced creative ads.
• The cost of shipping awards not picked up at the Florida Media Conference will be charged to the entrant’s company.

Due to changes in the industry, this year’s contest will not be separated into divisions for judging.

Revenue Generators

Media organizations are under intense pressure to close new business and produce innovative revenue strategies.  Showcase your best work – and get ideas from other winners!

1. New Business Concept
Wide open to new ideas. This category may include incentives, contests, promotions, design/format ideas and non-traditional revenue sources that have produced business. Materials used in the promotion of the idea should be submitted and online components may be included.

2. Best Event
Submit your best event (client or self-promotion), including a description of the event, target audience, goals for the event (financial or strategic) and how you promoted the event. Entries judged on basic idea and execution. Materials used in the promotion of the event should be submitted and online components may be included.

3. Advertising Campaign
Single advertiser using two or more ads or news products, including digital ads, for ad campaign. Submit explanatory or promotional materials, examples of pages, scripts, etc.  ROP and niche publications can be included. May be any type of ad: retail, institutional, automotive, etc. Must include how the campaign created results for the client.

4. Self-Promotion Advertising
Original ads that demonstrate the way you promote your publication to generate new advertisers and revenue. Submit all media or marketing materials including any digital components. This category will recognize excellence for ads that promote your publication or a specific section or the industry generally, encouraging strength and/or growth of audience or revenue. May include print ads, radio, signs, direct mail, website and digital ads, promoted social media, etc. Entries will be judged on creativity and appearance, including the basic idea, layout, copy, typography, headline, originality and effectiveness.

5. Content Advertising
Content Advertising or “Sponsored Content” includes advertorial content where advertiser is offering educational information in their field of expertise. Ad can be in form of print ad, online banner ads, social media, e-mail or a combination of all four.

Design Categories

Entries in this section do NOT need to be designed in-house.  However, the idea for the design must have originated with the news organization.

6. Restaurant / Entertainment Ad
Individual ad featuring restaurants or food (fast food to fine dining to supermarkets), entertainment, events, and/or sports. Published in print only, any size, black & white or color.

7. Retail Print Ad
Individual ad featuring retail merchandise. Published in print only, any size, black & white or color.

8. Business (non-retail) Print Ad
Individual ad featuring non-retail business such as tourism, hotel/travel, banks, funeral homes, health clubs, gyms, companies or services or political campaigns. Published in print only, any size, black & white or color.

9. Unique and Premium Positions
Individual ad featuring any advertiser (business or retail) utilizing unique or premium positions such as front-page note, Dog-ear, front-page strip, unique-shaped ads.

10. Online only Ad
Individual ad or series of ads published only in digital format, any size.

11. Multi-Media Ad
Published in print, online and/or digital formats; any size; submit ads in all formats run.

12 . Social Media Campaign
Published in a digital format on any social media site (client or self- promotion).
Best and most creative use of social media in an ad campaign.

13. Market Book/Collateral Material
Best market book, research piece, rate card, sales packet and/or other collateral promoting a newspaper or its market.

14. Best Online Video Application
Best and most creative video ad design regardless of category.

Best of Show
This is not a category that can be entered, rather a design category overall winner.

Targeted Publication Categories

15. Advertising-driven Special Section, in-paper product or standalone
Any special section that is published and distributed in the publication or distributed as a standalone product at least once a year.  This includes progress reports, school sports, bridal, back-to-school, lawn & garden, holiday greetings, recipe or cooking graduation, mall or shopping center, downtown, and fashion merchandising .This also includes custom publishing works, TMC, magazines, niche publications. A section may be any unit of four or more consecutive pages, standard or tabloid. Entries will be judged on basic idea, adaptability to other markets, organization and development of theme in the section and on the publication cover.

16. Custom Publication
Any publication created to benefit a client or partnership, distributed within the paper or as a standalone. This includes publications for community events or non-profits, Chambers of Commerce, Visitors Bureaus, Car dealerships, Anniversary pubs, Real Estate Associations, etc. A section may be any unit of four or more consecutive pages, standard or tabloid. Entries will be judged on basic idea, layout, originality and effectiveness.

Personnel Categories

17. Best Moves
What was the most important thing your organization did this year? Ideas implemented could be from advertising, circulation, or the newsroom. Please include a summary letter describing the initiative and the effect it had on your operation, including any supplementary materials. Selected ideas will be presented in a roundtable format and will be voted on at the awards event.

18. Annual Designer of the Year
Submit a body of work (8-10 pieces) from a single designer from a single designer from the contest cycle, showing creativity and ability to design across platforms. Requires letter of recommendation from manager and recent headshot of nominee. One award will be given across all divisions for 2022 work.

19. Annual Salesperson of the Year
We’re looking for a sales executive who truly stands out and demonstrates excellence in every aspect of their work. Let’s celebrate the best and brightest in the industry! To be considered for this award, you must submit a short synopsis explaining how the nominee best meets the criteria by answering the questions below. The time frame for consideration is from January 2022- December 2022. Please include a headshot of your nominee. One award will be given across all divisions for outstanding work in 2022.

In the Past year:

• What was the total revenue of this individual?
• What was their percentage of growth in overall sales compared to prior year?
• How many new active advertisers have they gained?
• How many quarters has this individual made their goal?
• How has this individual contributed to the company’s bottom line/initiatives?
• Tell us what makes your individual stand out from the rest of your sales team? What do they do for your community? List some examples of leadership and share at least one specific success story.

20. The Lead On! Award
This sales leadership award acknowledges and celebrates exemplary leadership that has had a significant and positive impact on advancing their media organization through revenue growth, innovation and the ability to influence and inspire others. This person consistently, performs at a level above and beyond job duties and exceeds expectations. In addition to contributions to the company’s bottom line, this leader develops trust and credibility through open, respectful communication and provides a strong sense of purpose, vision, and mission for their team(s) by investing time and effort in developing others.  This person positively influences everyone around them to build consensus in groups, departmentally or in organizational settings internally and externally and manages and/or champions change effectively through their leadership.

Written answers to the following questions, describing the nominated individual’s achievements or a video of up to five (5) minutes in length that answers the questions:

• Briefly describe the nominated individual
• Outline the nominee’s achievements that you wish to bring to the judges’ attention.
• Explain why the achievements you have highlighted are unique or significant.
• If possible, compare the achievements to the performance of other players in your industry.

On the contest site:
https://portal.newspapercontest.com/florida/fname/newspaper/

Step 1 —Register on the contest website using your email address. The required Association Code is FNAME. You will receive a confirmation email, which you will need to complete registration.

Step 2 — Log in. You will see a page showing any entries you may have already submitted.

Step 3 — Click on the “Add New Entry” link.

Step 4 — On this page, select your publication name. If your publication is not listed, please email ktower@flpress.com. Fill in the preparer’s (the person inputting entries) name.

Step 6 — Select the category type (Revenue Generators, Design Categories, Targeted Publication Categories, or Personnel Categories). Then select the category you wish to enter. These are drop-down menus for your convenience. This field will clear each time you save an entry, so you must select a category for each new entry. When you select the category, the category description will appear below it.

Step 7 — If necessary, provide an explanation of your entry. The explanation/cutline box is limited to 3,000 characters. It’s a good idea to write your explanation in another program, such as Word, and copy/paste into the explanation box. If URLs are required, fill in the URL box(es); there is no need to type http://. (If additional URLs are needed, please provide a pdf or word document with additional URLs.)

Step 8 — Include the name of the entry. If uploading full-page PDF files, it will be helpful if the entry name matches the headline on the page so the judges can find it easily.

Step 9 — In the Contributor(s) field, include the name(s) of the person or people who should be credited for any award. (For space reasons, if more than three names are included, the award itself will say “Staff”.)

Step 10 — Add your file or files. You can drag and drop files or use the “Add files” button to navigate your files. Generally, files should be in PDF format except photos, which should be in high-resolution JPG format. Other files and URLs may be acceptable as noted in the special instructions. Upload as many files as are necessary to complete your entry but refer to the special instructions for any limitations.

Step 11 — When you have completed your submission, click the “Save” button. If you click the “Back to list” button before saving, you will lose the entry you just completed. After clicking “Save,” you will be directed back to the list of your entries.

Step 12 — To submit another entry, click “Add New Entry.” As long as you have not logged out of the system, your publication name will still be in place and you can simply start at Step 6 again. You may log out and log back in later to continue adding entries. You will need to select your publication name each time you log in.

Step 13 — If you are done submitting entries, please review the list. You may not edit an entry, but you may delete an entry and resubmit it. When done uploading all your entries, click the “Billing” button on the list page. This will take you to a page where the entry fee is automatically generated. Follow instructions on the Billing page for payment options.

FNAME member pricing for each entry is $15 for Revenue Generators, Design, and Targeted Publication categories, and $25 for Personnel categories. Non-member pricing per entry is $30 for Revenue Generators, Design, and Targeted Publication categories, and $50 for Personnel categories. Entry fees must be submitted or postmarked by the entry deadline. Payment can be made online by credit card or invoice/check. If paying by check please include a copy of your invoice with your payment. Make checks payable to Florida Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives.

Payment Instructions:

Important! Please do not pay until all your entries are complete!

1. Log in to your account at https://portal.newspapercontest.com/florida/fname/newspaper/
2. On the left-hand side of the page, select “Entry Billing”
3. Review your entries to ensure they are complete prior to payment
4. To pay online, click the “Pay Now” button
5. You may either log in to your PayPal account to complete your payment, OR you can select “Pay with Debit or Credit Card” in order to check out as a Guest (you do not need a PayPal account to pay online).
6. You will receive a receipt to the email address you provide.

If paying by check and need an invoice in order to do so, please contact Virginia Lumpkin at vlumpkin@mediagenius.com.

Make checks payable to Florida Newspaper Advertising and Marketing Executives.

Send checks to:
FNAME Creative Excellence Awards c/o Virginia Lumpkin
1025 Greenwood Blvd., Ste 121
Lake Mary, FL 32746

Each Revenue Generators, Design, and Targeted Publication category will be awarded a Gold Award for first place, a Silver Award for second place and a Bronze Award for third place. There will be no ties.

Best of Show - The Jay Weimar Award will be awarded to the best ad out of all Design categories.

Personnel Awards will be awarded to a single winner (no second and third place).

Note: The cost of shipping awards not picked up at the awards ceremony will be charged to the entrant’s publication.

How do multiple people from my publication enter the contest? Each person will need to create an account at https://portal.newspapercontest.com/florida/fname/newspaper/.

The system said it sent a verification email to me, but I didn’t receive it. What do I do? First, be sure to check that the email is not in your spam or junk folder. If you are still unable to find it, please send an email to info@floridamediacontests.com.

How many times may I enter each category? There are no restrictions. You may enter a category as many times as you like.

What file formats are accepted for uploading? Accepted file types are PDF, JPEG, JPG, and WMF.

What is the file size limit? The contest platform will allow files up to 100MB per entry. You may submit multiple files with each entry.

How can I make my PDF files smaller? Most newspaper PDFs include high-resolution images for printing. However, PDF contest entries will be viewed and judged on a computer monitor, which displays at low resolution (72-96 dpi) in RGB color. Changes in the resolution and color mode of images are the most effective way to reduce file size without sacrificing quality. a.    Resolution: The recommended file resolution is 72-96dpi. b.    Color mode: Converting from CMYK to RGB color will reduce image file size by 25%.

What if I cannot make the files small enough? If you cannot make your files small enough to load to the website, then you may host larger files from your corporate server or use the free service online at www.issuu.com.