4A’s Calls for 2013 O’Toole Awards

New York, NY – January 7, 2013 – The 4A’s, the leading association for the advertising industry, announced today that for the first time since establishing the O’Toole Awards in 1998, it is accepting submissions for media planning and buying excellence.

Media agencies that are 4A’s members are encouraged to submit their best demonstrations of media excellence in innovation, transformation and creativity and in elevating communications between consumers and brands in a measurable way.

“Consumers want brands to be a part of their lives, and the O’Toole Awards for Media Excellence honor agencies that have evolved their approach to bring consumers and brands together in today’s ever-changing media environment,” said Nancy Hill, President and CEO of the 4A’s.

The O’Toole Awards are unique in that agencies must submit an entire body of work across several different clients instead of just single campaigns.

Winners of the O’Toole Awards for Media Excellence as well as those for Creative Excellence, will be announced at the 4A’s Transformation Conference, “The Idea Effect,” taking place in New Orleans March 10–13, 2013.

The deadline for O’Toole Awards entries in media and creative excellence is Friday, January 25, 2013, and they can only be submitted online: www.otooleawards.com

Mirroring the O’Toole Awards for Creative Excellence, the O’Toole Awards for Media Excellence will accept submissions to three categories: Small agency, medium agency and large agency. Entries are judged by peer-agency executives in February 2013. Judges are assigned to a category other than the one their own agencies entered.

The requirements for submissions are as follows:

  •  Regardless of agency size all entrants must submit an agency overview that explains how their media planning and/or buying reflects innovation and creativity (500-word limit).
  •  According to agency size, entrants provide examples of how their agency’s planning and/or buying reflects innovation and creativity.
    • Agency submissions by size:
      •  Submissions to the large-agency category must contain four file entries for four separate clients/brands focusing on four or more media types:
        • TV
        • Out of home (OOH)
        • Online display
        • Online video
        • Print
        • Social
        • Search
        • Event/Live Advertising
        • Mobile
        • Radio/Audio
    •  Submissions to the medium-agency category must contain two file entries for two separate clients/brands focusing on three or more media types
    • Submissions to the small-agency category must contain one file entry for one client/brand focusing on two or more media types

Format
Video examples may be embedded in PPT for ease of review.

  • Accepted file formats: doc; docx; PDF; mpg; mov; wmv; MP4, ppt
  • Visual examples should be included on each entry campaign’s respective pages
  • Each individual entry should be broken up into two sections (no more than 500 words each) explaining “Insights & Strategy” and “Design & Implementation”
  • Each agency provides a PowerPoint or case-study video for each entry
  • Interactive: Submit linked still image (.doc, .pdf, .ppt) or video (.mov, .wmv)
    • Accepted file size: Files cannot be larger than 20MB; print can be 72 DPI
  • URLs: Submit linked PDF or Word doc of homepage screen shot. We recommend that your link takes judges to a designated landing page

Eligibility
The O’Toole Awards for Media Excellence are open only to 4A’s members. All entries must represent media campaigns that ran for the first time between July 1, 2011, and December 31, 2012

About the O’Toole Awards
Established in 1991, the 4A’s O’Toole Awards for Creative Excellence competition is one of the most competitive and highly-regarded award programs in advertising. In order to win, an agency must submit an entire body of stellar work across several different clients. Its purpose is to recognize agencies that consistently set and maintain the very highest standards. All proceeds go to the 4A’s Foundation, Inc., which was established in 1997. A primary goal of the Foundation is to award scholarships to multicultural students of the advertising arts.

About the 4A’s
The 4A’s is the national trade association of the advertising agency business. The 1,200 member agency offices it serves in the U.S. employ 65,000 people; offer a wide range of marketing communications services, and place 80 percent of all national advertising. The management-oriented association helps its members build their businesses, and acts as the industry’s spokesperson with government, media and the public sector. For more information, visit the 4A’s website at www.aaaa.org.