The Bookmark Awards Entry Guide

IT IS CRUCIAL THAT YOU READ THIS GUIDE BEFORE ENTERING THE BOOKMARKS 2024. EVEN IF YOU’VE READ IT BEFORE, PLEASE READ IT AGAIN.

Click here to download this Entry Guide, Categories & Criteria as a PDF.

1. The Basic Rules
2. The Categories
3. Special Honours Only
4. The “One-Pager”
5. Other Supporting Material

Please note that while we encourage and accept work being entered into multiple categories, it is advised that each entry is set up specific to that category in order for that piece of work to shine in the category you have entered it in.

Good luck!
All our best,
Team IAB SA and The Bookmarks 2024 Committee

The rules:

Please note that while we encourage and accept work being entered into multiple categories, it is advised that each entry is set up specific to that category in order for that piece of work to shine in the category you have entered it in. Entries may be submitted into any category, and into multiple categories. However the Bookmarks Jury President reserves the right to remove or reassign entries that are not relevant to the original category entered

1.Entries must have appeared online during the period 1 March 2023 and 29 February 2024.

2. The deadline for all entries is Friday, 26 April 2024.

3. Entries from previous years (in particular, platforms, publications and apps) may be re entered into categories where re-entries are explicitly allowed. Click here to download the full list of 2024 categories and entry criteria to see this information. Where required, entrants must motivate for what has changed in the work since the last time it was entered. Work deemed to be too similar to versions that have been entered previously may be removed from judging.

4. Except for Publishing, some of the Craft categories and the Special Honours categories, entries are prohibited from carrying any agency branding or imagery, or any indication or reference whatsoever to the creator of the work. Entries are judged anonymously and any indication of who / which company created the work will not be allowed.

5. Work entered must have been developed for a South African audience; or by a South African agency for an international audience.

6. Any non-English entries must include subtitles. Also include any necessary explanation for the jury to understand the context of the translation.

7. A “One-pager” must be submitted with all entries, and entries which do not include this may be disqualified. Please see the “One Pager” guidelines below. A separate results page, in addition to the one pager, may be submitted where relevant.

8. The Bookmarks Jury President reserves the right to cancel a category and refund the entry fees if a suitable number of entries are not received or the entries are not of sufficient quality.

The Categories:

1. Finding the right category for your work is an art not a science. Consider not only what fits your entry, but also what criteria it is likely to get judged against.

2. You may enter your work into as many categories as you wish. It will be judged according to the category description in every case and potentially by different juries. Please ensure you align multiple entries with the correct rationale and entry criteria for that category.

3. Please study the criteria CAREFULLY. These are the instructions that judges will be given to evaluate your work. If you haven’t addressed these points your entry will suffer.

4. Craft categories are for recognizing the agency, publisher or brand - with the exception of the ‘Craft: Excellence in software, coding & tech innovation’ award. This is an individual or team award for demonstrable excellence and innovation in coding or use of technology in an online campaign or platform.. Whilst the entering company will still receive points, the award is given to the individual/ team only in this one award.

5. Best Creative, Digital Brand of the Year, Best Publisher, Best Digital Agency: are won based on points earned in the Bookmarks show in categories which contribute points (see Categories and Criteria sheet). No entries are required or accepted for these.

6. SPECIAL HONOURS: Submit a Motivation: In brief, why are you nominating this person or company for the award? Convince us! You may submit examples of supporting work as part of your motivation, if you choose. Be sure to mention the nominee by name.

The “One-Pager”:

1. This is a page with all the information to “sell” your entry to the judges, in response to the criteria listed for the entry category. Please pay special attention to the weighting of each entry criteria.
2. Your “One Pager” must be submitted as a high-res JPEG (see specs provided at the end of this document) – PDFs will not be accepted.
3. Round 1 is an “In or Out” filtering stage of judging. The intention behind filtering the entries in this round is that the judges are then able to devote the majority of their time to considering the best entries in each category. In this round judges may base their decision SOLELY on the “One Pager” and it is therefore critical that your “One Pager” does your work justice. Consider carefully what you need to tell the judges in order to persuade them that it’s worth moving your entry forward to the second round.
4. Slightly different information will be appropriate for the various categories. Please study the CRITERIA carefully. Also include:
   • The title and description of the work;
   • A representative work visual (if applicable) – like a screengrab or an example banner;
   • In the Publishing categories where the entry is an item/s published (and not a site/platform/service), provide the link/s to the story/video/podcast/etc; and
   • Supporting evidence for the applicable criteria.

Other Supporting Material:

Entry format:  Except for links to content items in some Publisher categories websites or landing pages should be presented as an overview video or in high res JPEGS.

You can choose to submit your supporting material in video format or as additional jpegs – or a combination of both (specs are provided at the end of this document). This media should include all relevant information about the work – sufficient to give a judge a clear idea of what you have done.

DO NOT PLACE YOUR NAME OR YOUR AGENCY BRANDING ON YOUR ENTRY. As all work is judged anonymously, you must ensure that no reference to your agency is included on the entry – or you may be contacted to resubmit your entry. PLEASE NOTE THAT THIS IS NOT APPLICABLE TO ENTRIES IN THE PUBLISHER CATEGORIES.

Entry Tip: Be realistic about how much time judges have to view your work. The judges have no obligation to review your entire submission and experience shows that a short punchy entry beats a 10-minute case video every time!

Evidence of Results: Bookmarks is a show committed to awarding work that has delivered results. Majority of categories are 30% judged on results achieved, other than Craft, Special Honours, Data Stories, News Innovation.  Results are not JUST screen grabs of your Google Analytics dashboard. The judges typically consider the following:

1. The articulation of your business or campaign objective and how this was achieved by the work submitted.
2. Whether the results are believable (avoid “4567% increase in Twitter followers”)
3. Whether the entry was meaningful to the client or business;
4. Whether the results submitted are relevant to the specific category being reviewed; and
5. Whether the results submitted represent an efficient use of the client’s budget. Return on Investment is therefore key.

Entry assets:

The presentation images will be a summary of your entry and will be used for judging, as well as on screen at the awards ceremony, should your work win.

• Do not place your name or your agency branding on your Jpeg, with the exception of Publisher categories where relevant.
• A maximum of 15 JPEGS allowed, as part of supporting material
• High resolution (300dpi) Jpegs ONLY. • MUST BE 7063(w) x 5008(h) pixels. File size is 5MB - 15MB per image.
• Text must be legible when projected to a screen.
• Submit close up images of small details that need to be seen by the jury.
• Overview video maximum length = 2 minutes Maximum size = 400MB
• If it is felt necessary, the full-length work may accompany the 2-minute entry and may be viewed at the judges’ discretion.
• PLEASE NOTE: All non-English entries must have English subtitles.
  

Choose one of the following if using video files as supporting material:

FORMAT	FRAME SIZE & RATE	BITRATE
PREFERRED
HD 720p	1280x720 - 25fps	16Mbps
HD 1080	1920x1080 - 25fps	16Mbps
ACCEPTED
PAL 4:3	720x576 - 25fps	5Mbps
PAL 16:9	1024x576 - 25fps	5Mbps
NTSC 4:3	720x480 – 29.97fps	5Mbps
NTSC 16:9	854x480 - 29.97fps	5Mbps

 

VIDEO FILES MUST BE TRANSCODED TO THE BELOW SPECIFICATIONS:

• Video must be encoded to Quicktime (H.264)
• Accepted file format is .MOV or MP4
• Bitrate as per table above
• Frame reordering: Enabled
• Key Frames: Automatic
• Quality: High (Multi-Pass recommended)
• Streaming: None
• Audio AAC Stereo 48kHz
• Audi Bit Resolution: 16bit
• Audio Encoding: Constant Bit Rate (CBR)
• Audio Bit Rate: 192kbps
• Video Clock/Slate: NONE
• Non-English entries must have subtitles

For audio and podcast submissions, please follow these specifications:
● Accepted file format: MP3
● Maximum file size: 100MB
● Duration: Length of duration is dependent on the category
● Audio Slate: NO AUDIO SLATE UPFRONT
● Please note: All Non-English entries must be submitted as video with English subtitles

If you have any technical queries, please call us on 011 772 1220 or send an e-mail to bookmarks@loeries.com