Submit Entry

Submissions for the 2012 MIXX Awards are now closed.

Finalists will be notified in mid-August. Due to the sheer volume of entries, unfortunately, we do not contact all entrants.

Before you start the submission process, review these quick facts about what information is needed. These details will ensure your entry is complete and that you have included the information that will get your work noticed by the judges.

Keep in mind that each member of the screening committee and judging panel will be reviewing dozens of entries. Therefore, expect that they will be able to devote only a few minutes to each entry.

Please submit all entry materials exactly as they were requested. Any missing materials or information can result in disqualification.

The Written Case Study
The written case study is the most important part of the entry because it frames the business challenge and illustrates the impact of the work and the role of interactive.

The best case studies explain the competitive environment, the campaign objectives and goals, and any evidence of performance. A large-scale, expensive campaign does not impress judges; effectively demonstrating performance, results and the role of creative does.

Case studies should be clear, concise and free of jargon and exaggeration.

Typical case study lengths are 1,000-1,200 words and no more than 1,500 words. In addition, case study videos are strongly recommended but not required. Videos should be no longer than 2-3 minutes and should capture the creative and actual interactive experience. Please download and review this sample case study. We highly recommend that you follow this format. Click here to view a sample case study video.

The written case study must include information on each of the four components below:

1) Strategy: The strategy section is worth 25 percent of the overall score.
Explain the strategic business and marketing challenge, define your target audience and detail your creative and media strategies, include metrics used to evaluate success (e.g., increase market share, give starting market share and ending market share) and the process or plan devised to address and achieve your overall objective(s).

Your case study should address the following questions:

What was the strategic business and marketing challenge?
Who was your target audience?
What were the creative and media strategies?
What were the overall campaign objectives based on the situation outlined? For example: Increase market share? Increase unaided or aided awareness? Improve prospect engagement (e.g., time engaged on a microsite)? Generate $x from the campaign (unit sales, revenue, etc.)? Improve cost of acquisition (cost/response, cost/customer, cost/revenue generated, etc.)? Improve overall perception?
For each objective, what were the metrics used to evaluate success? (e.g., For increased market share, give starting market share and ending market share.)
Please provide some historical context:
- Benchmarks vs. years prior
- Competitive landscape

2) Execution & Use Of Media: The section is worth 25 percent of the overall score.
Tell us what you did to accomplish the goals and objective identified above, including interactive tactics, percentage of budget allocated and anything unique, noteworthy or interesting about how you executed the strategy.

This section should address the following:

What did you do to accomplish the goals and objectives outlined above?
What interactive tactics did you use?
- Why and how were they used?
Is there anything unique, noteworthy or interesting about how you executed the strategy?
What percentage of the overall interactive budget was allocated to executing the campaign?
- If 100 percent, what percentage of entire advertising budget was allocated to the program?

3) Results & ROI: The section is worth 25 percent of the overall score.
Please explain how you determined what you did was successful. How well did it do against your goals and objectives? Be sure to include specific metrics (numbers) to illustrate that your work met or exceeded expectations and business objectives. What tangible effect did it have on the client’s business?

Please address the following:

How well did the campaign achieve what you set out to do?
- Please map results to objectives and goals outlined in Strategy brief above.
What metrics show that the program met or exceeded expectations and business objectives? (Source data or research from client, agency or third party.)
What tangible effect did this have on your client’s business?

4) Creative samples are also important, as they account for 25 percent of each submission’s total score. Please provide as close to an original user experience as possible. Judges will consider engagement, use of medium, art direction, copywriting, integration with overall campaign (if applicable) and use of technology.

Creative samples must be accessible via working Web links to the actual creative or landing page. If the links are inactive for any reason during the judging phases, disqualification can result. Although it is not required, a case study video no more than 2-3 minutes long that prominently features visuals/the consumer experience of the actual creative work is strongly suggested in addition to the written case study.

Creative sample guidelines:

Active URL to landing page or FTP site with links to each creative element of the campaign; or multiple active URLs (separate each URL with a comma). If providing links, please make sure sites are live. Broken links are grounds for disqualification.
Login information – if applicable
- User name
- Password
Additional instructions (for example, “click on the XYZ campaign tab”)
Not required but strongly recommended: A 2-3 minute case study video that captures the creative and actual interactive experience. For a sample video, click here.

Creative Video Guidelines
You cannot upload video directly to the submission form. Creative samples must be accessible via URL or they cannot be viewed or scored by the judges.

Recommended formats:

Youtube (embedded video or direct link) or video provided by vimeo, Brightcove, or other embedded means.
Flash video (embedded within a creative URL)
Quicktime (.mov or m4v)

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Eligibility:

Any media, marketing or advertising element or campaign that was carried out during the qualifying period: April 1, 2011 through March 31, 2012. The work may have been launched earlier but must have run at some point during this period. Work that ran inside and outside the US is eligible for entry.

Entry Fee:

	Early Entry Deadline (by 5/4/12)	Final Entry Deadline (~~by 6/15/12~~) extended to 7/20/12
Single categories	$325 per entry, per category	$375 per entry, per category
Campaign categories	$375 per entry, per category	$425 per entry, per category

To receive outlined pricing all entries must be submitted by 11:59 PM ET on the deadline dates. There is no limit to the number of categories a submission may be entered. In addition, there is no limit to the number of entries submitted by one entrant.

Preferred method of payment is by credit card.

Refunds: There are no refunds for entry withdrawals even if it is before the official deadline. Entries cannot be cancelled or removed from the competition after July 15, 2012.

Each category finalist shall receive one free ticket for the Awards Gala.

Submissions:

Submissions for the 2012 IAB MIXX Awards are now open.
Deadline to enter 2012 MIXX Awards
- Early Entry Deadline: Friday, May 4, 2012, 11:59 PM ET
- ~~Final Entry Deadline: Friday, June 15, 2012, 11:59PM ET~~
  Deadline extended: Friday, July 20, 2012, 11:59PM ET
Click here to submit your entry now.
Entrants can submit into as many categories as they like, and submit multiple entries for each category.
Submissions should reflect work that was carried out predominantly by the submitting agency or advertiser, and the role of collaborating (creative and media) agencies and key individuals should be referenced. Your organization also must have played a substantial role in creative concept and execution and/or worked very closely with creative partner to develop and execute the media planning and buying.
Submissions must include a written case study, which requires: 1) strategy; 2) execution and use of media; and 3) demonstrated results. Each of these three components should be no more than 400 words (for a maximum 1,200-word written case study.). Submissions must also include creative samples, provided via web site URLs. In addition to the written case study, a case study video is strongly recommended. Videos should be no longer than 2-3 minutes in length and capture the creative and the actual interactive experience. Usernames and passwords must be provided and the web site links must remain active until January 1, 2013.

Entry Information and Credits:

Company and individual credits are a required part of the online entry form.
Please make sure all information including entry name, advertiser, submitting agency and credits is referenced and spelled exactly as it should appear in information for the media, on trophies, in the MIXX Awards Winners’ Gallery, and on printed and multimedia presentation materials for the Awards Gala.
The information supplied in the online entry form may be published and/or appear on trophies and promotional materials. Visit the 2011 MIXX Awards Winners’ Gallery to see examples of how winner’s entry information has been used online.
Company credits: You are required to credit all creative and strategic partners who contributed to the work. You must credit the client and at least one primary agency.
Individual credits: Space is provided to credit key team members. Please credit all main client and agency team members and make sure spelling is correct. Individuals may be credited in Awards Gala materials and in the online Winners’ Gallery.

Judging:

In Phase One of the judging process, the screening committee—comprised of senior marketing professionals—will evaluate and score each entry. Finalists for each category will be determined.
In Phase Two, an independent panel of highly acclaimed representatives of the entire interactive advertising ecosystem—advertising agency experts, brand marketers and major media company executives—will convene in New York City for an intensive, day-long sequestering and internal debate focusing on the finalists. The winners in each category will be selected.
Winners will be announced on October 2, 2012, at the MIXX Awards Gala—the culmination of the two-day MIXX Conference & Expo which is the Official Interactive Event of Advertising Week 2012.

Awards and Prizes:

Awards are specifically submission-based. If an entry is submitted by multiple companies for the same category, the submissions will be scored independently and only the highest-scoring submission will be eligible to win.

The judges will also select and honor a Best in Show winner that they feel displays the strongest characteristic of creativity and impact. Entries in all categories are eligible.

Publication of winning work:

Entries that become finalists or winners in the 2012 MIXX Awards may be showcased in various ways including publication. This is at the sole discretion of the IAB.
Work submitted must be original or you must have secured rights to submit it.
Creative samples and written case studies: By entering work into the MIXX Awards you automatically grant the IAB the right to make copies, reproduce and display the creative materials and written information for educational and promotional purposes such as but not limited to the web site, newsletter, programming/conferences and the Awards Gala.
We respect that entries may have information deemed confidential by the client. For this reason, you will have the opportunity in the online entry form to indicate whether or not publishing permission is granted for the written case study section of the entry form.

Trophies:

All winning entries receive one trophy. A maximum of one marketer and agency can be credited on the trophies given to the winning entries. The entry name, marketer and submitting agency will be engraved on the trophy.
If your entry is a winner, you can purchase exact duplicate trophies. Sorry, no personalization available.

General Conditions:

By participating in this contest, entrants agree to abide by the following terms and conditions and by the decisions of the judges which are final on all matters pertaining to this contest. All federal, state, local, provincial and municipal laws and regulations apply. This contest is subject to the laws of the United States. The winners of the IAB 2012 MIXX Awards who do not attend the Awards Ceremony will be notified within approximately seven (7) days after the October 2, 2012 awards ceremony. If the IAB is unable to contact the potential winner after reasonable effort, or if the potential winner fails to respond within three (3) days of first attempted notification, the award may be forfeited and an alternate winner selected. The winner may be required to execute and return an affidavit of eligibility and liability/publicity release within seven (7) days following the date of first attempted notification. Non-compliance within this time period may result in disqualification and selection of an alternate winner. Return of any award notification as undeliverable may result in disqualification and selection of an alternate winner. IAB reserves the right to use and publish entrants' proper names online, in print and in any other media in connection with the Contest. Acceptance of an award constitutes permission for IAB to use winner's name and likeness and entry submission for advertising and promotional purposes without additional compensation, unless prohibited by law. By entering, participants release and hold harmless IAB, its respective parents, subsidiaries, affiliates, directors, officers, employees and agents from any and all liability or any injuries, loss or damage of any kind arising from or in connection with participation in this Contest. Contact information becomes property of the IAB and will not be shared with or distributed to any third party.

The IAB reserves the right not to award categories which, in the judgment of the panel and administrators, did not elicit entries up to top industry standards.

Copyright & Rebroadcast:

Entries submitted become the property of IAB and cannot be returned. IAB retains entries for supplemental presentations to educational institutions, trade groups, advertising professionals and the public generally. Each entrant, by signing the declaration, specifically grants worldwide, royalty-free permission to IAB to show or play the entries at award shows, at IAB sponsored or produced events, or in any other public or private presentation with or without charge whenever and as often as the organizers see fit without compensation to Entrant. Entrant authorizes IAB the use for such purpose of any trademark, animated character(s), animal(s), and merchandised item(s) included in the entries. IAB may use entries or license entries or the reproduction of entries in perpetuity, without payment to Entrant, non-exclusively throughout the world, for use in telecasts, videotapes, DVDs, the Internet, exhibits, books, pamphlets and other such publications and media now known or hereafter created, including without limitation, television specials featuring MIXX Awards entries for the year or in subsequent years for historical retrospectives. IAB may charge a fee to third parties for use of such material. Entrant holds or will secure the necessary license for use of all music embodied within the entries. Entrant will fully defend, indemnify and hold IAB, its affiliated companies, assignees and licensees harmless from any talent or other residual charges due to the release of selected entries or any third party claims against IAB, its affiliated companies, assignees and licensees resulting from the content of the entries and the intellectual property contained therein. The person submitting this entry form(s) certifies that he or she has full authority to approve the rights granted herein.

Contacts:

For more information, please contact Gina Imperato at gina@iab.net or 917-696-6370.