Dear Addy...

Dear Addy,

I am a young, relatively attractive Interactive company, or as some like to call me, “Digital Agency,” that has done some really great portfolio work of late. I have been wanting to submit some of my work to the Philadelphia Addys award show for quite some time, but have to admit, I’m a little shy at times when trying to compare my work to that of the old school ad agencies out there. Not that I feel my work isn’t good enough, but I just feel that no one really appreciates the technical side of what I do.

Anyway, this year I finally decided to put myself out there, in hopes that this might allow me to meet more people, and you know, get me a little more respect and exposure. Well as I downloaded the list of categories, I noticed a spot for interactive entries that encouraged “Social Media”. Well hot damn I thought! I’ve done a few of those sites this past year that I’m pretty excited about, so immediately, I was feeling much more confident about my chances right away. I was super excited at the thought of finally being accepted by all those people that kept referring to me as nothing but a start up! Although as I read a little further, I found login or registration sites were not recommended. At first, I chuckled, thinking I read it wrong. Because, you know, since nearly all social networking sites require a registration. But, much to my dismay, after further investigating with a call, they recommended not to include login information because it could take too much time for review for the judges and they may simply dismiss it.

My first reaction was to blame myself…but as I thought about it, I realized, it’s not me, it’s you. How can you ask for “Social Media” websites and deny entries that require user registration? So I thought of a few things you might want to consider for next year.

While I think it’s great that you have ONE executive from an Interactive Agency as a judge, it may be helpful to add a few more. Also, having a few more category examples, or being more specific about them would also be a plus. For example, there is a category for Flash, and a category for HTML/Other… so what if, like most of my sites, they are Flash and HTML? Does that count as “Other”? And is it even necessary to break up the category? Shouldn’t a website be judged on the user experience first and foremost? I mean if you’re asking for Social Media, isn’t half the battle designing an intuitive user interface that makes registration and navigation a breeze? How else would you judge it? And how would you judge it without first registering?

Also, it would be sweet if I could submit my “interactive” entries online. Actually, it would be sweet if I could submit ALL my entries online. It’s kind of silly that I have to snail mail a printed screen shot. Why couldn’t I just upload a my jpgs to your site? That would save my business time and postage, and save you the hassle of digging through the mail. Wouldn’t it also be easier for your judges if they could just login to your site and click through each image?

The point is Addy, there is a lot more to Interactive than a homepage and a pretty picture. If you plan on getting money for the submissions and want serious contenders to compete, it may be helpful to take a closer look at how the categories are broken down and how each site is judged. Hey, I’m starting to come out of my shell a little bit here, so if you need a hand next year, let me know. Did I mention I’m available?

Frustrated in Cyberspace Phila, Pa