An Internet-based business in a competitive industry, such as website design agency for law firms is always looking for opportunities to earn acclaim, as this attracts clients. One of the ways that an Internet-based company can do this is by winning one of several major awards for digital content. The Webby Awards are some of the most prestigious and longest-running awards in this category. Read on to learn more about the difficulty of winning a Webby Award.
What are the Webby Awards?
The Webby Awards give out Webbys in over a hundred categories. Some of the major categories include online film and video, mobile sites and apps, websites, advertising and media, and social media. Companies and individuals who want to have their work considered for a Webby must submit it themselves. Industry leaders judge the awards, and there is an awards ceremony (which has usually been held in New York City). The Webbys are held on a yearly basis.
Rules of the Webby Awards
The Webby Awards are only for content posted on the Internet in the previous year. To be considered for a Webby, content must fit the guidelines for a specific award category. People who wish for their content to be nominated must submit it to the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which holds and judges the awards. There is a fee for submissions. Content that may be deemed offensive, such as pornography or explicit violence, is not allowed. Entries are accepted from both the United States and abroad, with entries allowed from over 60 countries.
Popular categories of the Awards
The Webby Awards have more than 100 categories. The number of categories fluctuates slightly from year to year, although it tends to increase. The most popular and newsworthy categories of the Webby Awards include online film and video, mobile sites and apps, websites, advertising and media, and social media. Many of these broad areas award prizes in several sub-categories. For more information on the current categories of the Webby Awards and on how the categories may be changing for upcoming years, visit the official Webby site.
The Webby Award evaluation process
The Webby Award evaluation process starts soon after entrants send in their submissions. The Webby Awards routinely get more than 10,000 entrants, so judging has to take place year-round to ensure that every submission gets fairly evaluated. As previously mentioned, the members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences judge the entries. More than 2,000 members of this academy are involved in all the fields represented by the Webby Awards. Each judge will only evaluate submissions in their area of expertise.
If the initial judges award a submission high marks, it advances to the next round of judging. This is when judges will cast their ballots and vote for the best entries. There are three levels of recognition bestowed upon Webby Awards entrants: Webby Honoree, Webby Nominee, and Webby Winner. There are also two types of Webby Award winners in each category. See below for more information on the two types of Webby winners.
The two types of Webby Awards Winners
All Webby Honorees and Nominees must be selected by the judges. However, the People’s Voice award is given to one winner in each category in addition to the Webby Winner selected by the judges. The People’s Voice awards winners are determined by the votes of the general public. It is possible for an entry to win both the standard Webby Award and the People’s Voice award. Also, it is possible for an entry to win awards in multiple categories.
The bottom line: How difficult is it to win a Webby Award?
The bottom line is that it is quite difficult to win a Webby Award. The fact that there are two types of Webby Award winners makes it easier, especially for start-ups that have passionate fan-bases. However, many categories see well over 100 entries, which means the odds of winning an award are still not great.
This doesn’t mean that you should lose hope. It is much more likely that an entry will be recognized as a Webby Honoree or a Webby Nominee than as a Webby Winner. The Webby Awards are fairly well-known and are covered by many media outlets, so even being recognized as Webby Honoree or a Webby Nominee can bring your business a great deal of publicity. This is why so many businesses feel that submitting to the Webbys is worth their time and money.