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Day 2: 7th Oct 2009...Venue: The Hatton, London EC1

Category: ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 Websites

Judge: Jason Baker, head of CRM and digital, IKEA
"±±¾©Èü³µpk10 website entries were good creatively but disappointingly there's a lack of good metrics being submitted with entries - a lot of soft stuff in there. My role at IKEA is taking campaigns through from broadcast to bottom line, hence my sensitivity about this issue. I don't like seeing results based on % of increased click-through rates but rather how many sales were generated as a result.

"I wanted to see a high level of relevant creativity, not design for design sake or technology for technology sake but something directly related to tangible campaign objectives.

"Some entries I saw had great potential objectives and then some that knew exactly what they wanted to go after and had a clear path between creativity and physical conversion. Having that clear path was a big one for me."

Category: eCRM

Judge: Skip Fidura, digital director, dotagency and former email consultant at OgilvyOne
"Automotive and travel were the dominant sectors in this category. They are definitely prolific users of eCRM .

"Everyone had quite good results to talk about - good, demonstrable double-digit ROI and click-through rates higher than you see in the DMA benchmarking report. I was surprised how high they were. The brands that entered are clearly seeing the benefits of their labour.

"In terms of channels, email was frequently used - but with eCRM it shouldn't be a single channel approach. ECRM is not just about building relationships using email. The trend in eCRM is to use email or SMS to drive people to a microsite, but we didn't see much of this.

"I was surprised that there wasn't more work involving mobile and social networking. It might be a year too early - a lot of brands are starting to figure out how to integrate social networking and user-generated content with campaigns, like, do we have a Facebook site that's driving traffic to our own site?"

Category: Email category

Judge: Lazar Dzamic, digital planning director, Kitcatt Nohr Alexander Shaw
"Despite the fact that Microsoft Outlook has arguably damaged brands' creativity in email ­- the security factors mean you have to treat email as a press ad with a flat image and text - we did see a clever use of email elements.

"It's hard to explain. It involves a trade-off between text and images, because if the images can't load, you won't see the text. The trick is how you position the text so that you can view all the elements. And some of the entries managed to pull this off - to combine accessibility with a good look and feel of design. We also saw some clever use of data in pre-profiling emails."

Category: Creative Solutions

Judge: Barney Cockerell, executive creative director, Rapp
"There was a whole debate about what is a creative solution. Some of the entries were about the innovative use of technology, others about what we call the big idea. There were some really exciting things in there.

"And there was one entry that was for me, head and shoulders above everything else. It ticked all the boxes by using innovative technology, being bang on for the audience and having a robust business case, an ongoing relationship after the initial communication and completely relevant for the brand. Was I seething with jealousy? I was with that piece of work."

Category: Charities

Judge: Mark Runacus, chief strategy officer, HS&P
"I'm delighted that we've had a high number of entries from the charity sector despite the fact that it's reportedly been a tough year. I was expecting a drop in numbers because I'd heard that charities weren't going to commission as much creative [in the downturn] and run with the tried and tested.

"I've seen charities increasingly using multichannel - it's stupid but the best work today involved a big idea, not just asking for money.

"You could see pieces that weren't thought through completely - we wished some of the clients were there to hear us say, ‘we wish you'd gone further'. Work in online channels wasn't showing maturity but showing very strong results."

Category: B2B Direct Mail

Judge: Mark Runacus
"I'm always pleasantly surprised how fantastically creative B2B is. This year there were reassuringly fewer boxes! And some wonderful, highly creative and low cost ideas. The entries were mostly standalone direct mail, which is not surprising as the channel continues to prove to be a good way to reach niche audiences."

Category: Green

Judge: Wanda Goldwag, consultant
"Some nice entries. Charities and property companies were well represented but I expected to see more from energy companies. The judging criteria were strategy, creativity and results, and then green criteria on top of that. The good news is that now we're seeing brands using direct marketing to get their green message across."

Day 1: 6 Oct 2009...Venue: The Hatton, London EC1

Judge: Jo Haxley, head of marketing/loyalty, British Gas
"I'm a newcomer to the DMA awards - a virgin judge if you like. I judged Business to Consumer Direct Mail this morning, and it was a big category - lots of different sectors in there, from cars to charities and very diverse packs.

"Some entries hung great creative off really good targeting and insight. The simplicity of some of the ideas I saw this morning were totally transferrable to other industries and I'd like to take them back to British Gas. One entry addressed a big DM industry problem ­- targeting opted-out customers - very innovatively.

"There was a wide range in there, from very simple direct mail through to very creative and innovative stuff. One entry felt more like an experience than a direct marketing piece.

"What was interesting for me was observing that a lot of the direct mail strategies had other channels supporting them, for example email, a microsite or coupon calls to action.

Judge: Cordell Burke, creative consultant and former executive creative director, Tequila London
"I was judging the Press category today. What's striking me is that single media categories like press or email are still relevant, but what's interesting is how much more interconnected they are than ever before.

"Even digital, which claims to be the dominant media, is still influenced by what's happening offline. If brands think you can get away with just digital, they're in a dream world."

Judge: Caitlin Ryan, executive creative director, Proximity London
"I'm chair of the Retail and Launches categories. As group chairs, our role is administrative, to tell everyone how the judging works. The DMAs are quite different to other awards in that the panel is made up of clients, creatives, planners, data and media - lots of different expertise.

"People ask how rigorous the judging of this competition is. Well, this afternoon we had to have an entry removed because it didn't adhere to the very strict guidelines of confidentiality [as to which agency did the work].

"The fact a Gold winner has got to be good in all three areas of creative, strategy and results makes Golds very difficult to win. They can't be just a pretty DM piece. So we're not looking for best in class, but next in class.

"With Gold winners, my barometer is that on the night of the awards ceremony, I want my creatives to sit there and think, I wish I'd done that."

Judge: Barney Cockerell, executive creative director Rapp
"I was judging the Business to Consumer Misc category. Can't say too much but we did witness the application of DM principles in a new way, entirely appropriate to the audience.

"The entries I've seen from direct heritage agencies are more than keeping with digital innovation - they're applying true insight and data analysis, and combining that with new technologies, which is massively powerful.

"The strength direct agencies have in data allows us to take advantage of the potential for one-to-one marketing that digital platforms give us, ­ more so than above-the-line and digital pure plays can manage."