FAQ

Digital communication has become one of the fastest growing sectors. The Quadriga University of Applied Sciences launched the Digital Communication Awards in 2011 as a competition in online communications on both a practical and academic level. An expert jury formed by leading practitioners and academics review your outstanding online projects and campaigns.

The Digital Communication Awards are hosted by Quadriga University of Applied Sciences. The aim of Quadriga University is to advance the careers of high-level professionals eager to further their horizon through interdisciplinary, practice-oriented education.

The following are eligible to enter the Digital Communication Awards:

Agencies and companies, associations and NGOs, political parties, institutions, and individuals in the field of online communication.

Submissions to the DCA are handed in online via the DCA intranet.

After the final submission deadline, the jury reviews all submissions online and determines a shortlist of three to five nominees in each category. The shortlisted nominees will then present their projects to the jury during the digital jury meeting in early September. The winners will be announced by the end of September.

You can apply online by creating an account on our intranet.

1. Application
For each application, information about the organisation and agency (if applicable) is requested. Submissions will exclusively be digital.

2. General information about the project or campaign

Each submitted entry should contain the following information:

Summary of the project at a maximum length of 400 characters (including spaces) – please note: This summary will be published when being shortlisted.
Time frame of the project
Budget (not a mandatory field, but an important information for the jury – please note: information will not be published)
Number of employees who worked on the project

3. Project Description
A short description of max. 3000 characters (including spaces) must be provided including the following:

Initial situation leading to the project or campaign
Objectives of the project
Strategic considerations
Details of the implementation
Summary and measurement of results achieved
A cover picture representing your project or campaign (maximum 1 MB)

4. Additional Material and Links
Accompanying materials are limited to three documents. Therefore, additional illustrative material should be carefully selected. Examples of possible illustrative documents are planning documents, press releases, images, PowerPoint presentations (no more than 10 slides) and movies. One document equates to one file. In addition, you can specify up to three links to websites, social media platforms, intranet sites, or online videos.

The number of submissions is not limited. A project may be submitted in multiple categories.

Submissions need to be filled out in English. Supporting material can be in original language. It is important for all our Jury members to fully understand the projects or campaigns. We recommend to hand in videos in English language or with English subtitles – but again: this isn’t a requirement.

Absolutely, this is an integral part of the submission. Reflecting on your original campaign/project objectives, please state how you measured them and whether you achieved them. Please also elaborate on the monitoring strategy and the tools and devices you used. What did you monitor while the campaign or project unfolded? When and how often did you monitor it? How did the insight gained inform your project?

To finish your submission(s), you will have to check out through our integrated shop system. We kindly ask you to pay directly by credit card, PayPal or to request an invoice. The invoice will automatically be sent to you via email. If paid by credit card, you will receive the payment confirmation via email

Please do not send in your submission until all links and attachments are working and you completed your submission. Submissions that have been sent can no longer be changed, otherwise an entry check (€50) will be charged.

Either the client or the implementing agency can apply. Should a client and its agency submit the same project, the submission will then be considered as a joint submission. In case of being shortlisted or winning, both the client and the agency are named.

The following formats are acceptable:

For texts: pdf
For images: jpg/jpeg, gif, png
For videos/movies: mov, flv, avi (in the highest possible quality, maximum 50 MB, under 3 minutes, or as a link to a website where the movie can be seen)
For presentations: pdf, ppt (Ideally you convert ppt files to pdf format; maximum of 10 slides)

If you send larger files via WeTransfer, please make sure that the link is valid at least 6 weeks after the final deadline. Only then will the judges vote on the entries

The jury will evaluate the applications on the following criteria:

Idea & Creativity: The jury will assess the degree to which the campaign/project is innovative in comparison to comparable industries/regions and directly responds to the identified strategic challenges and strategy. The degree to which latest models in PR & Communications work is reflected in the planning and implementation stages will also be assessed.

Strategy & Implementation:

Results & Effectiveness: The jury will look at results and effectiveness form multiple angles. The jury will undertake an overall evaluation considering stated objectives and KPIs (share, share of voice, behavioural change), as well as the degree to which the campaign/project solved the problem set by the strategy. It will also compare allocation of budget and resources with the results, and look for a clear progression along the campaign’s funnel (from awareness to advocacy/behavioural change).

Other criteria are also considered, depending on the parent category:

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The shortlist will be published in the mid of July. All applicants will be informed via email if their submision was nominated by the jury for the jury meeting during the online voting or not.

Jury members can propose projects of their companies. However, judges are not allowed to judge any entries submitted on behalf of their company.

All material will remain confidential to the judges. Judges are not allowed to judge any entries submitted on behalf of their company. In case you are shortlisted, we will only publish the short general description of your projects as indicated in your application form.

Idea & Creativity, Strategy & Implementation, Results & Effectiveness

On the day of the jury meeting, there may be jury members in your panel who know the project and jury members who do not yet know the project. So it is important to find a good balance when presenting the project to the jury.

You will receive the exact presentation time in your time slot about 15 minutes before your presentation. You will be given a time slot in advance.

Due to the short presentation time (5 minutes), we recommend presenting with a maximum of three people.

The jury has the option to provide brief feedback on your project during the pitch. Contact the Awards Team to check if there is such feedback on your submission.

The presentation of the shortlisted submissions during the digital jury meeting is an integral part of the application process and is a mandatory step for winning one of the Digital Communication Awards.