The Judging Process
All decisions of the Beacon Awards Committee in all matters relating to the competition shall be final and binding and no correspondence will be entered into.
Entries are judged in various phases.
- Preliminary judging
Preliminary judging evaluates all the written entries with the purpose of identifying the finalists.
All entries are read by ten judges from the full judging panel. Each judge will read a selection of entries from two or three categories.
The preliminary judging panel is made up of judges specifically selected by the Beacon Awards Committee from applications and nominations. Judges with conflicts of interest do not read conflicted entries.
All entries judged to be of superior quality (finalists) then proceed to the category round of judging. There is a maximum of 5 finalists per category.
- Category judging
In the category round judging, the finalists are put into their entered category and are judged against other finalists in their category on both the written entry and campaign material.
The category judging panel consists of seven groups of up to ten judges. Categories are assigned to each group. There are several very experienced judges in each group. We try to achieve a fair spread of skills, disciplines and backgrounds of the judges in each group. This year the team leaders of each group (known as an Executive Judge) will be a mix of senior clients, senior media agency and senior media owner personnel. It is the Executive Judge's role to moderate their group's judging session.
The category judging panel is made up of judges specifically selected by the Beacon Awards Sub Committee. Each finalist entry is read by each judge and scores awarded. Any conflicts are declared and those with conflicts leave the room and exclude themselves from consideration of those entries.
The category judging panel will make metal recommendations.
- Executive judging
Re-introduced in 2013, an Executive judging panel, comprising the team leaders from the category round judging, will review and debate all metal recommendations from the category round and will decide on the metal to be awarded. Their role is to ensure consistency of awards across all the categories.
- Best in Show judging
The Best in Show is judged by a panel of ‘International' judges who judge remotely. The panel each review all Gold winners (as chosen by the Executive judging panel) and after discussion, the Best in Show will be chosen.
- Comms Council Media Committee
The Comms Council Media Committee will choose the winner of Media Brand of the Year.