Following its successful launch in 2016, the World Media Awards for international content-driven advertising returns in 2017 and the organisers wish to extend entries from the Middle East and Africa.

The awards celebrate the effectiveness of cross platform, cross border, content-driven advertising.

Rupert Turnbull, president of the World Media Group and VP EMEA, Time Inc, says, “We could not have been more pleased with the breadth, depth, quality and geographical spread of entries to the World Media Awards in our first year but we want to make year two even bigger and better.

“We are once again delighted to have recruited a high calibre judging panel that extends across international advertisers, agency experts and editorial specialists and to have extended entry categories too. We hope that anyone involved in creating bold, creative strategies for engaging with international, influential audiences will enter. We’ve seen fantastic work coming out of the Middle East and Africa and would love to see even more entries originating from there.”

How to enter

For the second year running, entry to the WMAs at www.wm-awards.com is free. Entries open on Thursday 1 December 2016 and advertisers and their media, PR and creative agencies can enter all categories, while media owners are only permitted to enter the new Entertainment and Media category directly. Campaigns must have intentionally targeted audiences in at least four countries and 75% of activity needs to have been implemented in 2016. There is no requirement for campaigns to have run in any of the World Media Group brands. The closing date for entries is Thursday 16 February 2017.

Judging

To reflect the importance of collaboration in creating successful international, content-driven advertising campaigns, the independent jury will number over 20 heavyweight judges from brands, agencies and media owners. It is presided over by three co-heads: Ian Armstrong, global head of advertising at Land Rover, Sanjay Nazerali, global chief strategy officer with Dentsu Aegis and Raquel Bubar, director T Brand Studio at the New York Times.

Nazerali comments, “We will be looking for work with an international reach and which creates debate, informs, inspires, engages with specific communities or otherwise really gets people talking. Campaigns, which demonstrate innovative ways of weaving their story across multiple touchpoints, will be highly regarded and, although great creativity is incredibly important, ultimately what we will need to see is proof of effectiveness. I’m looking forward to judging these awards and getting the inside view on the world's best cross-border, content-driven ad campaigns.”

Categories

There will be eight Award categories and a Grand Prix selected by the jury from amongst the category winners, as follows:

• Financial Services
• Travel & Tourism
• Foreign Direct Investment and Economic Development
• Technology and Telecoms
• Lifestyle & Luxury
• Automotive
• Corporate Influencer
• (New) Media & Entertainment

All category winners will see their work celebrated in an advertising campaign valued at €500,000, which will run across the World Media Group's leading international media brands: The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal, Time, Quartz, The New York Times, National Geographic, Newsweek, Fortune, Forbes, The Economist and Bloomberg. In addition, a number of the winning case studies will be published in the World Media Awards showcase on the World Media Group website.

Awards event

The winners of the Awards will be announced at the World Media Awards Reception at the Ham Yard Hotel in London on Thursday 6 April 2017. All shortlisted entrants will receive two free tickets to join the celebration as guests of the World Media Group and additional tickets will be available for purchase.