FIPP Research Awards 2012 – call for entries

FIPP will again be holding its annual Research Awards. The 2012 Awards will reward the best research published in 2011 that promotes the use of magazine media as an advertising medium, anywhere in the world. A call for entries is now being made.

As in previous years, judging will be carried out by FIPP’s Research Committee, under its chairman Nicolas Cour of Prisma Presse, France. 

The Award was successfully introduced in 2010. The objectives are to publicly acknowledge outstanding research, to spread knowledge about successful studies, and to stimulate ideas for further projects. 

The winners of the 2012 FIPP Research Awards will be announced on the evening of 29 May 2012 at the FIPP Research Forum in London, during a Gala Dinner. 

Criteria for eligibility

To be eligible, the research:

• May deal with any aspect(s) of the power of magazine media
• May cover a magazine or magazines of any kind, including consumer and B2B magazines, paid-for and free titles, and in print, digital or other platforms of magazine brands
• May cover magazine media only, or magazines compared with or in combination with other media
• May be qualitative or quantitative
• May use any data collection method, or be a re-analysis of existing data
• May have been commissioned by any kind of organisation, including but not limited to publishers, publishing associations, advertising/media agencies, research agencies, and academic institutions
• May come from any country or combination of countries
• Must have been first published/presented during January-December 2011

Continuous projects which were entered in the previous year’s competition may be entered again but need to show that there was significant new material which was first published in 2011.

What the judges will be looking for

The Awards will be given for the research projects which, in the opinion of the judges, best demonstrate the effectiveness of magazine media. The judges expect to make Awards for the best research by a national association of publishers, by individual companies, and in any additional category as deemed appropriate from the entries to hand; and an Overall Winner. In addition some entries which are not winners of their category may be designated as Highly Commended, at the judges’ discretion.

Among the judges’ considerations will be:

• The strength of the evidence presented
• The significance of the topic(s) studied
• Technical excellence and innovation in methods, new research tools, or analyses
• The extent to which the research helps to sell the magazine medium
• The reception and use of the study in the marketplace
• The applicability of the study elsewhere (including in other countries), either in terms of the study’s results or its methodology

Call for entries

Entries and enquiries should be submitted as soon as possible to FIPP’s Research Consultant, Guy Consterdine. 

Entries should consist of:

• A one, two or three page summary of the objectives, context, method and results of the study
• The published report, presentation or other published materials, sufficient to explain the study in detail

The 1-3 page summary should describe the title of the project, names of commissioner and research agency, main goals of the study, method, main findings, any indication of impact on the market or other feedback, date of first publication/presentation, and contact details.

The summary must be in English. The supporting material is preferred in English, and if the study is short-listed for the Award, sufficient material must be made available in English (in electronic form if possible) for the judges to be able to reach a conclusion.

It is a condition of entry that FIPP may publish on its website or elsewhere the summaries of each entry.

Entries must be submitted no later than 14 March 2012, but earlier entries would be much appreciated.