Resources & Tips

Writing a great paper is a time-consuming process.

Unfortunately, there aren’t any shortcuts; winning papers show lots of attention, love and care. The biggest piece of advice we can offer is to start sooner than you think you should. If you finish early, you can always find hours of endless amusement in rubbing in that fact with your peers who will be frantic and incoherent in the last week.

1. While we understand the temptation, we caution you to resist the urge to simply re-edit a paper that was created for any other award program. The Jay Chiat Awards program is unique, with an emphasis on brilliant strategic thinking and the linkage of that thinking to creative expression. While effectiveness is important for the Jay Chiat Awards, we are most interested in your exceptional thinking. Papers written to highlight this will have a greater chance of success.
2. Tell an interesting story. Judges have to read a lot of submissions and yours will have a better chance of standing out if they are drawn in by it.
3. Make sure you clearly communicate how you broke new ground with your thinking. Don’t assume every judge will understand the status quo in your category.
4. Make sure planning’s impact on the outcome is visible. The best cases demonstrate a result that clearly would not have occurred had it not been for planning.
5. Don’t overlook the art direction of the submission itself. Elegantly presented cases that are easy to read and exhibit a judicious use of graphics will rise to the top.
6. Finally, while 2009 celebrates today’s brilliant thinking, it can also be very useful to look back. We would refer you to some previous winners of the awards for guidance. Books containing the winners of 2003, 2004, 2005, 2007 Jay Chiat Awards are available at www.aaaa.org. The 2008 Winners book will be available soon. We strongly encourage all entrants to read them.

Facebook

Join the Jay Chiat Awards 2009 Facebook Group to ask questions and communicate with the award chair, William Charnock.