Stage 1: Nominations
Members of the public will be asked to nominate their favourites in 30 categories between 15 December and midday (GMT) on 24 December (Christmas Eve) via a bespoke app on the ESMA Facebook page.
There are 20 General categories and 10 Regional ones.
Members of the public may submit up to three nominees in each general category, and one nominee from their chosen region. Each nomination must be accompanied by a supporting statement. Supporting statements must be unique.
The ESMA team reserve the right to use supporting statements as part of the awarding process.
Stage 2: Ensuring true engagement
The nominees in each category with unique supporting statements will go through to the second round.
The second round is to ensure that anyone who goes forward as a finalist is actively engaged on their social media channels, and that they display good online etiquette.
In order to secure their place in the final ten, they must meet the following criteria:
Posts to social media channels regularly, not including content about the ESMAs.
Usually reply to appropriate/relevant comments from fans within 24 hours.
Their platform manages spam well; i.e. they delete any spam posted.
Post original content and acknowledge Intelectual Property where required.
(Each of these aspects will be monitored by the ESMA team during a set period prior to the opening of nominations.)
The top 10 in each category will then go through to the finals!
Stage 3: Judging by the Expert Panel
When finalists are announced in the New Year they will receive points, 70% from an Expert Panel (a group of equestrian PR, digital marketing and branding experts from across the globe) and 30% from the public, using a voting form on the ESMA site.
The names of those making it to the final ten in each category will be sent to the judges mid January 2012.
At this stage, judges must declare any and all conflicts of interest (current/previous clients, if they are members of equestrian social networking sites/forums through to the finals in category 18, or any other relationship deemed relevant) upon receipt. If you are unsure, please consult the ESMA team as soon as possible. Other members of the panel will be invited to help with the decision. This is designed to avoid any doubt in the judges’ decisions.
Being a member of the expert panel means full-time employers and businesses in which panel members own shares cannot be nominated in any category.
Judges will be sent between four and six categories in spreadsheet format. They will then have a maximum of four weeks to decide on their scores individually and confidentially.
Judges will have three weeks to consider their scores for all categories. Again, judges must decide on their scores individually and confidentially.
Judges must review finalists’ social media activity pre-November 2011 (or as far back as possible in the case of Twitter) and rate them out of ten for each of the following criteria where appropriate:
Innovation - are they thinking outside the box?
Individual – is their content original?
Inspiration – are you compelled to act, buy or share?
Interaction - do they involve fans/followers and encourage discussions?
Information - is it accurate, interesting and useful to their audience?
Please note:
a. Those experts judging Category 20 (Mainstream Celebrity) must only include posts mentioning horses or equestrian issues in their consideration. The category aims to encourage the promotion of riding to non-equestrians and celebrate mainstream celebrities who advocate equestrianism among their fans.
b. Those experts judging Category 18 (Equestrian Social Networking Site or Forum) must sign up for an account, become familiar with the platform and base their scores on the following:
User-friendliness – can you find your feet quickly and get started?
Is it fun?
Sociability - can you easily share content with fellow users and the outside world?
Business worthy – can you see its benefits for business?
Would you stay and recommend that your friends join?
Point Deductions:
Judges have been asked to keep a look out for what is considered ‘spammy’ behaviour.
If a judge becomes aware that any finalist is in breach of the terms and conditions of a social network on which they are being judged, then the ESMA team should be alerted.
Most importantly:
After Judging:
Three judges will have scored each category individually. These scores will be compiled by the ESMA team and contribute towards 70% of the final scores.
The remaining 30% will come from a public vote, conducted online via the ESMA website.
10% will be deducted from each finalist found to be in breach of any platform rules by members of the Expert Panel.
An additional 10% will be deducted from each finalist found to have been spamming.
The finalist with the highest score in each category is the winner.
If any of the categories are tied, because two or more finalists have the same score, the three experts who judged the category will be asked to pick a winner. The finalist with two or more votes wins.
The winners of the regional categories will be in the running for the World Award, in association with FEI. Richard Johnson, Head of Corporate Communications, will lead in judging this final overall winner.
Further considerations:
Members of the expert panel are not permitted to discuss the judging of the ESMAs with finalists.
Members of the expert panel must inform the ESMA team if any finalist contacts them in relation to the ESMA judging. Finalists found to have contacted experts with regards to ESMA judging will be given a written warning. If they are found to have contacted an expert regarding the ESMA judging a second time they will automatically be disqualified.
Experts are not permitted to disclose the categories they are judging to the public, finalists or fellow experts.
Members of the expert panel, and their employees, are not permitted to nominate or vote in any category.
The World Award
The 2012 ESMAs sees the introduction of regional categories based on the FEI's regional groups.
The ten winners of the regional categories will be passed to Richard Johnson, Head of Corporate Communications in Lausanne, Switzerland to decide the winner of the World Award.
Information for finalists
Finalists may canvass for votes, but are required to ask their fans and followers to judge as many categories as possible, not just theirs.
Any one organisation/individual may become a finalist in up to four general categories and one regional category.
The ESMA team reserve the right to disqualify anyone thought to be buying or achieving votes through unfair means.
Members of the expert panel are not to be contacted with regards the ESMAs at any point. Any finalists thought to be influencing the expert panel in any way will be given a single written warning.
Contacting an expert regarding the ESMAs a second time will result in automatic disqualification.
The Awards Ceremony
The winners will be announced in a video ceremony. The ceremony will be uploaded to YouTube in episodes.
All finalists are required to provide videos - each no more than one minute in length. The first should be an acceptance speech in case they win, and the second, a general message of support to all participants to be used in if they don't win.
Finalists' clips should be in .dv format - at 16:9. Send them to us through the file sharing platform, DropBox. Please label the file with your name, not ESMA. If you wish to set up a DropBox account you can with this link: http://db.tt/9RtJEwE
The ESMA team will be editing the clips together as part of the whole awards programme, please do not use background music, any effects, graphics or fades.
Videos must be received by 5pm (GMT) on Friday 17th of February 2012.
Videos received after the deadline will not be used.
Sending us a video does not guarantee that it will be used.
By sending the clips they become property of the ESMAs and in the process of sending you give full rights over their use forever.
Videos containing any copyright material will not be used. It is the finalists' responsibility to ensure material used in clips belongs to them.
Additional Information
The ESMA team reserve the right to extend the closing deadline, amend categories or not award categories should the standard of entries received not reach the required standard.
Decisions of the judges, ESMA Team and public are final regarding the selection of shortlisted nominees and winners.
The ESMA Team reserve the right to make changes to these terms at any time without notice.
To withdraw an entry please email: connect@equestriansocialmediaawards.com
The ESMAs accepts no responsibility for, and gives no assurance or warranty in relation to, the authenticity of finalists in the Equestrian Social Media Awards, nor their quality or fitness for any particular purpose or otherwise. The ESMAs shall have no liability for any losses or damages whatsoever, whether due to negligence or otherwise arising, from the use of finalists' products or services.
