Judging the judges?

It's my version of 'watching the detectives'. Who are these people? What qualifies them?

Of course, it may not just be the judges; it can also, or instead, be the judging process. What pressures exist from sponsors and organisers?

It has not been a good week for awards applications.

On top of the disappointment with the UnLtd. funding, I stumbled across the shortlist for the Green Awards. We're not on it.

This was a surprise, as I hadn't realised there was a shortlist. Does this mean that there was some preselection? If so, I was not aware of it when I entered. Also the categories seem to have changed since I applied. And while the previous awards were simply a waste of time, these ones also involved money.

There is a temptation to shrug and let things pass. There are those immortal words 'the judges decision is final', closely followed by 'no correspondence will be entertained.' But did the judges even see what was entered. Or was my nemesis in life and business, the gatekeeper, again at work?

But this brings me back to process. As with the Big idea, what was it that got me from a good chance to an also ran? Especially as, in the case of the SKY effort, I started the day with three thumbs up, and I now know that a few of those who got through only had one or two, and a rough ride. What other factors were at play?

This one is worth pursuing as far as I can take it.

I have tracked down some of the shortlisted efforts. A few are not bad. But in the categories I applied for, B2B DM, B2C DM and copy (for the Folda Holda), I'd have to say, totally subjectively, that our entries were pretty good in comparison, both creatively, and especially environmentally. For heaven's sake, this is a green award and in all these cases we had a reusable concept where the rest were volumes of guff destined for the recycling bin. And they claim it is all about 'creativity'.

And along the way, the below £100k classification, which we most certainly met, seems to have been dropped. So all of a sudden we're mixed in with large wadges of wonga being thrown at the wall in the hope of hitting some target.

But with bitter irony, as I post this I am also sending off my entry to the next set of awards. At least one, the Webbys, has a cheap category (rather worryingly called 'Weird'), which I only realised having racked up bout $3k (hurriedly deleted) ticking all the other relevant boxes to Junkk.com's function, and the other, Technology for Marketing, is free and none too time consuming.

Breath is now being held.