AwardCore, the company founded by new media pioneer and entrepreneur John DiMaggio specializing in helping today’s leading creative award shows manage the submission and judging of video, print, audio and web content, whether in the form of ads, music videos, film/TV projects and beyond, announced significant technical upgrades to their infrastructure. Additionally, the company is also now providing its services directly to ad agencies by bringing their world class software and support to their internal award shows and creative review meetings.
DiMaggio, who launched the platform in 2006 and spun it off as a stand-alone company in 2013, explains that the AwardCore service has been designed specifically for creative industry awards, having built fully customized systems for respected competitions such as The International ANDY Awards, AICP Awards and most recently The Hollywood Professional Association Awards and the Leo Burnett Global Product Committee (GPC).
“Our platform is constantly evolving to fulfill the needs of our clients”, DiMaggio says, “We’ve gone from accepting submissions on tape and judging on paper in the early days to a fully digital submission process and advanced judging system that uses iPod Touch devices to record and instantly tabulate votes in real time. Whether it’s a new or established award show or a global agency that needs to evaluate their worldwide output, incredible challenges face these organizations as they try to get their arms around the technology infrastructure and workflow. That’s where AwardCore can help.”
Among the recent technical upgrades undertaken by AwardCore recently include the ability to submit files in professional video formats such as Apple ProRes, as well as longer format content in the form of TV shows and feature films. These upgrades are on full display in their work for The Hollywood Professional Association, whose award show on November 15 in Los Angeles will honor artistry in the field of post production, and recognize the achievement of talent, innovation and engineering excellence in the larger professional media content industry.
One challenge, DiMaggio notes, is how to ensure smooth judging regardless of location or Internet connectivity. “We never know what our next location will be,” he says. “We’ve run judging all over the world, including Mumbai, Bangkok, Shanghai and Costa Rica. Rather than have to be reliant on spotty Internet connectivity, we’ve developed a system that localizes all the data and records votes on small Mac-Mini servers. We only need the internet to do updates and push votes to the cloud.”
No One-Size-Fits-All
Foregoing a one-size-fits all system, DiMaggio explains his approach is to offer his expertise to streamline the workflow as much as possible, but ultimately the goal is to tailor each system to the individual needs of the show. For DiMaggio that means partnering with their clients throughout the process, empowering them to focus solely on their work, while AwardCore handles all technical issues.
“Now that we have expanded our technical infrastructure, we can do more of these types of broader entertainment awards shows, as well as film festivals,” DiMaggio says.
Helping Agencies Directly
In addition to award shows, AwardCore has a new offering: its “Agency Creative Review” service. Today, many global ad agencies need the ability to gather, evaluate, discuss and provide feedback on the creative output of their network worldwide. Starting with the Leo Burnett GPC, AwardCore began adapting their award show expertise to this new service.
“It’s really exciting to run judging for these meetings and see the collaboration and discussion,” DiMaggio says. “These meetings really contribute to the creative culture of the agency.” It’s increasingly important to recognize exceptional work in a media landscape that is multifaceted and diversified. I love that AwardCore can contribute to moving the industry forward by recognizing great work whether in a public award show or an internal agency review. I’m passionate about providing technology that celebrates creativity.”
About AwardCore
Founded by John DiMaggio, AwardCore provides custom award show systems and unparalleled support for shows large and small. For more information go to http://www.awardcore.com
