Judging Criteria

The Crystal Awards committee sets criteria and tabulates and certifies the results. A select panel of marketing professionals from outside the Houston area acts as judges. Judges make all decisions regarding eligibility, finalists and winners, and their decisions are final.

Each entry must include answers to the five (5) questions below (typewritten on 8.5" x 11" paper, three page maximum). On the top of each page, include the category number, category name and entry title.  Please carefully match the information on the top of your pages to the category number and entry title that you included in your entry registration form, so that we can correctly match each entry we receive. 

Judges score each answer on a 1 to 10 scale, with 10 being the highest. The entry with the highest number of points is the winner. The five (5) questions are:


1. Situation/Challenge
What was the core, basic problem to be solved or situation to be addressed by the entry?  Judges score on how clearly the challenge is stated. 
2. Objective(s)
What was/were the objective(s) to address the situation or challenge?  Judges score whether the objectives are sound, clear and measurable. If objectives aren't measurable, judges score whether they were clear enough to determine if they were achieved. 
3. Strategy/Tactics
What was the strategy and what tactics (actions) were undertaken for achieving the objectives?  Judges score how well the strategy/tactics relate achieving the objectives.
4. Message Alignment
How does the approach and tone of the creative message align with the target audience and support the stated objectives and strategies?   Judges score how well the elements of the message, including the graphics and copy, align with the goals of the program. This new criteria will allow judges to give credit for innovative and creative ideas within marketing programs. 
5. Results
What results produced by the entry represent how it attributed to achieving its objective(s)?  Judges score how effective the entry was in producing results that tie to the stated objective(s). The results score receives DOUBLE WEIGHT, so it's extremely important to describe the results in as measurable of terms as possible to prove the objective(s) was/were achieved. 
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24th Crystal Awards theme/creative by Savage Branding & Corporate Design