Media News South Africa

IFRA competition to highlight cross-media branding, design

DARMSTADT, GERMANY: The objective of the fourth XMA Cross Media Awards is to present the best examples of design in print that combine different print and digital (online and mobile) channels to get their brand across, announced IFRA, the worldwide research and service organisation for the news publishing industry, earlier this week.

“The media world has changed dramatically. More content in more formats, distributed on more platforms and on more channels, lends itself to exposing audiences to an overwhelming jungle of different brands. Brand recognition of media houses becomes crucially important in order to distinguish one's own brand and what it stands for,” says Dr. Dietmar Schantin, one of IFRA's XMA project leaders.

Who can take part?

Media houses with their roots in the publishing industry (newspaper or magazine) of any size that are implementing a cross-media and integrated branding strategy are able to enter.

Prizes will be awarded in the following circulation categories for newspapers:

  • A: small newspapers, circulation less than 100 000 copies daily;
  • B: medium newspapers, circulation between 100 000 to 250 000 copies daily;
  • C: large newspapers, more than 250 000 copies daily.

How to take part

Entries can be submitted from 1 March 2009 online at www.ifra.com/xma, where the detailed conditions of participation can also be viewed. The final date for receiving entries is 29 May 2009. A jury comprising international newspaper and media experts will evaluate the entries. Entry fees for submissions are 150 Euro (IFRA members) and 250 Euro (IFRA non-members).

Winners of the XMA Cross Media Awards will be announced 12 - 15 October at IFRA Expo 2009 in Vienna (www.ifraexpo.com), and presented at a XMA special showing. A short list of the best projects will be presented before at the Society for News Design (SND) Conference in Buenos Aires, Argentina, 24 - 26 September 2009.

For the first time, the IFRA XMA Awards is a co-production with the SND (www.snd.org). The 2009 competition is sponsored by Adobe and supported by Protec.

For further information, contact Raquel Meikle, IFRA XMA project team, on tel +49 6151 733 927 or email .

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