Wolfram Winter of Sky Deutschland GmbH in Bavaria, Germany, is Chair of the Committee to judge the Public Relations Awards, Video Awards and Publication Awards categories in the 2016 (2nd annual) German Stevie Awards.
He was named Executive of the Year in the Corporate Communications, Investor Relations and Public Relations categories of the 2015 German Stevie Awards; and under his leadership, Sky Deutschland won a Gold Stevie Award for Company of the Year-Media & Entertainment in the Company/Organization Awards categories of The 2015 International Business Awards.
The German Stevie Awards final entry deadline is February 12. Find out more here.
The 2016 International Business Awards opened this month and is now accepting entries. Find out more about how to enter here.
Wolfram Winter is Executive Vice President of Communications, Public Affairs & Advertising Sales at Sky Deutschland GmbH, and is Managing Director of Sky Media GmbH, a wholly owned subsidiary of Sky Deutschland. Winter is a senior spokesperson for the entertainment group and is responsible for the marketing of advertising time on all Sky platforms.
The Importance of Awards Competitions
As a winner of Gold Stevie Awards in both the German Stevie Awards and the International Business Awards in 2015, we asked Wolfram what he felt made it important to participate in these competitions.
“Competitions such as the Stevie Awards are like fashion runways for agencies and businesses: you get up there and showcase your best work. Awards competitions provide an opportunity for the most creative minds in the industry to show off their best work, cases, and campaigns. Plus, they provide an excellent opportunity for the exchange of knowledge and for active networking.”
The Judging Process
As Chair of one of the 2016 Judging Committees, we asked Wolfram for his comments on the experience of judging submissions to the 2016 German Stevie Awards so far. He told us that he had been deeply impressed by the range of companies that had entered as well as the high quality of the submissions. “The effectiveness and original thinking demonstrated by some of the participants has been remarkable,” he explained. “And these are precisely the qualities essential for any successful PR or Marketing campaign.”
Judging of the German Stevie Awards opened on February 5 and will continue through February 19. If you would like to participate, complete the application here.
What To Do
We asked Wolfram what he thought constituted a successful awards submission. “First, a nomination should meet the awards criteria—that’s essential. Then, it’s important to stand out from the other nominations through creativity and originality, and if possible to give the jury that “Aha Moment”—something which only ever happens with a few, really good applications.”
What Not To Do
On the flip side, we asked Wolfram what he saw as the most common mistakes made by companies entering awards competitions. “Participants often fail simply in the basic requirements,” he observed. “For a submission to be successful it should be clearly structured with detailed responses to all the given questions. That might seem obvious, but in practice often gets overlooked.”
“Another common mistake: assuming too much. When submitting an entry that a jury is going to have to read and evaluate, remember that it is often difficult for the judge to recognize and understand what is so special about a campaign or project. A clear, brief explanation of the core information can help tremendously.”
“In conclusion: Keep it simple. And short wouldn’t hurt, either!”
Looking ahead, we asked Wolfram what he expected of the 2017 German Stevie Awards. His gnomic response: “Disruption.”
About Wolfram Winter:
Wolfram Winter is Executive Vice President Communications, Public Affairs & Advertising Sales at Sky Deutschland and Managing Director of Sky Media GmbH, a 100% subsidiary of Sky Deutschland. With a degree in political science and training in journalism, he is responsible for representing the entertainment company as its senior spokesperson as well as the advertising sales business across all Sky platforms.
In 2007, he founded Premiere Star GmbH, a distribution platform for the pay-TV broadcaster, which was completely acquired by Sky Deutschland in 2009. Before that, he served as Managing Director of NBC Universal Global Networks Deutschland, where he oversaw television activities in Germany, Austria, and Switzerland. Prior to that, he was the programming manager of DF1, a predecessor of Sky Deutschland GmbH.
Follow Wolfram Winter on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/wolframwinter
About Sky Deutschland:
With 4.5 million customers and annual revenues in the amount of approximately 1.8 billion Euros, Sky is the pay-TV market leader in Germany and Austria. The program offering at Sky includes live sport, films, series, kids’ channels, and documentaries. Sky Deutschland, with its headquarter in Unterföhring near Munich, is part of Sky plc, Europe’s leading entertainment group. More than 21.5 million customers in five countries are watching the exclusive Sky programs whenever and wherever they want (Status: 31 December 2015). For more information, go to www.sky.de
