General positions

All entries of the Festival are evaluated by five major jury categories which judge six contests: 

Creative jury seats on April 18 and judges CREATIVITY contest: nominations film, print, radio & audio, outdoor, integrated, branded content & entertainment;

Branding jury seats on April 18 and judges BRANDING contest: communication design, packaging design, digital design;  

Marketing jury seats on April 18 and judges MARKETING contest: nominations promo & activation, PR, direct, media, innovations; and CREATIVE EFFECTIVENESS contest;

Digital jury seats on April 18 and judges DIGITAL contest: nominations digital, mobile, creative data;

Social advertising jury seats on April 18 and judges SOCIAL ADVERTISING contest.

Grand Prix of the festival is chosen by Grand Jury consisting of the Chairmen of jury categories and by one more representative of each jury category. Grand Jury session will be held on April 20.  

Organization of jury work

The categories of jury are formed by the Directorate of the Festival. For each of the formed categories the Directorate assigns the Chairmen leading the work of their jury members. All jury members must follow the rules in accordance with present Regulation on jury work. All jury members must sign the protocol (evaluation list) in the end of the judging session.

The Chairman of the jury checks and signs final protocol of the session binding it with signature and together with protocols of all remaining jury members passes it to the representative of the Directorate (coordinator of jury work) at the moment when the judging finishes. 

Voting and evaluation rules

The main criteria of evaluation of entries are originality, novelty of the idea and quality of its implementation.

In Marketing contest, next to originality of idea, the projects are also estimated by the shown results, that can be demonstrated as concrete commercial results or the proof of tasks achievement (publications in mass media, growth of brand’s recognition etc).

In Creative Effectiveness contest the criteria of judging are the following: creativity – 25%, strategy – 25%, results – 50%.

In each contest the finalists (short lists) are chosen by common voting of all jury members. The amount of entries included into the short list must be not less than 10% and not more than 25% of total number of entries submitted into particular nomination. Short lists are published on the website during the Festival before the Awards ceremony is held. All entries which get into short lists are awarded with diplomas of the Festival.

From the number of entries included into short list of each nomination jury selects first, second and third places. In accordance with jury’s decision there might be several first, second, third places awarded. First place entry is awarded with the statuette and diploma of the winner; second and third place entries – with diplomas of the Festival.

The judging in Marketing contest, Creative Effectiveness contest, nominations Integrated and Branded content & Entertainment of Creativity contest includes pre-selection procedure when the long-list of entries is chosen. Jury members not later than in 7 days before the start of offline judging session are provided with access to the originals of entries. In accordance with outlined in protocols criteria each jury member must evaluate the entries according to 10 points scale. Juries must look through the entries during 5 calendar days after getting the originals of entries and send their protocols by 15 pm on April 16. The entries that will get 15% less points than the average level of marks are not included into the long-list. Preselection is considered to be succeeded if the entries get evaluation of 70% of jury members. In case if during the moderation of entries any technical questions occur and the entry is not being able to be sent to preselection in time, such entry is estimated during offline jury session.

Each jury category except nominates 1 or 2 entries for Grand Prix from awarded first prizes. Grand Jury must choose one, two or three Grand Prix of the festival.

Jury members can’t vote for the entries in creation of which they were taking part. Their votes are not considered in calculation of average points of such entries.

In case of discovered mismatch between the entry and applied contest nomination the jury can recommend the Directorate of the Festival to shift this entry into another nomination. Decision about the shift of the entry is taken by the Directorate of the Festival without preliminary agreement with the participant.

In cases when the opinions of jury members are divided into equal number of votes the Chairman of the jury has the right of final decision. 

If the member of international jury is not able to participate in judging session, by reached agreement with the Directorate of the Festival it’s possible to distantly submit his/her protocol containing personal signature by the time the judging session ends. Chairman of the jury must accept such protocol and take into consideration while calculating final results. If such protocol has not been provided the member of jury is automatically losing his voting influence.

In case if more than 25% of jury members are missing at jury session due to different reasons, the Directorate of the Festival can fill the gaps with jury members from other jury categories of the festival. If it happens so, schedule of work and regulations might be changed.

Jury can inquire from the Directorate of the Festival the documents proving the fact that the entries have been accepted by client. Directorate must inquire necessary documents from the contestants. Jury members are to evaluate this entry. Until the Awards Ceremony the contestant must provide the documents proving their entry acceptance by the client. In case of non-provision of such document the jury may initiate the withdraw of the entry from participation in the Festival  having approved this fact with the Directorate of the Festival. Responsibility for reliability of provided documents bears the agency-contestant.

The entries eligible to be submitted to X White Square festival must be created and implemented in advertising projects during the period since January 1, 2017 till April 7, 2018, except for the entries that participated in White Square festival. Into Creative Effectiveness contest can be submitted the entries, created and implemented in ad campaigns since January 1, 2017 till April 7, 2018 and demonstrating their effectiveness in the period since January 1, 2017 till April 7, 2018. 

When judging the series of entries jury can award with short-list or prize the whole series as well as some single entries from the series by their own decision. When counting the rating of the festival, just one, the highest award from all the series can be calculated, according to the points mentioned in p.4.1.

Additional positions

Among all the participating agencies “Agency of the Festival” is awarded. “Agency of the Festival” is the agency which gained the highest number of points based on the results of jury work. Among all Belarusian agencies participating at the Festival “Belarusian Agency of the Festival” is awarded. Agency of the Festival award is granted in accordance with rating points calculated in the following way:

Short list – 1 point.

Third place – 3 points.

Second place – 5 points. 

First place – 9 points.   

Grand Prix – 18 points.

For the same entry in the same nomination the points are calculated only once using the maximum demonstrated result.                                                       

In accordance with personal criteria of jury members or suggested by Partners and the Directorate of the Festival, participants can be granted with special prize for their entry. Special prize of the Festival equals short list award while calculating the points in these contests (1 point).         

Next to major jury categories there is special Mass Media Jury category, which, alternatively to Creative Jury, evaluates the entries in contest nominations Press and Film, awarding just three awards, which are considered as first prizes in calculation of points in the rating of the agencies of the festival.    

Information about the winners of the Festival remains closed until Awards ceremony. Jury members must not disseminate information about the finalists and winners of the Festival until the moment of official announcement of the results. In case of such information disclosure, and as well for the actions affecting timing and working process of the Festival, jury member can be disqualified by the Directorate of the Festival. Short lists when these are formed are getting available on the Festival’s website. Information about the winners which have taken the first, second, third places is announced at Awards ceremony.

Information about the winners of the festival is published on the website of the Festival and professional Internet-resources of the CIS and Europe after Awards ceremony is held.