Analysis of the EUROPRIX.nl - Introduction

It is close to the holiday season. News is coming in more slowly. For my blog I will start an analysis of the Dutch EUROPRIX.nl competition. First I will look at the statistics over the past three years and then I will treat analyse the eight categories. For today I will start with the general analysis.

The EUROPRIX.nl was held in 2003 for the first time. The Netherlands have a fair amount of competitions, but there is not a real content competition. There are the SpinAwards for advertisement bureaus and the SAM awards for screen productions. There are the National ICT awards for software and the VOSKO Award for networks. For Internet kids there is the Golden Monkey Tail. And for the youth there is the ThinkQuest competition. But all in all, EUROPRIX.nl seems to fit in the content slot. One conclusion after three years is that perhaps the categories need updating. But this will become clear after the analysis of the categories.

The EUROPRIX
In 2003 we held the first EUROPRIX.nl. The name EUROPRIX was well known in the Dutch multimedia world as a European competition. Several Dutch companies have won nominations during EUROPRIX’s five year existence. And twice Dutch companies took the overall award. Not a bad score for a small country.
- 1998: WDS in Rotterdam with Quest4Europe (nomination)
- 1999: Uitgeverij Het Spectrum with Obi en het verhaal van de elfen (nomination)
- 2000: Softmachine with Anne Frank (Europrix Award)
- 2001: Museum Boymans Van Beuningen/ ZappWerk/V2/Ra.nj with BoschUniverse (Europrix Award)
- 2001: Rembrandthuis/Softmachine with Rembrandt the Printmaker (nomination)
- 2001: IJsfontein with Tattletoons (nomination)
- 2001: Mattmo with Tiny Taboos (nomination)
- 2002: Heineken/Qi Interactive with www.party.com (category winner)
- 2002: Ministry of Foreign Affairs/Talmon Communicatie with Compact Netherlands (nomination)

Those with a sharp memory will see some names that also participate in the EUROPRIX.nl: Ra.nj, IJsfontein and Talmon, while companies like Softmachine and Qi also regularly participate.

The EUROPRIX.nl
In 2003 the first competition was organised together with OPPO-MMBO, a new association of entrepreneurs in the pre- and multimedia area. (The association changed its name last year to CMBO – Association for communication media). We got a flying start. The number of entries was not very high compared to the SpinAwards, but enough to speak of a competition. For the award ceremony we got lucky. The Chambers of Commerce in broadcast city Hilversum was organising a seminar in a studio at the Media Centre and we could link the award ceremony to it. It gave the EUROPRIX.nl competition the necessary exposure. We were not mentioned in a television of a news programme, but the trade press picked it up.
By 2004 The Hogeschool Rotterdam came into the picture and offered facilities. It was then that we thought up a public jury, the award ceremony and an exhibition of the companies which had entered the competition. So regardless whether a company won an award or was nominated a company could show their portfolio. The format worked. The EUROPRIX.nl organisation did appreciate the hospitality very much, but the Hogeschool Rotterdam liked the event and invited the EUROPRIX.nl back for 2005.

Entries
The amount of entries is quite dependent on the publicity made. So far everything has been done on free publicity in the trade press and publications of associations. At the start it looks like not many entries come in, but near the deadline, entries come in, in multiples. Usually the deadline is extended with fourteen days. Over the past years we had the following amount of entries:
2003: 50
2004: 53
2005: 63

So this year we made a jump. Seven companies had participated before. But as a company can enter more than one production the amount of companies is lower. This year we had 6 companies with more than one entry.

Multimedia
EUROPRIX.nl is not restricted to the web. It is a multimedia competition and as such CD-ROMs, DVDs, mobiles, PDAs and installations are accepted. And this year they all were represented:
- Websites: 43
- CD-ROM 10
- DVD 2
- PDA 2
- Mobiles (SMS. GPRS, UMTS) 4
- Installation 1
- Interactive TV 1

Of course websites are still in the majority and I expect that it will stay so. CD-ROMs are still being produced. This year for example a national monument in child literature was translated to CD-ROM. Mobile is coming up even with UMTS. This year we also had an installation; last we had Interactive projection system which won the category award at the Top Talent Award. And there was also 1 interactive TV production; last year we had two.

Tomorrow I will start the analysis of the first category on Knowledge, Discovery and Culture.

(BTW A local television station In Rotterdam devoted a news item to the students' entry De Oranjes. You can download the video from http://www.svennie.nl/europrix/RNN7.wmv. It is all in Dutch, but the video gives a fine impression of the the public jury and award ceremony day).