Competition Rules
All persons entering the Interactive Media Awards™ (IMA) competition must accept the following Competition Rules. We strongly suggest you read them carefully before you enter. By submitting a nomination and paying the entry fee, you are stating that you have read and accepted these rules and conditions. Entry fees are nonrefundable.
Who is Eligible to Enter?
The competition is open to individuals and organizations involved in designing, developing, managing, supporting and promoting websites. Nominations are accepted from web design firms, advertising agencies and corporate marketing departments, as well as individual web designers and graphic artists, among others. Nominators must have the appropriate consent and authorization to nominate a site. Nominators must be at least 18 years of age.
What Types of Websites are Eligible?
The Interactive Media Awards™ competition is open to all websites that are not ineligible (see below).
As defined in the American Heritage Dictionary, and for the purposes of this competition, a "website" is "a set of interconnected web pages, usually including a homepage, generally located on the same server, and prepared and maintained as a collection of information by a person, group, or organization."
Websites that existed online for any period of time in the year they are nominated are eligible. If a site is discontinued in the same year it was nominated, it remains eligible to win in that year. Winners are eligible to win the same award again only in the succeeding year.
By entering the competition, each entrant certifies that their entries do not violate any Competition Rules. IMA reserves the right to disqualify a nomination or a winner discovered to be ineligible, with no refund of entry fees.
What Types of Websites are Ineligible?
Sites containing unoriginal material (such as templates) or unwholesome content (such as pornography or hate-speech) are not eligible for the competition. If your site promotes any of the following content it will be disqualified:
- racism, sexism, heterosexism, religious prejudice or other forms of hatred
- pornography
- profanity
- activities relating to hacking or warez
- activities relating to cults or witchcraft
- activities relating to gangs or other violent groups
- degradation or humiliation of adults, children or animals
- products or services that are illegal to use, sell and/or possess in the United States
- unoriginal templates
In addition, websites hosted on free servers (such as Geocities) are ineligible.
Winners are not eligible to win the same award (i.e. same category) in the same year.
This list is non-exclusive and we reserve the right to disqualify any entry for any reason.
Protection of Intellectual Property
By submitting your entry(ies), you are attesting that you have the necessary authorization to use the images, audio, text and other content contained therein. DO NOT enter your site if you are in violation, or uncertain of your rights to, any copyrights, patents, trademarks or other intellectual property.
International Participation and Languages
The Interactive Media Council Inc. (IMC), the governing body of the Interactive Media Awards™ competition, is responsible for providing the judges who evaluate IMA entries. Currently, we accept nominations for websites in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Russian. Sites in other languages are also accepted but may take longer to judge. If we are unable to judge your entry due to a language barrier – meaning we don’t have at least three qualified judges – we will refund your entry fee(s).
NOTE: All awards and communications from us will always be in English, regardless of the entry’s country of origin or language on the website.
Award Categories
- The same site can be nominated in more than one category (if relevant) and win multiple awards. A separate entry fee applies for each category.
- If the category you seek is not listed, you are welcome to suggest a new category by sending an e-mail to support@interactivemediaawards.com. Your suggestion will be considered for future inclusion.
- IMA reserves the right to add or eliminate categories at any time.
- IMA reserves the right to re-categorize or reject entries that clearly have no association with the category under which the entry was submitted.
Winning an Award
- Award winners will automatically receive the IMA Digital Award Icon, which can be placed on the winning website and links to a unique awards page on our website.
- Not all submissions win an award. In fact, only a small percentage of entries make it through our judging process successfully.
- Sites that don’t win an award or are disqualified will receive an e-mail notification of this result. Judges may, at their own discretion, include their reasoning and offer ideas for improvement in this notification (but IMA does not guarantee this).
- IMA digital icons made available to competition winners may not be altered in any way, shape or form, without written consent from IMA. Altering any of our awards without authorization can result in your winner’s page being removed from our website and legal action.
- Entries that do not win an award or are disqualified without prejudice are eligible to re-enter the competition after 30 days from the official announcement
- The manner and details of announcing award winners is strictly within the discretion of IMA. Persons entering the competition understand that all awards may not be given or publicized in the same manner.
- Entrants in the Interactive Media Awards competition agree to have their website name, URL, screenshot and other winning site information listed on an IMA website.
Judging Process
- Entrants will receive a results notification from our judges within 6-8 weeks from the date we receive their nomination.
- All decisions by our judges are final; they cannot be appealed.
- Click for more details about our Judging Guidelines or Judging Criteria.
Entry Fees and Foreign Currency
- In order to cover our operating and marketing expenses and discourage frivolous entries, there is a required entry fee per category of US$195. Bona fide nonprofit sites entering the competition under certain nonprofit categories can enter for US$125 (proof of legal not-for-profit status may be required).
- Entry fees are nonrefundable, except when a language barrier prevents us from judging your site.
- Payment by Credit Card: We accept major credit cards via our secure online entry form. A nomination is considered entered once your completed entry form and payment are received by us. You will receive a confirmation e-mail once we receive your entry.
- Payment by Check / PayPal: Persons wanting to enter the competition using a check, money order or PayPal will be provided with these options during the check-out process. Also, you can enter the competition offline by filling out this manual entry form (pdf).
- Entry fees for multiple categories can be combined onto one check.
- Payment is preferred in U.S. dollars and drawn on a U.S. bank. For payments in foreign currencies, a US$35 exchange fee must be added.
- Please mail your completed entry form(s) and fee to:
Interactive Media Awards, Inc.
Attn: Nominations Processing Dept.
244 Madison Avenue, Suite 416
New York, NY 10016
USA
