Client case study Photo contest, super-powered American Photography Open saves time, promotes photographers with Award Force Reviewer:Jeffrey RobertsPublisher, AI-AP Reviewer:Jeffrey Roberts, publisher at AI-AP Fast facts about AI-AP Industry: Photo contest Location: New York, USA Award Force client: Client since 2018 Employees: 0-50 employees Background Celebrating the best photos taken by photo enthusiasts, worldwide Ryan McGinley for New York Times Magazine.Celebrating the best jury-selected work from 2022 in hardcover, over 400 pages. For more than 30 years, American Photography has held a juried competition primarily for professional photographers. They produce an annual book that features these winners. But, with the rapid increase of quality photography taken by photo enthusiasts of all levels, they decided to offer a contest for photographers of all skill levels, and have just finished their fifth contest season. The American Photography Open, hosted by American Illustration and American Photography (AI-AP) celebrates the best pictures submitted by worldwide photo enthusiasts taken with any device. About the program A photo contest with moderation, evaluation and public voting Mauro De Bettio, the grand prize winner of AI-AP’s American Photography Open 2022 competition for his photograph named “Gentlemen of Kiberia”. The American Photography Open attracts more than 1,000 entries each year, which go through a moderation or pre-judging round with five judges. Then, a group of 14 guest judges evaluate each qualified image to find the 50 final images for a short list, a further group of finalists, and, then, eventually, a grand prize winner. The program also holds a separate voting round on Facebook for the short-listed images, which helps garner views and support for the photographers and the program overall. Every November, the organisation holds an awards gala that brings together photographers, illustrators, art directors and creators to network and celebrate the launch of the annual book and that year’s winners. Program challenges before Award Force System needed for managing and evaluating large volume of entries When American Photography first started the Open contest, they knew they needed software that could handle large volumes of entries, and a system they could trust for accepting, managing and evaluating uploaded files. Award Force immediately stood out for its judging modes and its broadcast email feature, said Jeffrey Roberts, publisher at AP-AI. Award Force stand-out features Unlimited entries Safe, secure and reliable Powerful judging modes Broadcast emails The Award Force choice Managing entries, marketing photographers The American Photography Open has saved a significant amount of time in program management and communications with Award Force, Roberts said. For a program that requires careful management of all the moving pieces, Award Force has proven to be a software that Roberts can count on. “Award Force’s customer service and attention to detail are awesome,” he said. Favourite features From marketing and communications to judging flexibility Broadcast email communications The program does a lot of marketing, Roberts said, all of which helps garner more entries. From their daily newsletter to social media shares and regular program communications, the program uses Award Force to help communicate and spread the word. “With the broadcast feature, we send monthly updates of selected images we liked covered in our Pro Photo Daily newsletter. We also send out last chance [notifications] and announcements of the winners,” Roberts said. “And we send these to our entire list of confirmed entrants for each year of the program.” Learn more about broadcasts and notifications in Award Force Judging modes Award Force provides a customisable judging platform that American Photography utilises for moderation, score-based judging and a public voting round. “It has all the features I need,” Roberts said. Judging modes Award Force provides a customisable judging platform that American Photography utilises for moderation, score-based judging and a public voting round. “It has all the features I need,” Roberts said. Read more testimonials