Judges for the 12th ROI Awards should meet the following qualifications: Their companies and enterprises have been nominated for or have received ROI Awards; They are the final decision-makers for product research and development or marketing; The companies they represent must meet the Organizing Committee’s requirements with respect to scale and must be successful business-wise; The scale of companies represented by panel of judges differs from year to year. The reference standards for applicants for panel of judges in 2019 are as follows:

Agency Category: Judges for Agency Category should be influential advertisers, with control of more than RMB700 million of advertising budget, and hold appointments of not less than CMO or Marketing VP. 

Media Category: Judges for Media Category should be in media agencies or creative agencies. If a judge is from media agency, the said agency should have an annual operating revenue of more than RMB 1 billion, and the judge should hold the appointment of CEO for Greater China or China region; If the judge is a Country Lead, the judge’s team size should be not less than 300 individuals. If a judge is from creative agency, the judge should hold an appointment of CEO for Greater China or China region; If the judge is a Country Lead, the judge’s team size should be not less than 300 individuals.

Production Category: Judges for Production Category should be from creative agencies. There is no restriction on the scale of creative agencies. A judge must be the Creative Lead as well as Business Lead for the creative agency; The judge may also be CEO for Greater China or China region.

Judges should be from not more than 3 companies in the same Group: For institutions of different brands under a communications group with a corporate history of more than 2 years and an independent operating revenue exceeding RMB 1 billion, the Organizing Committee allows the panel of judges to nominate not more than 3 institutions in the said group. In the case of advertisers, if different brands are under the same company, the Organizing Committee allows the panel of judges to nominate not more than 3 brands, insofar as the brands have been established for more 2 years with each having an average of more than RMB 600 million annually for marketing budget.

The ROI Awards Organizing Committee has decided, pursuant to the need for award development, continue to invite for 2019, emerging technology companies with innovative spirit and are growing rapidly, and those in B2B and luxury goods segment to participate in the Awards as judges. Such companies’ operating revenue and marketing budget shall not be subject to the above requirements, but their market capitalization or in the case of unlisted companies, their market valuation, shall be not less than RMB 1 billion. In any event such companies shall not make up more than 15% of the total number of judges.  

ROI Organizing Committee reserves the right of interpretation of the aforesaid rules for panel of judges.