Join Now, Pay Later

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JNPL
We have been getting a lot of requests about “could we pay after we join”, "could we pay after we nominate", "could we pay after results announcement", and many others and of course we always responded a straight no, the reason being very simple; this model would result in a significant economic loss and financial burden; our analysts anticipated that “winners” who would use the JNPL would pay 95% of the time and “non-winners” would not pay 80% of the time; which is a serious issue as our model actually requires some “non-winners” in order to be sustainable because each winner is a significant cost and the entry fees alone do not actually cover the cost of services provided to them unless they are backed up by “non-winner” participation fees that make it possible to organize the event. Yet, the advisory board came up with an alternative to “Join Now, Pay Later” situation as “Join now, pay later only if you win, but pay much more than the regular entry fee” and even in this case we still do not contractually oblige you to pay such fees due to our no further fees policy being in effect. We especially prepared this page, since there are actually some situations where the JNPL model could be relevant and useful, but we actually do not suggest participation this way unless your are a PR Agent who needs to nominate dozens of works or unless you fit our target group as explained in the Rationality section.

Good to Know: To apply for JNPL, you need to satisfy one of the following conditions (1) you are a past laureate - previous winner - and already uploaded your work and obtained a preliminary score of 6 or higher and if you are a newcomer, who has not yet won the A' Design Awards in the past (2) you should first obtain a preliminary score of 7 or higher.

Rationality
While this is an unexpected model, it is rational and makes sense for several type of participants; 1. PR Agents, could submit a significant number of different client work and ask for compensation afterwards only from those clients who have a winning entry, without taking the initial entry-fee risks. 2. Marketing departments of SMEs and Brands, who are unsure about their products could find this entry option an opportunity to test the design quality of their products without taking any risks for entry fees. 3. Individual Designers and Businesses who are experiencing financial issues at the moment of entry but expect income to cover entry fees at a later date could find this option a valuable opportunity; indeed for such cases, we reserve right to apply discounts and not charge extra, depending on the case.

Eligibility
Join Now, Pay Later entry option is only possible if your design got a preliminary score of six (6) or up, since as suggested by our methodology, a preliminary score equal or lower to five (5) is expected to be a runner-up, thus there is no use in having your product nominated with the Join Now, Pay Later method if you got a preliminary score less than or equal to five (5). Therefore, for participation through “Join Now, Pay Later” method, you should first upload your design and wait for a preliminary score, and afterwards if your entry gets a score of six (6) or up, you may contact our support to request a special nomination ticket. Each PR Agency can submit up to 40 Entries this way each year. Each company can submit up to 4 Entries this way each year. Each individual could submit up to 1 entry this way each year.

Good to Know
In this method, you do not pay nomination fees but if you win, you will be asked to pay but not contractually obliged to pay the nomination fee plus the cost of services and goods provided to winners; we will ask you to pay but not force you to pay legally; this is important because we have a no further fees policy. If you win and decide not to pay, we will promote your design as usual and we will not delete it from our system since our methodology requires that votes of each entry should stay in order to have standard score for submissions to be calculate, however of course in such case we will not let you use this method again. If you do not win an award status, you will not be asked to pay anything. "Express Evaluation" service is possible for entries that join this way but must be paid in advance; i.e. not later since it is also a significant cost.

How to Join This Way?
To join this way, register and nominate your design as usual, and afterwards wait for a preliminary score, if your score is higher or equal to six (6) (for past laureates) or is higher or equal to seven (7) new entrants, contact support to request a JNPL Entry Ticket for Professional Edition (Standard), Digital Edition or Platinum Edition.

How Much Will You Pay?
You will pay much more than the regular nomination fees depending on the type of entry method (Professional, Digital or Platinum) you choose to join the A’ Design Award & Competition. Please refer to the table below to understand how much you will be asked to pay if you use the JNPL system. The Penalty is calculated based on Cost per Winner, plus other considerations such as award status plus administrative fees etc. The fees are indeed highly reasonable when compared to other design awards which asks almost the same fees given below plus nomination fees. The fees will be requested to be paid before your results would become online. However, there are no obligations; i.e. if you join using the JNPL method and if you could not afford to pay the involved costs, that is very okay and we will not ask you to pay anything but of course we will not be able to provide any further opportunity to join this way and we may also not be able to provide complete benefits (especially the items that costs a lot, such as shipments) but we will not sue you or take legal action against you as our no further fees policy forbids us from doing so. Please also note that, we reserve right to provide winner services even though the JNPL cost payment is not made.

Upgrading or Migration to Regular Nomination
If you later figure out that you would rather invest in the nomination fee, that is also okay and possible with a very small administrative fee. However, please note that upgrading to Regular Nomination is possible only before results are announced and the upgrade service is subject to the Regulation fee depending on the entry period, please see the table below in case you would wish to shift from JNPL to Regular Nomination. By upgrading, you will not have to pay the costs involved in Table 1.