Royal Mail will sponsor the Direct category at the D&AD Professional Awards 2015 and will co-host a call for entries workshop event on 28 January designed to raise interest in the awards among key creatives.

The workshop will address the challenges of entry, while a jointly commissioned series of articles from key creative industry personalities and agencies titled 'I wish I'd done that' will recall great DM campaigns that have inspired them.

Royal Mail and D&AD will also establish an advisory panel of industry experts, including Lida/M&C Saatchi executive creative director Nicky Bullard and RAPP global chief creative officer Ian Haworth, to determine how to inspire and showcase creativity and raise standards within the DM sector.

Jonathan Harman, managing director of Royal Mail Marketreach said: "We want to find and promote the best examples of creative in direct mail to inspire us all to raise the bar even higher.

"We also want to encourage the next generation of creatives by showing them what can be achieved with great direct mail. Our partnership with D&AD is part of our ongoing commitment to creative craft skills, which has also seen us join Google, The Guardian and HP in sponsoring the DMA's Campaign for Great British Copywriting."

The deadline for entering the D&AD Professional Awards 2015 is 18 February; more information can be found on the D&AD website (dandad.org).