The goal of marketing campaigns is to generate impact for the business or the cause/idea you’re trying to promote.
It feels good when you get a positive response from the public or discover the difference you made to people’s live.
But as an icing on the cake, it must certainly feel extra-grand to be recognized as one of the most creative brains in the industry.
Winning awards, certificates, trophies, or other accolades for your hard work can be a career-changing move that opens doors & brings a flood of new business inquiries to your doorstep.
They also serve as motivation for agencies to stay hungry & chase ideas that might feel a little too crazy at first but are worth a shot.
So here’s a list of some of the most coveted awards in our space. Hope it inspires you to do great work.
That said, try not to look at them as end goals in themselves. The real purpose of marketing will always be to talk to customers and make them feel understood, not to win fancy awards, wouldn’t you agree?
Cannes Festival of Creativity
This is possibly as high as you’ll ever get.
The Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity (formerly the International Advertising Festival) is the largest international gathering for those working in creative communications, advertising, and related fields.
Inspired by the Cannes Film Festival (which started in the 1940s), it was first established in Italy, but is now usually held at the Palais des Festivals et des Congrès in Cannes, France.
They have special recognition for various industries, platforms (print, mobile, OOH, social media, etc.), and type of campaign (brand activation, social impact, influencers, UGC, etc.)
For overall recognition, they have awards like Holding Company of the Year, Network of the Year, Media Agency of the Year, Agency of the Year, Independent Agency of the Year, Media Person of the Year, New Directors’ Showcase, Advertiser of the Year, and the Palme d’Or to the best production company.
These awards usually come in tiers of four: The Grand Prix (Titanium), Gold, Silver, and Bronze.
Indian agencies have been gaining massive traction on the global stage in recent years, with Dentsu Creative Bengaluru winning the Agency of the Year award in 2022.
D&AD Pencils
Design and Art Direction (D&AD), formerly known as British Design and Art Direction, is a British educational organization that was created in 1962 to promote excellence in design and advertising. Its main offices are in Spitalfields in London.
It’s most famous for its annual awards, the D&AD Pencils.
It recognizes dozens of niche categories like Design, Art Direction, Editing, Animation, Film, Newspaper & Magazine, Print, OOH, Spatial, PR, Press, Sound, and Integrated campaign work.
Their tiers include Pencils like Wood, Graphite, Yellow, Black, and White, with the last two handed out infrequently as they are reserved for exceptional, era-defining work.
Clios
The Clio Awards (Clios for short) is an annual award program that recognizes innovation and creative excellence in advertising, design, and communication, as judged by an international panel of advertising professionals.
This is just one of their groups in a family of award programs that span the fashion, healthcare, sports, entertainment, and music.
They have prizes for print, social media, OOH, film craft, editing, design, and creative use of technology. Alongside, they also hold a Students Awards program for celebrating work submitted by ad school attendees.
Each category has Gold, Silver, and Bronze ranks.
The main event usually takes place in the States. Learn more about the awards here.
BTW, Clios is the company that owns “Ads of the World,” one of the most visited ad databases online.
Kyoorius Creative Awards
Started in 2006, Kyoorius Awards honor great ad work coming out of India.
The holding/awarding company has many other properties with the common goal of fostering creative talent in the country.
They have awards for traditional advertising, digital media, Zee Equality (for work that addresses women’s issues), film craft, e-commerce, social impact, print, topicals/moment marketing, press, OOH, and Young Achievers.
Much like the tiers in Cannes, the Kyroorius elephants come in tiers like Black, Purple, Blue, Baby Blue, Brass, and Baby Brass.
Check out the latest winners list here.
The MOMMYS
At a staggering 1.1M followers, Mad Over Marketing (M.O.M) is the easily most followed advertising page on Instagram. They’ve served as a inspiration library for a generation of marketers.
In 2021, they started the Mommy Awards show, with awards geared towards social media, content creation, and digital-first campaigns.
Some noteworthy prizes to bag are:
- Video Content
- Topical/Moment Marketing
- Best Social Media Post
- Best Brand in Industry/Category
- Use of Influencers
- Employee Engagement Campaign
- Web Series Promotion
Check out their 2022 winner archives here.
ADDYs
“The ADDYs” is short for American Advertising Awards, which is one of the largest ad gatherings in the States. It receives 25,000+ entries from local agencies each year, in part because it splits the judging into three levels: local, regional, and national – this makes it possible for small guys to win in their cities or region.
Winning an ADDY at each level qualifies the work to progress to the next higher level.
Check out the past winners here.
These awards are given by the AAF (American Advertising Federation), a coalition body consisting of:
- Nearly 100 corporate members which comprise advertisers, advertising agencies, and media companies
- A national network of nearly 200 local federations, representing 40,000 ad professionals, located across the country
- More than 200 AAF college chapters, with over 6,500 student members each
AAF has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
Webby Awards
The Webby Awards honor great work done on the internet as a whole, which goes beyond the scope of just digital advertising or social media marketing.
They also have categories for exceptional websites, apps, metaverse projects, podcasts, games, and video content.
A legacy that started in 1995, they’re presented annually by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, a judging body composed of over two thousand industry experts and technology innovators.
This initiative is owned and operated by the Webby Media Group, a division of Recognition Media, which also owns and produces the Lovie Awards in Europe and Netted by the Webbys, a daily email publication launched in 2009.
Check out their winners archives here.
The Drum Marketing Awards
The Drum is one of the most visited media outlet websites in the industry, curating dozens of fresh stories from ad agencies, brands, and subject experts every single week.
The Drum Awards for Marketing seek to reward brands and marketing teams that truly understand their customer. Focusing on outcomes, not outputs, they are open to teams of any size who can prove their campaigns have had a measurable effect.
These awards are truly global, and open to teams and companies from anywhere in Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, Africa or the Americas.
These awards are based on a wide range of marketing niches, including social media, search, and content.
Grab the latest headlines on The Drum site, or explore their previous winners archives to get inspired.
The One Show
The One Club is another non-profit body that recognizes creative work in advertising, interactive design, and branded entertainment.
It produces four award functions: The One Show, One Show Design, One Show Interactive, and One Show Entertainment.
The One Show is focused on our industry. Usually the entries are from creatives from advertising agencies, digital agencies, design agencies, production companies, consumer brands, and non-profit organizations.
There’s a prestigious annual award show held in New York. Some notable winners in the past include Nike, Weiden+Kennedy, Spotify, DDB Worldwide, Microsoft, HBO, New York Times, Adidas, Burger King.
Similar to D&AD, the prizes are in the form of pencils.
Check out the list of past winners here.
Shorty Awards
The Shorty Awards, also known as the “Shortys”, is an annual awards show recognizing the people and organizations that produce real-time short-form content across Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Twitch and the rest of the social web.
The annual ceremony began in 2008 with awards for achievements on the Twitter platform. Since then, the awards have recognized content creation on other social networking sites, including Tumblr, Instagram, Vine, Snapchat, YouNow, and Periscope.
So this is a niche award for social media marketing & content creation (for individual creators, not just brands).
The ceremony is usually conducted in spring time and streamed live. Most of the categories in their list recognize the entire body of work of the content creator or brand for the calendar year, rather than an individual tweet or post.
The trophies are in the recognizable shape of a whale’s backfin.
Most recently, they’ve also started a parallel “The Shorty Impact Awards” program dedicated to celebrating purpose-driven work from brands, agencies and nonprofits that make the world a better place.
Epica Awards
Epica’s aim is to reward outstanding creativity and help communication agencies, film production companies, media consultancies, photographers and design studios to develop their reputations beyond their national borders.
The awards are judged during the third week of November by journalists representing the trade press, working for marketing and communications magazines around the world.
This jury aims to achieve objectivity and widespread coverage of the results. The best work is also published in the annual Epica Book and shown in the Epica on Tour showcase.
The awards encompass all main communication disciplines: TV, Press, Outdoor, Digital, Mobile, Social, Radio, Promotions, Direct & Experiential Marketing, Media, Business-to-business, Public relations, Branded Entertainment, Design, Packaging, Integrated Campaigns, Film Craft, Photography and Print Craft.
Winners win Epica crystal pyramids designed as gold, silver, and bronze. They have Grand Prix honors for agencies & networks that bag the highest number of prizes.
Only work that has been approved by clients and used, published or broadcast since 1 July of the previous year is eligible to enter
Spikes Asia
The Spikes Asia Awards are APAC’s most prestigious creative communications awards.
The Awards serve as the definitive benchmark for not only creative excellence, but also for marketing strategy and effectiveness in Asia-Pacific.
They also have a wide range of categories from brand activation to film craft, radio to print, and design to strategy.
Like some other awards in this list, they also have a special category for new & rising marketers under their Young Spikes category.
Check out their previous winners here.
Afaqs! Digies
This is a fairly new entry in our list, hosted by one of the most popular tools/blogs on SEO, content marketing, and website building.
Digies, an initiative by afaqs!, aims to celebrate creative marketing communication initiatives by Agencies, Brands, Production Houses, Design Studios, Creative Studios, and Content Creators, from exceptional use of social media to integrating multiple platforms, from the use of hashtags to a 120-seconder video, and more.
There are 45 categories to participate in. Additionally, there are 2 special awards, namely: Brand of the Year and Agency of the Year.
Conclusion
So that was my list of the most famous awards a marketer can dream of getting their hands on in their lifetime.
Which ones are you most eager to bag? Did I miss any noteworthy names that deserve to be on this list?
Let me know your thoughts in the comments below. And if you found this useful, please share it with your friends!