Judging session – 19th November 2025
Shortlist announcement – 21st November 2025
Judges will read and pre-score all entry forms, considering any supporting materials submitted. Judges will be asked to give a score for each question within the entry form, as listed in the bullet points below. These will be combined to give an overall score for each entry. All judges’ pre-scores will then be combined, and the highest-scoring entries will determine the shortlists.
Judges will meet to discuss the highest-scoring entries and then agree on the winner for each category.
The awards will be judged by some of the biggest names in digital. Click here to see this year’s judging panel.
Entries should not exceed 1000 words and should relate to work undertaken between June 2024 – October 2025.
CAMPAIGN/PRODUCT AWARDS
Objective(s) & budget (1-10 points)
Tell us what you were looking to achieve from the campaign and any targets that were set. We recommend showing targets as quantifiable metrics, e.g., ‘Increase conversions from 150 to 300 a month’ rather than ‘increased conversions by 10%. ’
Please include a breakdown of implementation costs, staffing costs, agency fees, etc. All elements of the entry form are confidential, and judges will not share this information. If you are unable to provide a detailed budget breakdown, please include the financial band your budget is within, along with the percentage budget allocated for staffing costs, agency fees and media spend, etc.
Target audience & strategy (1-10 points)
Please provide us with details about the audience you were targeting and your overall strategy to reach them, as well as the strategy to meet the overall objectives.
Implementation & creativity (1-10 points)
Please give us a detailed explanation of your implementation of the campaign. Include screenshots to help us visualise campaigns. Provide information on the creativity of the campaign.
Details of any challenges faced and how these were overcome (1-10 points)
What challenges were unique to you, and how have you overcome them? What was the end result of overcoming these challenges?
Results & evaluation (1-10 points)
Please relate these to the objectives and targets stated above. Provide actual numbers rather than percentages wherever possible.
Why should your campaign win? (1-10 points)
What do you think sets your campaign apart from the other campaigns being judged? Judges will in particular, be looking for the thing that makes this campaign different to the others. What is unique?
URLs
Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission.
Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.
DIGITAL TOOL/SOFTWARE/PLATFORM AWARDS
Overview of Innovation/Software/Product
Please provide the judges with a synopsis of what the tool does and how it adds value to the end user.
Total budget
Please include costs associated with running the innovation/software/product and how much you intend to or do sell the innovation/software/product for.
Existing problems and target audience (1-10 points)
Please include details outlining the problems that this innovation/software/product solves and how, if at all, these problems were previously dealt with. Entrants should detail who the target customers or users of this product are.
USP and Features (1-10 points)
Please outline what is the innovation/software/product’s unique proposition. Entrants should highlight the major features that are unique to the product/software or innovation which help solve a customer problem or benefit the customer positively.
Key Metrics (1-10 points)
Please detail what key metrics you have used to measure whether this innovation, software or product is successful. I.e., does it save money, make things faster, and generate more revenue?
Why should your Innovation, Software or Product win? (1-10 points)
What single thing about your innovation, software or product is not done by anyone else? What makes it stand out to be award-worthy?
URLs
Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission.
Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.
AGENCY/TEAM/RISING STAR AWARDS
Overview of the Agency/Team/Rising Star nominee
Please include numbers, staff turnover, roles, etc for agency and team nominations or current and previous job roles, etc for Rising Star nominations
Agency/Team/Rising Star Objectives (1-10 points)
Tell us what you were looking to achieve and any targets that have been set within the agency or team to help achieve your goals. We recommend showing targets as quantifiable metrics, e.g., ‘Increase conversions from 150 to 300 a month’ rather than ‘Increase conversions by 10%. ’
Recent work example(s) (1-10 points)
Please include details of recent client or campaign work. How does your recent work display creativity and make your team or agency stand out amongst others?
Details of any recent achievements (1-10 points)
What makes your team or agency stand out? Please include details of any achievements you feel make your agency or team award-worthy. What are you proud of?
Details of any challenges faced and how these were overcome (1-10 points)
What challenges were unique to you, and how have you overcome them? What was the end result of overcoming these challenges?
Why should your Agency/Team/Rising Star win? (1-10 points)
Please detail what you feel makes you stand out amongst others and why you feel your entry is award-winning. What makes you unique? What gives you the competitive edge?
URLs
Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission.
Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.
CULTURE AWARDS
Details of culture initiatives (1-10 points)
e.g., flexible working, holiday schemes, training and development, incentive schemes, rewards packages, CSR and volunteering initiatives. Judges will be looking for details on how the agency/business/team unify their culture to align with the business’s overall core values.
Details of any challenges faced and how these were overcome (1-10 points)
What challenges were unique to you, and how have you overcome them? What was the end result of overcoming these challenges?
Evidence positive impact/results culture/policy/initiative (1-10 points)
e.g., increased productivity, staff retention, staff promotion and development Please relate these to the objective(s) stated above. What impact do your initiatives have on the employees and overall business? Results must be tangible, with clear examples and testimonials where possible to support the results. Please provide actual numbers rather than percentages wherever possible.
Why should you win this award? (1-10 points)
What do you think sets your campaign apart from the other campaigns being judged? Judges will, in particular, be looking for the thing that makes this campaign different to the others. What is unique?
URLs
Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission.
Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form.
Please note that if you’re unable to provide a login, please contact [email protected].
Confidentiality
All material will remain confidential to the judges. All judging discussions are confidential and will not be shared or discussed with anyone outside of the judging panel ahead of the ceremony or thereafter. Judges will not share confidential material, judging papers or entries with anyone. Judges will securely delete all judging materials immediately after the judging period or give materials to the Don’t Panic team, who will manage this. Judges can only access entries that they have been provided to score.
Winning case studies may be used in post-event materials to promote best practices, and permission will be sought from entrants before publishing these.
