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AWARDS

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ENTRIES OPEN

The 2025 Ad Age Small Agency Awards will honor small, independent agencies that are performing well in three important areas: Creating exceptional and effective work for clients, building a financially healthy business and cultivating a diverse and rewarding environment for employees.

We’re looking for ingenuity and nimbleness in a real-time marketing world as well as a versatility of work spanning digital, social, experiential, TV, print and more. We’re also seeking to reward shops that may be smaller in size (up to 150 employees) than big agencies, but have the smarts, the chops and the culture to compete against them—and win.

View the 2024 winners
 

Enter now

 

Finalists will be notified in June, and winners will be announced at the Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards in Toronto in July.

Questions? Visit our FAQs and important information sections. If your question isn't answered, please contact the Ad Age awards team.

PRICING & DEADLINE


Pricing

There is a tiered entry fee structure for the program.

Agency of the Year: 1-10 Employees:
$325 per entry

Agency of the Year: 11-75 Employees:
$375 per entry

Agency of the Year: 76-150 Employees:
$450 per entry

All other categories:
$375 per entry
 

Deadline

Entries open: Tuesday, Feb. 11, 2025
Final deadline: Wednesday, April 16, 2025, at 5 p.m. EDT

There will be no extensions beyond the final deadline.

Please pay strict attention to all the entry requirements and category descriptions, as fees are non-refundable once entries are submitted.

CATEGORIES

All entrants must be majority independently owned (at minimum, 51% privately held) and have no more than 150 full-time employees.
 

Small Agency of the Year
By entering this category, you’re automatically considered for:

Agency of the Year: Overall
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.  

Agency of the Year: by Size
A gold and a silver winner will be awarded in three size categories: 1-10, 11-75, 76-150.  

Agency of the Year: Regional
The six different regional categories for U.S.-based agencies will produce one gold and one silver winner each. Those six are Northwest, Northeast, West, Midwest, Southwest and Southeast.  

Agency of the Year: International
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Data & Insights Agency of the Year
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Design Agency of the Year
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Experiential Agency of the Year
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Media Agency of the Year 
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Newcomer Agency of the Year 
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen. Entrants must have been in business for 18 months or less. Only agencies founded after September 1, 2023, are eligible.
 

PR Agency of the Year
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Purpose-Led Agency of the Year 
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Best Use of AI
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; work/campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Campaign of the Year: B2B
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Campaign of the Year: Digital
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Campaign of the Year: Experiential
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Campaign of the Year: Health Care
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Campaign of the Year: Integrated
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Campaign of the Year: Media
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Campaign of the Year: Pro Bono
This category will award one gold and one silver winner; campaigns must have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Best Agency Culture
One gold and one silver winner will be chosen.
 

Executive of the Year
Only one winner will be awarded in this category.
 

Account Manager of the Year
Only one winner will be awarded in this category.
 

Agency Producer of the Year
Only one winner will be awarded in this category.
 

Creative of the Year
Only one winner will be awarded in this category.
 

Media Planner of the Year
Only one winner will be awarded in this category.
 

Strategic Planner of the Year
Only one winner will be awarded in this category.
 

Agencies may win in more than one category. We award one winner in each of the people categories (Executive of the Year; Account Manager of the Year; Agency Producer of the Year; Creative of the Year; Media Planner of the Year; and Strategic Planner of the Year) and gold and silver in all other categories.
 

Small Agency Awards judging criteria and entry instructions:

Download entry kit

Ad Age reserves the right to withhold or add awards as the quality of submissions dictates. If during the review process the judges feel your entry is better suited to another category and would like to award you in that category, the judges have the right to move your entry.

 

Enter now

CONFERENCE & AWARDS


The 2025 Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards will take place in Toronto on July 22 and 23. Designed specifically for independent shops with fewer than 150 full-time employees, the two-day event will include workshops, case studies and candid conversations exploring what it takes to create effective work for clients, build financially healthy—and sustainable—businesses and cultivate a diverse and rewarding environment for employees.

As always, the conference will be capped with an awards ceremony where we will announce the winners of the 2025 Ad Age Small Agency Awards.

 

Buy tickets

FAQs

All kinds, as long as they meet the size and ownership requirements. After many discussions with the small agency community about what constitutes a “not big” shop, we established awards in three size categories: 1-10 staffers, 11-75 staffers, and 76-150 staffers. All disciplines are welcome, including full-service ad agencies as well as design, digital, direct, media, mobile and promo agencies, or combinations thereof.

Entrants must be majority independently owned, or in other words, at minimum 51% privately held. Agencies that are not eligible are those that are either majority or fully backed by a holding company (by this we mean firms like WPP, Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe, Interpublic Group of Cos., Havas, Aegis or MDC Partners) or other firms, such as a publisher, marketer, etc.

As of last year, international agencies are now eligible to enter many of our categories. In the past, international agencies were only able to enter our International Agency of the Year category. Categories including Experiential, Media and Newcomer Agency of the Year, all campaign categories, Executive of the Year and our Agency Culture category are now open to international entrants. Please note that all submissions should be written in English.

The deadline for all entries is April 16, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET.

All kinds, including TV spots and campaigns, experiential, web videos, branded content, design (product, package, graphic, motion, experience, retail, etc.), websites, games, apps, social media, and other stuff that’s harder to define: new distribution ideas, new ways to engage a community, etc.

We ask that you enter only bona fide work for a real client of your agency that was actually produced and/or ran in a media environment. Please do not enter work that was created only to run in award shows. If judges raise any flags, we will be following up and we’ll disqualify bogus work (e.g. work not approved by a client, work done for a client you don’t have, ads that were run once, at 3 a.m. in Bend, Oregon, so they would be eligible to enter in Cannes, etc.). Campaigns should have run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025.

Yes! We will award in the following people categories: Executive of the Year, Account Manager of the Year, Agency Producer of the Year, Creative of the Year, Media Planner of the Year, Strategic Planner of the Year.

All entries must be submitted and paid by credit card online at AdAge.com/SAA2025. Please contact awards@adage.com if you experience any issues submitting payment.

Unfortunately, once you have submitted your entry, you will not be able to log in to edit the form in any way. If there is factual information that is incorrect, please contact the awards team to request a change.

Please note changes cannot be made once the final deadline has passed and judging has started.

Finalists will be notified in June, and winners will be announced at the Ad Age Small Agency Conference & Awards in July.

The 2025 Small Agency Conference & Awards will take place July 22 and 23 in Toronto. More information about the event can be found here.

Our awards team is here to help with any technical issues you might experience. Please contact .

Your account on AdAge.com is separate from the account used for the Small Agency Awards or any other Ad Age award programs. When you click "Enter now," be sure to register a new account—unless you've previously submitted to our awards and already have one. If you’re still having trouble logging in, please email us at awards@adage.com.

IMPORTANT INFO

 

Eligibility

Entry is open to agencies in three size categories:

•    1-10 people
•    11-75 people
•    76- 150 people

All agencies of all marketing disciplines are eligible to enter. Entrants must be majority-independent owned, or in other words, at minimum, 51% privately-held. Agencies who are not eligible are those who are either majority or fully-backed by a holding company (by this we mean firms like WPP, Omnicom Group, Publicis Groupe, Interpublic Group of Cos., Havas, Aegis or MDC Partners) or other firms, such as a publisher, marketer, etc.
 

Dates for submitted work

When discussing revenue/growth for the Small Agency of the Year award you should refer to 2024 financials and staff headcounts, giving as much guidance as possible for 2025 business. As far as submitting examples of work, all work must have debuted and run between Jan. 1, 2024, and March 1, 2025 to be eligible.
 

Entry info

All information included should be publishable by the time the awards break in July 2025. Any information noted as “not for public” or “off the record” cannot factor into the juries’ evaluation.

If during the review process the judges feel your entry is better suited to another category and would like to award you in that category, the judges have the right to move your entry. Please note that all awards are based on the quality of the entries received each year. If the judges feel there isn’t a fitting entry within a specific category, they have the right to not award that category.
 

Final deadline

April 16, 2025, at 5 p.m. EDT
 

Small Agency Awards judging criteria and entry instructions:

Download entry kit

 

Enter now

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CONTACT US

 

Got questions? We're happy to help.

Award Inquiries: awards@adage.com