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 firm, such as a publisher, marketer, etc.

ENTRY FEES
•    Agency of the Year: 1-10 Employees: $250
•    Agency of the Year: 11-75 Employees: $295
•    Agency of the Year: 76-150: $350
•    Campaign of the Year - Integrated: $295
•    Campaign of the Year - Digital: $295
•    Campaign of the Year - B-toB: $250
•    Campaign of the Year - Pro-Bono: $250
•    Best Agency Culture: $250

 

ENTRY DEADLINE: Thursday, April 27, 2017 at 11:59pm EST.

DEADLINE EXTENDED TO THURSDAY, MAY 4TH AT 11:59PM EST 

 

SEE THE SUBMISSION QUESTIONS BEFORE YOU ENTER:

Agency of the Year Submission Questions

Campaign of the Year Submission Questions

Agency Culture Submission Questions

 

BEFORE YOU BEGIN
Before you begin the entry process gather the necessary information and campaign samples. You will need to provide: 
- Agency Name
- Agency Size (number of employees)
- Agency Revenue (for 2015 and 2016, as well as any projections for 2017)
- Contact Information (address, emails, etc.)
- Three Biggest Clients

For campaign samples you will need to provide:
- Campaign description (500 words max)
- Campaign files (images, video, audio, PDF, PPT, DOC, XLS) Files cannot exceed 75MB. 
- Gathering all of the entry information and sample files ahead of time will ensure a smooth contest entry. 

 

DATES FOR SUBMITTED WORK
When discussing revenue/growth for the Small Agency of the Year award you should refer to 2016 financials and staff numbers and give as much guidance as possible for 2017 business. As far as submitting examples of work, all work done between January 1, 2016, and March 1, 2017 is eligible.

REQUIRED INFO: SMALL AGENCY OF THE YEAR
If you're submitting for Small Agency of the Year you'll be asked to provide background information such as your global headquarters, year established, number of offices (and locations), number of employees, top three clients, oldest client, background on agency owners/principals and 2016 and 2015 revenue. Note that we request revenue, not billings. Feel free to include billings if you like, but the judges will be basing decisions on revenue figures. You are also asked to submit examples of work from up to three (3) campaigns that ran at any point between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2017. Campaigns can be for the same client, but showing a range of work for varying clients improves your chances. Please provide business context for the campaigns (what was the specific challenge, etc.) and, if possible, results for each of them.

REQUIRED INFO: CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR
(Integrated, Digital, B-to-B and Pro Bono)

If you're submitting for Small Agency Campaign of the Year you'll be asked to submit a campaign or a number of executions from a campaign. Any additional context or materials that help the judges to put the campaign in context and outline the results will help your case.

SUBMISSIONS
In our continued efforts to keep the Small Agency Awards simple and as paper-free as possible, all entries will be submitted digitally through the Awards site. Please include only information asked for. 

PAYMENT
We will accept credit-card payment.

IMPORTANT NOTE -- YOU MAY BE PUBLISHED
Anything you submit may be published. This should be a good thing for you, just as long as you don't submit anything that you wish to withhold as private information, or anything that will embarrass you, and us, in the long run. Examples include ghost campaigns or imaginary or inflated revenue or billings figures.

 

AGENCY OF THE YEAR
The following information is required for the judging committee to determine the award winners. Each piece of information we’re requesting is important; a complete application will improve your chances of winning. 

Agency background
Tell us a little about your agency, its story if you will. Feel free to include founding myths, long-term goals. Include some color here, too, such as what’s unique about your shop and how you keep your employees happy. 

Thought leadership
Please describe in fewer than 500 words the ways in which your agency has helped to improve its business or serve as an example for the agency business. Examples might include innovative compensation agreements, creative or technological innovation, the development of new revenue streams, or new and effective approaches to managing or acquiring talent.

Portfolio and Business Results
Include examples of work from up to three (3) distinct campaigns that ran at any point between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2017. Campaigns can be for the same client, but showing a range of work for varying clients improves your chances. For each of the creative executions you submitted, please describe in less than 500 words each, the client assignment and the objective and then tell us what the execution -- or, if it makes more sense, the campaign that it's a part of -- achieved. If available, you can include ad metrics, such as recall and/or business results like sales or market share.

Campaign of the Year: Integrated
The work: Please include up to four samples (photo, video, web site) that are part of a single campaign for a single client. You may submit a case study video if the campaign requires some explaining. For campaign background (500 words max), provide us with background on the campaign that includes:

•    The client
•    A description of the business challenge or problem addressed by the campaign
•    A summary of the media or communications plan and description of the creative executions
•    A summary of the campaign's results.

The results are key in this category. We want to know that this campaign -- which must be an integrated effort -- actually worked, resonating with the target market and carrying out your promise to your client. These results can include basic ad metrics like awareness or recall, but you will 

get further if you also include business results such as share or market share.
Campaign must have run at some point between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2017
Feel free to also include budget, timetable, or other information that helps the judges better understand the problem and solution. Again, you can submit a video with all this information, but please ensure it's clearly presented.

Campaign of the Year: Digital
The rapidly changing digital landscape has presented a great opportunity for the talent within agencies to come up with innovative messaging ideas that can live in the places where clients’ target demo resides -- whether on their phones, laptops or elsewhere in the digital realm.

This category is dedicated to celebrating the creativity agencies are using in digital media. That can be viral advertising, social, branded games, mobile or digital billboards. It’s similar to the Campaign of the Year: Integrated, but the creative execution must be rooted in digital.
The work: Please include up to four samples (photo, video, web site) that are part of a single campaign for a single client. You may submit a case study video if the campaign requires some explaining. Campaign background: provide us with background (500 words max) on the campaign that includes:

•    The client
•    A description of the business challenge or problem addressed by the campaign
•    A summary of the media or communications plan and description of the creative executions
•    A summary of the campaign's results.

Campaign must have run at some point between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2017

 

Campaign of the Year: B-to-B
We understand that some of the most interesting brand challenges agencies are presented with require devising communications not for consumers broadly, but for a very specific audience. This is particularly true for small agencies, and often that great work doesn’t bubble up to the surface. 

The work:

Please include up to four samples (photo, video, web site) that are part of a single campaign for a single client. You may submit a case study video if the campaign requires some explaining. Campaign background: provide us with background (500 words max) on the campaign that includes:

•    The client

•    A description of the business problem addressed by the campaign
•    A summary of the media or communications plan and description of the creative executions
•    A summary of the campaign's result
•    A quote from the client explaining how your agency’s work helped their business
 

Campaign must have run at some point between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2017

 

Campaign of the Year: Pro Bono
Sometimes the work isn't just about delivering concrete business results. Sometimes it's about doing right and doing good and doing it for free. Such work should be done for charities, community groups and other such organizations (not free work for your brother-in-law's dry-cleaning business) -- and entered in the Pro Bono Campaign of the Year Category.

The work:

Please include up to four samples (photo, video, web site) that are part of a single campaign for a single client. You may submit a case study video if the campaign requires some explaining.
 

Campaign background (500 words max):

First explain why this cause is near and dear to your agency’s heart (we know it must be, in order for your shop to be willing to devote countless hours to working on it for free). Then provide us with background on the campaign that includes:

 

•    The client
•    A description of the business challenge or problem addressed by the campaign
•    A summary of the media or communications plan and description of the creative executions
•    A summary of the campaign's results.

Campaign must have run at some point between January 1, 2016 and March 1, 2017.

 

Agency Culture
This is a talent business, and every agency wants nothing more than to be able to boast that it’s a stimulating, exciting and fun place to work for its employees. After all, the best talent will churn out the best work for clients. Another thing that sets apart agencies in local ad markets is their impact on and relationship with the local community. For this award, we don’t want to honor the shop with the best ping pong table. We want to honor that shop that makes employees proud to show up at work each day. And, have a bunch of fun while they do it. Provide us with:

•    A description of the mission, mantra or vibe of your agency (in no more than 500 words)
•    Examples of employee perks
•    What your company means to the local community and any ways it helps your town/city
•    Two employee statements on behalf of the company, made by staffers who are not C-suite execs
•    A description of what’s unique about your office and some photos to illustrate it for us
•    Feel free to upload a short video that highlights your culture.

 

Questions? Email adagesmallagencyawards@crain.com