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AWARDS
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ENTRIES CLOSED
It's tough to stand out as a brand today. The battle for attention is all too real and while everyone is competing on store shelves, web searches, social media and more, budgets are smaller, teams are leaner and consumers are more informed than ever before.
The Ad Age Breakout Brands awards recognize the ingenuity of individuals and work driving outsized success for new and challenger brands. Breakout Brand Leaders honors individuals behind a brand's success and Breakout Brand Work celebrates the campaigns, collaborations and branding efforts creating momentum and growth.
Honorees will be notified in July and announced on AdAge.com in September 2024. The 2024 honorees will also be celebrated in person at the Ad Age Business of Brands conference in September.
Questions?
Visit our FAQs and important information sections. If your question isn't answered, please contact the Ad Age awards team.
PRICING & DEADLINE
Breakout Brand Leaders pricing: $375 per entry
Breakout Brand Work pricing: $400 per entry
Final deadline: June 10, 2024 at 5 p.m. ET
Extended deadline: June 17, 2024 at 5 p.m. ET
Please note there is an additional $50 processing fee for entries submitted after June 10. Please pay strict attention to all the entry requirements as fees are non-refundable once entries are submitted.
BREAKOUT BRAND LEADERS
Breakout Brand Leaders celebrates individuals who are influential in driving up-and-coming brands to sales and market-share success. This includes people leading challenger brands, those creating innovative brands in new categories and folks who have turned around older companies currently experiencing a burst of growth and popularity.
View the 2023 Breakout Brand Leaders
Entry requirements
Although we are interested in identifying people in roles related to marketing, we will also consider people in other positions, including founders or those related to strategy or innovation that significantly contribute to go-to-market strategies.
Nominees can reside and work anywhere in the world, but entries must be made in English.
You will be asked to submit a compelling 350-word summary in English addressing why the nominee is a Breakout Brand Leader. Entrants will also be asked to demonstrate the recent success of the nominee's brand with metrics including sales figures, market-share gains, growth in investment or similar data. This is key in helping judges determine the health and momentum of the company as well as the impact of current marketing and media strategies.
You can also submit campaigns and case studies that support the work of the nominee.
Note: This is not a lifetime achievement award nor is it an award for the brand/company itself; specifically, we look for meaningful or measurable accomplishments made by an individual within the past 16 months.
BREAKOUT BRAND WORK
Breakout Brand Work is new this year and will recognize marketing efforts driving business success for emerging brands taking on giants in well-established categories, innovative brands in new categories and older brands seeing new momentum and growth.
Categories
Best Brand Social Media Presence
Brands that demonstrate fluency and skill in building communities—and business—on social.
Best Design/Branding of the Year
Innovative and creative brand systems, packaging, website design and more.
Best Partnership/Collaboration of the Year
Co-branded products, marketing campaigns and other collaborative projects developed by two or more brands or organizations working together.
Experiential Campaign of the Year
Ideas that offered unique and tactile ways for audiences to interact with the brand in real life.
Print/Out-of-Home Work of the Year
Impactful and effective print or outdoor work, including billboards, direct mail pieces and branded magazines.
Purpose-Led Campaign of the Year
Campaigns or initiatives that had a positive impact on society and move communities to action.
Social Media Campaign of the Year
Campaigns that combined strategic thinking with thoughtful attention to engaging communities on different platforms.
Video of the Year
A singular piece of content—whether long-form branded entertainment or short-form work—that illustrated the power of video.
Entry requirements
Entries are limited to campaigns and marketing efforts made for breakout brands and work that debuted and ran between Jan. 1, 2023 and April 8, 2024.
All categories are open to work from anywhere in the world, but entries must be made in English.
In the entry form, you will be asked for background information on the marketing effort or the campaign, including the business challenge addressed by the work and the strategy or insights that led to the creative execution. You will also be required to provide results that demonstrate success—these metrics are key to helping the judges evaluate the work's performance.
All entrants will also be required to submit at least one example of the campaign or marketing effort to show the work and its creative executions.
For full category descriptions and entry requirements, please see the Breakout Brands entry kit.
FAQs
Agency executives and independent consultants are not eligible for Breakout Brand Leaders. For those entrants, please see our 40 Under 40, A-List & Creativity Awards, Leading Women and Tech Power List.
No team entries will be accepted. If you have more than one candidate, please submit each as a separate entry.
All work must have debuted and run between Jan. 1, 2023 and April 8, 2024. If you are submitting work that is an update or continuation of a previous campaign, please note that only the work that debuted during the aforementioned time period will be judged, not the campaign as a whole.
There are also no requirements on the age of the brand, however entrants should demonstrate the recent success of their brand with metrics including sales figures, market-share gains, growth in investment or similar data.
For Breakout Brand Work, you will be asked to submit background information on the marketing efforts, metrics and data to demonstrate the success of the work and examples of the work.
For further entry requirements, please see the entry kit.
Please note changes cannot be made once the final deadline has passed and judging has started.
IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Please pay close attention to all the entry requirements as fees are non-refundable once entries are submitted.
Please keep in mind: Anything you submit, including results of the work, may be published. Do not submit anything you wish to withhold as private information or that you do not have permission to share publicly. This also includes ghost campaigns or imaginary or inflated revenue figures.
As part of Ad Age’s diversity efforts, we encourage all those entering to carefully consider those on your team from diverse backgrounds, as well as the work they have done, when you assess submissions. This is an opportunity to shine a light on all your talents, especially those who may have not received recognition in the past.
Ad Age reserves the right to withhold or add awards as the quality of submissions dictate. 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.