Award Categories
CREATIVE IDEAS
1. Best Idea - Brand Storytelling
This category celebrates brands that craft powerful, meaningful stories that audiences truly connect with stories that evoke emotion, inspire action, and leave a lasting impression. It honours creative storytelling that brings a brand’s purpose to life while building strong, enduring customer relationships.
Judges will look at how the story expressed the brand’s values, sparked emotional engagement, and delivered positive business outcomes. Entries may include any format such as video, social media, digital content, experiential campaigns, or multi-channel narratives as long as they clearly convey the brand’s purpose and resonate memorably with audiences.
2. Best Idea – Branding Strategy (New)
This category recognises the most innovative and impactful branding strategy that effectively communicated a brand’s identity, values, and vision to its target audience.
Judges will look for branding concepts that capture attention through creativity and originality, while clearly expressing who the brand is and what it stands for. Entries should show how the strategy built recognition, strengthened loyalty, and set the brand apart in a memorable way.
3. Best Idea – Content Marketing
This category recognises the best creative, innovative content and/or copywriting commissioned by a brand. It can include text, infographics, film, video games, music, online, competitions, and TV, across
all forms of marketing channels.
Judges will look at how the creative copy and content strategy was designed to stimulate consumer interest, while supporting a strategic marketing approach for the brand. Entries should reflect how the
content embodied various elements / mediums of the marketing campaign, and how it was designed to build a rapport with the targeted audience.
4. Best Idea – Corporate Social Responsibility
This category honours outstanding CSR initiatives that reflect creativity, innovation, and a genuine commitment to making a positive difference. It recognises organisations that have developed impactful initiatives through partnerships, community programmes, sustainability efforts, or social innovation that deliver tangible benefits to both society and the brand.
Judges will look at the creativity and innovation behind the initiatives, how they were carried out, how they brought benefits to the parties and community, and how they had a positive effect on raising brand reputation.
5. Best Idea – Customer Engagement
This category recognises the best creative, innovative idea that was specifically designed to engage new or existing customers through multiple touchpoints or channels for customer connections loyalty.
Judges will look for originality, strategic thinking, and the smart integration of channels whether digital, social, in-store, experiential, or beyond to maximise engagement. Entries should illustrate how the customer engagement idea helped to entertain and engage existing customers while enhancing the customer proposition that resulted in positive business outcomes.
6. Best Idea - Emotional Marketing (New)
This category celebrates the most creative ideas that used emotional storytelling to deeply connect with audiences. Whether through joy, empathy, inspiration, nostalgia or belonging, these campaigns tapped into the human emotion to elevate brand meaning and memorability.
Judges will look for the creative concepts that successfully evoked strong emotional responses, and how they were translated into meaningful audience engagement to increase brand affinity and cultural relevance. Entrants should demonstrate how the emotional insights shaped the campaign idea and led to real impact.
7. Best Idea – Events
This category recognises the most creative and innovatively planned events that formed the cornerstone of a marketing strategy. The events can be live, virtual and/or hybrid. An event could include B2B events such as investor / stakeholder meetings or showcases, internal / employee engagement or B2C events such as concerts or festivals, product launches etc. Physical events and/or events that were help virtually via web-hosting or conference-hosting platforms are welcome.
Judges will look at the strategy and creativity behind the event, how the event performed, how it captivated its audience, and the strength of the idea. Entries should also illustrate how the idea for the event supported the brand’s profile, values, and marketing objectives.
8. Best Idea – Experiential Marketing
This category recognises the most creative and innovative marketing idea that immerses audiences in a brand or product through real, hands-on experiences. It includes campaigns that go beyond traditional advertising to let people feel and live the brand through large-scale public activations, exclusive customer events, trade showcases, or sponsorship experiences, etc.
Judges will be looking at the creativity and strategy behind the experiential programme or campaign and how it stimulated interest and created buzz for a brand, product or service. Entries should also illustrate how the idea was designed to allow consumers to get involved in or respond to a specific experience.
9. Best Idea – Gamification
This category recognises the initiatives that used gamification in a campaign that turned engagement into play and participation into purpose. Whether through interactive challenges, reward systems, immersive storytelling or game-inspired mechanics, the winning idea should showcase how game-like experiences were used to capture attention, spark interaction, and achieve marketing objectives. It may include elements from competitive sports, board games, character-based games, video games or in-app experiences.
Judges will evaluate the originality, execution, and effectiveness of the gamified approach in reinforcing the brand message, engaging the target audience, and enhancing brand perception.
10. Best Idea – Immersive Brand Activation
This category celebrates the most exceptional and inventive immersive brand activation idea that deeply engaged the audience in a brand or product experience. Whether through virtual reality, augmented reality, or physical installations, the winning campaign will showcase outstanding creativity in immersing audiences in the brand’s world.
Judges will assess the ingenuity and strategic approach behind the immersive activation or campaign and how it was designed to captivate and generate excitement around a brand, product or service. Entrants should showcase how the concept was crafted to encourage active participation from consumers or elicit specific responses through a tailored experience.
11. Best Idea – Influencer
This category recognises the most creative and brilliant ideas using influencers to engage and delight your target audience.
Judges will look at how a collaboration increased customer value and promoted peer-to-peer engagement. Entries should demonstrate how an original approach of a brand took influencer marketing beyond the limits of the traditional, and showcased the brand’s out-of-the-box thinking, resulting in an effective campaign strategy that was engaging and authentic.
12. Best Idea – Integrated Marketing
This category recognises the originality and authenticity of an idea behind creating a unified and seamless integrated and/or interactive experience to promote a brand, product or service.
Judges will look at how the idea was designed to stimulate interest and support a strategic marketing and communications approach across multiple distribution channels (at least three channels). Entries should demonstrate how the idea creatively and successfully leveraged the marketing objectives of a brand.
13. Best Idea – Launch/Rebranding
This category rewards the most creative and innovative idea behind a launch or rebranding of a brand, event, product or service. It recognises ideas that captured attention, re-energised audience interest, and successfully shaped a refreshed or newly introduced identity in the market.
Entries should demonstrate how the idea helped mould the campaign and the execution strategy for the launch/rebrand activity.
14. Best Idea – Out-Of-Home
This category recognises the most creative idea behind an out-of-home (OOH) campaign. OOH can include media such as billboards, transit media, public spaces or any other media formats traditionally classified as OOH.
Judges will look at how the creative idea was designed to attract attention or interact with consumers to achieve an objective and/or communicate a message. Entries should reflect on the creative and messaging behind OOH’s impact on the campaign.
15. Best Idea – Partnership/Sponsorship
This category recognises the most creative and innovative idea in a marketing campaign that developed and activated a brand-relevant partnership in the form of a crossover, sponsorship or product placement.
Judges will look at the creativity of the idea behind the collaboration where both parties reached a mutual benefit. Entries should illustrate how the partnership was designed to captivate their audiences, and how the idea supported the parties to achieve a win-win marketing goal.
16. Best Idea – Public Awareness
This category recognises the most creative and innovative idea in a public awareness campaign that best helped a brand to rally the public and/or effect a change in attitude towards a public concern among their audiences.
Judges will look at how the idea was developed and built to achieve the marketing outcome. Entrants should demonstrate how the idea was executed and its effectiveness in gaining the public’s attention.
17. Best Idea – Public Relations
This category recognises the most creative idea behind a public relations campaign that best enhanced the branding, image or identity of a brand, product or service. It should resonate with their intended audience whether the goal is to build awareness, shape perception, or strengthen trust among consumers, businesses, investors, or internal stakeholders.
Judges will look at how the public relations idea succeeded in promoting or recovering an image of a brand, product or service, or supplemented an existing marketing strategy. Entries should demonstrate how the public relations strategy created an impact on the chosen audience.
18. Best Idea – Social Media
This category recognises the most creative social media idea and strategy in a marketing campaign. It can be part of a one-off campaign or a longer term marketing strategy.
Judges will look at how the creative idea was designed and deployed over social media channels. Entrants should reflect how the social media strategy helped the brand to engage a campaign, enhance customer acquisition or built strong customer loyalty.
19. Best Idea – Sustainability Marketing (New)
This category celebrates the most impactful and creative marketing campaigns that champion sustainability. It honours brands that have embedded environmental, social, or ethical values into the heart of their storytelling and actions, going beyond words to make sustainability an authentic part of their brand identity and customer experience.
Judges will look for ideas that are authentic, purpose-driven, and which demonstrate a real commitment to creating positive change for people, while also achieving positive marketing results.
20. Best Idea – Video
This category recognises the best creative idea behind a video advertising campaign. This can include displays along linear, non-linear and companion ad formats.
Judges will look at the originality and creativity of the marketing video idea and the creative strategy to achieve a marketing outcome or reach for a brand, product or service. Entries should demonstrate how the idea and campaign were designed to impact and resonate with the targeted audience or how it enhanced an existing campaign.
21. Best Idea – Viral Marketing
This category recognises the most creative and effective viral marketing campaign that captured widespread attention and inspired people to share it organically. The winning idea should have turned audiences into active promoters of the brand through bold storytelling, entertaining content, or quick reactions to cultural or trending moments.
Entries should demonstrate how the campaign inspired audience participation, sparked user-generated content, expanded reach, and strengthened the brand’s connection with its audience. Campaigns that quickly responded to real-world events or social trends are especially encouraged.
IMPLEMENTATION
22. Best Use of Budget (New)
This category recognises campaigns that achieved outstanding results through the smart and strategic use of a defined budget. It’s not about the biggest spend, it’s about how well the budget was managed to achieve the marketing objectives.
Whether through innovative media planning, clever partnerships or the resourceful use of low-cost channels, the winning campaign will demonstrate how creativity and efficiency worked hand-in-hand to maximise impact.
23. Best Use of Content
This category recognises the most effective use of original content that was the main feature behind a published campaign. The content can be text, infographics and/or video, etc, and can have been run across all forms of marketing channels.
Judges will look at the effectiveness and results from a content strategy developed to convert interest into action, while supporting a strategic marketing approach for a brand, product or service. Entries should illustrate how the copy embodied various elements/mediums of the marketing campaign, and how the content was mapped out for a larger content strategy, while addressing specific KPIs along the way.
24. Best Use of Customer Acquisition
This category celebrates the most effective, creative, and innovative strategies for attracting and converting new customers. It recognises marketing campaigns that not only generated strong interest and inquiries but also successfully transformed prospects into customers, driving measurable business growth.
Judges will assess the effectiveness, creativity, and innovation behind the customer acquisition approach, focusing on how it attracted inquiries and generated new business. Entries should demonstrate how the customer acquisition strategy led to business growth by acquiring new customers or expanding the customer base, ultimately, yielding positive business outcomes.
25. Best Use of Customer Retention
This category celebrates the most effective and innovative strategies designed to retain existing customers, strengthen relationships, and enhance long-term brand loyalty. It recognises initiatives that have successfully reduced churn, increased customer lifetime value, and kept customers meaningfully engaged through creativity, relevance, and personalisation.
Judges will look for campaigns that have demonstrated exceptional effectiveness in the critical domains of customer retention and loyalty. Entries should show how thoughtful communication, tailored experiences, or loyalty programmes helped transform satisfied customers into passionate brand advocates and contributed to sustainable business growth.
26. Best Use of Data/Insights
This category celebrates the inventive and impactful utilisation of research, data planning, measurement, and analytics tools to enhance database development and the success of a marketing campaign or communications strategy.
Judges will evaluate how effectively the data and insights aided a brand in comprehending its consumer base and crafting campaign strategies. Submissions should showcase the integration of market research, data planning, measurement, analytics insights, and data automation in shaping the creative strategy.
27. Best Use of Digital Solution
This category recognises the most effective and innovative use of digital solutions to achieve a brand’s business objectives. It celebrates campaigns that strategically utilised digital tools, platforms, or technologies to strengthen branding, influence consumer behaviour, or drive usage and engagement. Digital solutions could include online, mobile, viral, search, social media, email, or any other mediums that fall within digital marketing.
Judges will look at how a brand leveraged digital solutions to achieve a business objective, be it branding, prompted consumer behaviour or to increase consumption on its platform. Entries should demonstrate how digital was an integral part of an executed marketing strategy and how it generated proven results, with evidence of the mediums used.
28. Best Use of Gamification
This category honours campaigns that executed gamification mechanics most effectively to achieve real marketing impact. Winning entries typically show seamless implementation, intuitive user experience, and strong performance metrics, proving that gamification wasn’t just a gimmick but a strategic tool that worked.
Judges will look at how effectively the gamified elements were executed — across activations, social media, apps, or microsites — and how they enhanced the overall user experience. Entries should demonstrate high interactivity, an intuitive user experience, and strong performance metrics such as increased engagement, conversions or customer loyalty.
29. Best Use of Immersive Technology
This category celebrates the most innovative use of marketing technology by incorporating AI and immersive technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality to activate or enhance marketing strategies.
Judges will assess the innovation and effectiveness of utilising these technologies to drive positive marketing outcomes. Participants should demonstrate how these cutting-edge tools enhanced the consumer experience by offering new levels of functionality, access, and convenience, thereby pushing the boundaries of marketing impact.
30. Best Use of Influencer
This category recognises the most creative and effective use of influencers or creators in a campaign that engaged audiences, amplified brand messaging, and drove measurable impact. Winners should demonstrate how the influencer partnerships were strategically aligned with brand values and goals.
Judges will look for authentic storytelling, strong brand-creator alignment, and evidence of audience trust and engagement. Entries should highlight how influencer credibility contributed to increased brand awareness, meaningful reach, and successful business outcomes.
31. Best Use of Integrated Media
This category celebrates campaigns that seamlessly brought together different marketing channels to tell one clear, powerful brand story. It recognises brands that used a mix of platforms such as digital, social, print, outdoor, events, or PR to connect with audiences in meaningful ways and deliver strong business results.
Judges will look at how the idea was executed across multiple distribution channels (at least three channels) to support the strategic approach, and the results from the combined use. Entries should also demonstrate how the campaign was executed skilfully to stand out from competitors and to reach the brand’s marketing objectives.
32. Best Use of Martech (New)
This category celebrates the most innovative and effective use of marketing technology and artificial intelligence to optimise campaigns, personalise customer experiences, and deliver measurable business results.
Judges will look at how MarTech or AI tools such as data analytics, automation, personalisation engines or predictive modelling were strategically implemented to improve efficiency, enhance customer engagement, and drive return on investment. The winning entries will demonstrate how the technology was used smartly to solve real marketing challenges.
33. Best Use of Omnichannel
This category recognises the most effective and seamless integration of online and offline channels to create a unified brand experience. Whether through an online-to-offline (O2O) strategy or an online-merge-offline (OMO) approach, the winning campaign will demonstrate how the digital and physical touchpoints worked together to engage customers, while driving action, and delivering measurable results.
Judges will look for the creativity, strategic alignment, and executional excellence in how the brand identified and engaged customers online; translated that engagement into offline behaviour; or merged both realms into a cohesive, end-to-end experience. Entries should highlight how the omnichannel thinking enhanced the customer interactions, increased conversions, and elevated the overall brand journey.
34. Best Use of Out-Of-Home
This category recognises the most effective use of an out-of-home (OOH) campaign. OOH can include media such as billboards, transit media, public spaces or any other media formats traditionally classified as OOH.
Judges will look at how the campaign was executed, and how it generated the desired results that met a business or a marketing communication objective. Entries should reflect how the use of OOH managed to increase the reach and recall of the campaign and impact path-to-purchase.
35. Best Use of Performance Marketing
This category recognises initiatives that have optimised strategies across paid media, SEO, conversion rate optimisation, and other performance-focused channels to achieve outstanding results.
Judges will look for campaigns that show exceptional effectiveness in optimising performance across channels, demonstrating clear objectives, strong results, and a data-led approach that drove tangible outcomes such as traffic, conversions, or sales. Winning entries should exemplify how smart optimisation and continuous improvement turned marketing investment into measurable success.
36. Best Use of Programmatic
This category recognises the organisation that best used programmatic strategies and solutions to optimise a campaign and greater enhance the targeting to a specific audience. Entrants should be able to demonstrate how the programmatic strategy specifically improved the campaign’s success and helped achieve business objectives.
Judges will look at how the use of audience data and technology to tailor the marketing campaign to the right person, at the right moment, in the right context; and how this generated the desired results that met a business or marketing communication objective. Entries should demonstrate a standout use of programmatic that generated greater efficiencies for users, greater insights, better ROI, and better results.
37. Best Use of Smart Search Strategy (New)
This category recognises the most effective and innovative use of search marketing strategies, including SEO, SEM, and first-party data, to drive visibility, engagement, and conversion. The winning campaigns can feature paid search, organic optimisation, local SEO or the strategic use of search insights to enhance the customer experience, personalise content or improve performance.
Judges will look for smart, data-driven approaches, that show measurable impact and creative thinking in the search space.
38. Best Use of Social Media
This category recognises the most innovative and effective use of social media within a marketing or advertising campaign. It can be a one-off activation or a long-term strategy. The winning entry will demonstrate how the social platforms were used to engage audiences, amplify brand messaging, and drive measurable results.
Judges will look for smart platform selection, creative execution, and strong audience engagement, including how the campaign leveraged formats such as short-form video (up to three minutes) to tell compelling stories, capture attention, and spark interaction. Entries should also show how social media was a core driver of success in reaching and resonating with the target audience.
39. Best Use of User-Generated Content (New)
This category recognises the most effective and creative use of user-generated content (UGC) to drive engagement, build community, and amplify a brand’s message. Whether through reviews, testimonials, social media posts or creator collaborations, the winning campaign should show how real voices and authentic content were strategically leveraged to enhance credibility to deepen audience connection.
Judges will look for how the UGC was sourced, curated, and integrated into the campaign, as well as its effectiveness in increasing reach, engagement, and brand trust. Entries should demonstrate measurable results and show how user participation became a meaningful part of the brand experience.
40. Best Use of Venue
This category celebrates the most creative and innovative use of a physical space to bring a brand’s story to life. Whether it’s a large-scale event or an intimate pop-up, it recognises how a venue can be transformed into a powerful touchpoint that connects with audiences and strengthens brand identity.
Judges will look for originality and strategic thinking in how the space was used to attract attention, deliver a memorable experience, and communicate a clear brand message. Entries should demonstrate how the venue design, layout, and atmosphere worked together to inspire engagement, interaction, and lasting impressions.
OVERALL CATEGORIES – Not for Entry
41. Best of Show – Agency
This category is not open for entry, and will be awarded to the agency that has performed best at the MARKies awards, based solely on the number and type of awards won as determined by the awards jury.
Points System:
Gold: 4 points
Silver: 2 points
Bronze: 1 point
Points Allocation for Multiple Agencies:
Lead Agency: When multiple agencies collaborate on a winning entry and a lead agency is identified, the lead agency receives full points towards the overall awards. Non-lead agencies on that entry will each receive 25% of the points respectively.
Joint Submission: If two agencies declare an equal partnership on a winning entry, each agency receives 50% of the points towards the overall awards.
Tie-Breakers:
Most Gold: If total points are tied, the agency with the highest number of gold awards wins.
Most Silver: If the gold awards are also tied, the agency with the highest number of silver awards wins.
Highest Average Score: If a tie still persists, the agency with the highest average score percentage (as assigned by the judges across all their winning entries) will win.
42. Best of Show – Campaign
This Category is not open for entry, and will be awarded to the campaign that has performed best in the MARKies awards, based solely on the number and type of awards won as determined by the awards jury.
Points System:
Gold: 4 points
Silver: 2 points
Bronze: 1 point
Tie-Breakers:
Most Gold: If total points are tied, the campaign with the highest number of gold awards wins.
Most Silver: If the gold awards are also tied, the campaign with the highest number of Silver awards wins.
Highest Average Score: If a tie still persists, the agency with the highest average score percentage (as assigned by the judges across all their winning entries) will win.