Award Categories
CREATIVE IDEAS
1. Best Idea - Brand Storytelling
This category recognises the most creative, innovative, and effective storytelling strategy that created a strong connection with audiences and ingrained the brand’s image into customers’ hearts.
Judges will look at how the stories evoked emotions, enabled audience engagement, spread the brand’s message and, at the same time, drove positive business outcomes.
2. Best Idea – Branding (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. It successfully revitalised or established a brand’s image and resonance with consumers.
Judges will evaluate the creativity, originality, and overall effectiveness of the new branding concept in capturing attention, building brand equity, and differentiating the brand in the market.
3. Best Idea – Content Marketing (New)
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 be looking at the creative copy and the content strategy that was designed to stimulate interest and support a strategic marketing approach for the brand. Entries should reflect a clear vision about how the high quality and innovative content was created, and how it was designed to build a rapport with the targeted audience.
4. Best Idea – Corporate Social Responsibility
Judges will be looking at the creativity and innovation behind the idea of the initiatives, how they were carried out, and how they brought positive benefits for the involved parties. Entries should demonstrate how the initiatives benefited both parties and 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 touch-points or channels for customer loyalty.
Judges will be looking at the creativity, innovation and strategy behind the idea of the campaign, and how it used each touch-point in the most engaging way. 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 – Digital Solution
This category recognises the most creative and innovative idea for digital marketing solutions across digital platforms. Digital solutions could include online, mobile, viral, search, social media, email, or any other mediums that fall within digital marketing.
Judges will be looking at how the solutions were created, designed, and deployed over various digital channels to add value to a marketing campaign. Entries should demonstrate how the idea stood out in the competitive digital space and achieved a specific marketing outcome, be it branding, a prompted consumer behaviour, or engagement.
7. Best Idea – Events
This category recognises the most creative and innovatively planned events that formed the cornerstone of a marketing strategy. Events could be live, virtual and/or hybrid events.
Judges will be looking 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 illustrate how the event was designed to captivate its audience and 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 of a hands-on experience to take the target audience inside a brand or product. Entries can be anything from a mass-market launch to a more exclusive experience for customers.
Judges will be looking at the creativity and strategy behind the experiential programme or campaign that was designed to stimulate interest and create buzz for a brand, product or service. Entries should 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 most creative and innovative idea of gaming in a marketing campaign. It can be in a variety of forms in interactive media, for example, competitive sports, board games, character games, video games and in-app games.
Judges will be looking at the effectiveness and creativity of the idea in reaching targeted customers and building a brand’s image. Entries should demonstrate how the creation of the game leveraged the brand’s message, and engaged with customers.
10. Best Idea – Immersive Brand Activation (New)
This category celebrates the most exceptional and inventive immersive brand activation idea that deeply engaged the audience in a brand or product experience. Submissions may range from large-scale public activations to more intimate and personalised experiences for consumers.
Judges will assess the ingenuity and strategic approach behind the immersive activation or campaign 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 be looking at how the 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 be looking 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.
Judges will be looking at the creativity of the idea and the initiative behind the launch/rebranding strategy. Entries should demonstrate how the idea helped mould the campaign and the eventual execution strategy towards 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 could include media such as billboards, transit media, public spaces or any other media formats traditionally classified as OOH.
Judges will be looking 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 be looking 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 audience, 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 brands to rally the public and/or effect a change in attitude towards a public concern among their audiences.
Judges will be looking at how the idea was developed and built in order to achieve their 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 could target mass or specific audiences, businesses, investors, internal stakeholders, etc.
Judges will be looking at the public relations idea that 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 part of a longer-term marketing strategy.
Judges will be looking at how the creative idea was designed and deployed over social media channels. Entrants should reflect how the social media strategy helped a brand to engage a campaign, enhance customer acquisition or built strong customer loyalty.
19. Best Idea – Video
This category recognises the best creative idea behind a video advertising campaign.
Judges will be looking 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 enhanced an existing campaign.
20. Best Idea – Viral Marketing (New)
This category recognises the most creative, innovative, and effective viral idea in attracting and engaging its audience in spreading word-of-mouth messages and creating viral buzz.
Judges will be looking for an innovative strategy and a demonstration of creative content and execution that drove brand awareness and strengthened the connection with its audiences. Entries should demonstrate how the campaign helped generate creative content from the public, the level of engagement the brand achieved, the increase in reach, and other positive marketing results.
IMPLEMENTATION
21. Best Use of Content
This category recognises the most effective use of original content that was the main feature behind a published campaign. Content marketing could be text, infographics and/or video, etc, and could have been run across all forms of marketing channels.
Judges will be looking 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, addressing specific KPIs along the way.
22. Best Use of Customer Acquisition (New)
This category recognises the optimal utilisation of strategies for acquiring new customers in marketing campaigns.
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.
23. Best Use of Customer Retention (New)
This category acknowledges initiatives that have implemented strategies and tactics to reduce customer churn, elevated customer lifetime value, and cultivated strong brand loyalty among existing clientele. Entries should showcase innovative approaches, personalisation, and quantifiable results in the art of nurturing enduring customer relationships, solidifying their unwavering loyalty to the brand.
Judges will be looking for campaigns that have demonstrated exceptional effectiveness in the critical domains of customer retention and loyalty.
24. 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. In a world where data automation plays a pivotal role, this category underscores the importance of incorporating automated processes into marketing strategies.
Judges will evaluate how effectively data and insights aided a brand in comprehending its consumer base to craft campaign strategies. Submissions should showcase the integration of market research, data planning, measurement, analytics insights, and data automation in shaping the creative strategy.
25. Best Use of Digital Solution
Entries should demonstrate how a brand achieved its business objectives, be it branding, a prompted consumer behaviour or increased consumption, on its digital platforms.
Judges will be looking 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
26. Best Use of Gamification
This category recognises the most creative and innovative use of gaming in a campaign to entertain customers and improve engagement. Games can span from one or multiple platforms of interactive media, for example, activations, social media, and microsites.
Judges will be looking at how gaming was effectively used as a key marketing strategy to enhance a brand experience and customer engagement. Entrants should illustrate the high levels of interactivity and engagement from the target audience while driving core business objectives.
27. Best Use of Immersive technology (New)
This category celebrates the most innovative use of marketing technology, 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 have enhanced consumer experiences by offering new levels of functionality, access, and convenience, thereby pushing the boundaries of marketing impact.
28. Best Use of Influencer
This category recognises the most creative and effective use of influencers to engage the target audience and enhance brand awareness.
Judges will be looking at how the use of influencers helped the brand’s overall strategy and improved engagement. Entrants should demonstrate how the level of a brand’s awareness was increased, how the brand’s message was effectively spread, and the business goals successfully achieved.
29. Best Use of Integrated Media
This category recognises the most effective use of various marketing mediums to create/support a unified integrated marketing communications strategy to promote a brand, product or service.
Judges will be looking 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.
30. Best Use of Mobile & Apps
This category recognises the most effective use of app and mobile marketing. This could include using applications and mobile as a media format, mobile app marketing, and/or marketing and advertising through mobile and apps.
Judges will be looking for an innovative use of app/mobile marketing that drove customer engagement and enhanced a brand experience for either a one-off or ongoing marketing exercise. Entries should be able to demonstrate the role of the app or mobile in attaining targeted objectives such as user acquisition, user retention or prompted consumer behaviour.
31. Best Use of Omnichannel
This category recognises the most effective use of an online-to-offline strategy in driving customer engagement from online channels to offline physical stores.
Judges will be looking at the creativity and effectiveness of the O2O strategy in identifying customers in the online space and drawing the customer to the offline store. Entries should demonstrate how a brand utilised O2O techniques to entice target customers and increase marketing outcomes.
32. Best Use of Out-Of-Home
This category recognises the most effective use of an out-of-home (OOH) campaign. OOH could include media such as billboards, transit media, public spaces or any other media formats traditionally classified as OOH.
Judges will be looking 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 a campaign and impact path-to-purchase.
33. 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 have demonstrated exceptional effectiveness in the realm of performance marketing.
34. Best Use of Programmatic
This category recognises the most effective programmatic strategies and executions that optimised a campaign that enhanced the targeting to a specific audience.
Judges will be looking at how the programmatic strategies successfully leveraged the marketing objectives and brought positive business outcomes. Entries should demonstrate a standout use of programmatic that generated greater efficiencies for users, greater insights, better ROI, and better results.
35. Best Use of Social Media
This category recognises the most effective use of social media in a marketing and advertising campaign. It can be part of a one-off campaign or a longer term marketing strategy.
Judges will be looking at how the innovative use of social media channels reaped results towards customer acquisition, and engaged existing customers. Entries should illustrate the effectiveness of the execution through social media channels which activated or enhanced a marketing strategy.
36. Best Use of Venue
This category recognises the most innovative set-up and use of a physical surrounding for a venue. The venue can be large scale or a small pop-up-style space.
Judges will be looking at the creativity and innovation that helped a brand in reaching its target audience while delivering a positive brand message. Entrants should showcase how the venue was effectively used with out-of-the-box ideas that drove customer engagement.
OVERALL CATEGORIES – Not for Entry
37. Best of Show – Campaign (Not for Entry)
This Category is not open for entry, and will be awarded to the campaign that has performed best in the MARKies award, 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 Gold awards are also tied, the campaign with the highest number of Silver awards wins.
Highest Average Score: If a tie still persists, the campaign with the highest average score percentage (as assigned by the judges across all their winning entries) will win.
38. Best of Show – Agency (Not for Entry)
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 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.