AWARD has opened its call for entries for the 42nd AWARD Awards. The deadline for entries is December 11.

Last year, AWARD significantly expanded its list of eligible categories and overhauled the AWARD Awards program. This year, AWARD has refreshed its program again, adding new retail categories and newly-structured Special Awards.

There will be entry-based awards for Agency of the Year, Creative or Team of the Year and a Director of the Year award. These awards will also include categories for emerging creative talent with under five years of industry experience.

AWARD has also introduced a new Special Award for Emerging Indigenous Creative Talent, which will become part of a nationwide AWARD initiative to support Indigenous talent as part of Advertising Council Australia’s Reconciliation Action Plan.

AWARD will be accepting work from Australia, New Zealand and South-East Asia completed within the eligibility period of 1 January 2020 to 31 December 2020.

Cam Blackley, AWARD chair, stated, “This year we’re building further on the huge amount of work we did last year to revamp AWARD Awards to better align us with international creative award shows. We are again opening up entries to a broader range of entrants: this includes showing some proper love to the very important discipline of retail marketing. We learnt a lot through new judging processes, and this year will see further refinement to make sure every piece of work gets its chance to shine.”

Entries are open with an early bird discount of 10% (ending at 5pm AEDT on Monday 2nd Nov), with entries closing at 5pm AEDT on Friday, December 11.

Late entries will be accepted up until 5pm AEDT Friday, January 22 2021, but late entrants will pay an additional fee.

This year’s call for entries creative theme incorporates the new AWARD brand, highlighting the pointy end of creativity.

Blackley stated, “We launched new branding at the beginning of this year to better reflect both AWARD’s incredible heritage and our future-focused philosophy. With 2020 turning out to be a time many people might want to forget, looking towards the future has never been more apt for our industry.

“That’s why we’ve continued to evolve AWARD Awards for 2020. After what 2020 has served up to us, now is actually the most exciting time for AWARD in years and we’re looking forward to welcoming our creative industry to help us celebrate.”

AWARD will also be announcing a creative festival planned for 2021 in the coming months.

Find more information and submit your entries here.