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Click Here for Submission Guidelines
CATEGORIES
Creative Agency of the Year New!
Great is great; no other rules apply for this category. This award will be given to the agency whose totality of work in the past year rose above. Again, budgets and channels are not the thing here. The consistent level of breakthrough, rise-above creativity is. If you kick B2B creative ass, get the cred!
In-House Agency of the Year New!
Overlooked and under-recognized? Not anymore. The ACEs recognize the amazing work being done by in-house agencies and teams. It’s about time you received the accolades and fame as your agency counterparts. Please note that this award is for the year’s body of work, not one-offs. Same rules apply as for the Creative Agency of the Year award.
Digital/Technology Powered Experiences New!
McCann’s ‘Field Trip to Mars’ for Lockheed Martin killed it at Cannes in 2016. If your brand of creativity includes tech-powered, mind-blowing experiences, this is your category. Immersive experiences. VR/AR/MR experiences. 360-degree video experiences. Mobile gaming experiences. All-of-the-above and then-some experiences. This is among the most exciting ACE categories!
The Craft Categories New!
Lots of moaning that the craft is gone from modern B2B marketing. And plenty of truth behind the complaints. But the ACE jury believes the craft is back! Greater love is being given to traditional crafts – art direction, writing, photography – even (especially!) if used in extremely innovative ways. Newer crafts, such as advanced visual effects, are in play too. The ACEs recognize them all. Love the craft that goes into your work? Then enter. Let’s raise the game for all B2B marketers. Please note the four distinct sub-categories below.
Art Direction: For visual expression including concept and execution, regardless of form or function. Submit three pieces of work you personally art directed to be considered.
Copywriting: Persuasive, insightful, moving, hilarious. Submit three pieces of your work to be considered.
Photography/Illustration: Brilliant original images that enliven brand, campaign or digital initiatives. Submit three pieces of work to be considered.
VFX: Visual effects that make great crazy great. CGI. Motion graphics. 3D. Submit three pieces of work to be considered.
Can Marketing Change the World? New!
In 2017, ANA/BMA New York held its first “Can Marketing Change the World?” conference. It was one of our most-anticipated, best-attended events ever. Among the campaigns on display: State Street Global Advisors’ ‘Fearless Girl’. That’s what we’re after with this award. Work that is culturally significant with societal impact. B2B marketing that matters!
Integrated Marketing Campaigns
These are your biggest, multi-faceted, multichannel campaigns that have moved the needle in a big way. They are, naturally enough, based on big ideas with a range of executions to drive impact and results. Enter your best ACE-worthy campaigns.
$1 Million Budget and Over: Budget includes agency services, media and production.
$250,000-$1 Million Budget: Budget includes agency services, media and production.
Under $250,000 Budget: Budget includes agency services, media and production.
Demand Generation Campaigns
End of the day, demand generation is the core of B2B marketing. Always has been. Always will be. Whether product, solution or issue-driven, enter your most creatively effective single or multi-channel campaigns for jury consideration.
Social Media Campaigns
In the age of paid, earned, owned and shareable media, enter your social campaigns utilizing one or multiple channels – from Facebook to LinkedIn to Twitter to Instagram. This is the fastest-growing ACE category – and there’s little wonder why!
Digital Display
Digital display deserves its day in the sun. Here’s where to shine. Banners, rich media, page takeovers and other formats. All comers welcome. But a word of caution: We’re looking for the great display work that’s treated with extreme creative love.
Single Display Ad: Enter your best ad.
Single Video Ad: Pre-roll, mid-roll and other video ad formats.
Campaign (Single or Multi Format): Enter your best campaign.
Broadcast Advertising
In our all-digital-all-the-time world, there remains a time and place for B2B to go broadcast. In fact, there remain a lot of times and places as satellite radio and precision-targeted TV make these channels more efficient. Let’s face it, who doesn’t love making a movie?
Radio - Single Spot: Enter your best spot.
Radio - Campaign: Enter your best multi-spot campaign.
TV - Single Spot: Enter your best spot, any length.
TV - Campaign: Enter your best campaign.
Out of Home
Some of the best work that’s out there is...out there. Digital…airport…elevator…commuter…if it’s outstanding out of home, enter here.
Single Ad: Enter your best single execution.
Campaign: Enter your best campaign.
Print Advertising
Old school? Nuh-uh. It’s a great school and still highly relevant across plenty of B2B sectors. David Ogilvy did well enough with it to lead an industry and land a chateau. Here’s B2B creatives’ shot to follow in his famous footsteps.
Single Ad: Enter your best print ad.
Campaign: Enter your best print ad campaigns.
Content Marketing
Content is king, but these days it’s also the joker. The good stuff is great. The rest just adds to the noise. Here’s to the good stuff! All content marketing / branded content work is judged in this category – from e-books to industry reports, content platforms to blogs and vlogs.
Individual Piece: Enter your best content marketing piece. All formats accepted.
Multiple Piece Program/Campaign: Enter your best multi-piece content marketing program.
Corporate Image
Logo Design: The boundless creativity displayed by logo creators is truly amazing. This is foundational work that engenders pride within organizations and love (hopefully!) on the outside. If you win, you have a lifetime dispensation from the “can you make it just a little bigger” conversation.
Design System: Beautiful, artful, strategic brand design organized into a true system so that all audiences and stakeholders can make the design their own. That’s all we’re asking for!
Brand Name: Brand naming is as hard and rewarding as it gets in the creative world. Get just rewards for your hard and brilliant work.
Websites
By virtue of IA and UX, visual design, content quality, usability, smart use of personas – and magic – these are the B2B sites that stand apart from competitors and stand out among the world’s best websites.
Microsites
Smaller than a website and bigger than a breadbasket. Enter your slickest microsites whether used for product launches, campaigns, thought leadership and more.
Video
The growing use of video is one of the primary trends in B2B marketing, making video well deserving of its own category. Showcase your best video work here.
Short-Form: Up to 2 minutes (don’t worry, we won’t hold you to the second!). Explainer videos. Fun ad. Funny videos. Educational videos. Corporate videos. Campaign-related videos.
Longer-Form: Thought leadership videos. Documentary style videos. Videos that are richer and deeper in terms of themes and contents.
Event/Trade show Marketing
Booth Design/Experience: This is for exhibit design, plain but not simple. The exhibits that stand out on a jam-packed show floor by virtue of both the differentiated design and the differentiated in-booth experience.
Integrated Trade Show/Event Marketing Campaign: And this is for the end-to-end, pre/at/post-show campaigns that drive engagement, attendance and demand. In other words, the campaigns that had the competitor’s CEO saying, “Why didn’t we do that?”
Proprietary Event Marketing: Developing your own customer and industry events is hard work, but well worth it given the results that are achievable. This category is for clients’ own ambitious events targeting customers, prospects and influencers with powerful themes, topical content and outstanding promotion.
Mobile
Apps: This category is for apps designed and developed specifically with a marketing end in mind: added value, extra utility, great content, good fun, etc.
Ads: The best mobile ads are experiences, delivering both impact and user value. Enter your best here, all formats accepted.
Direct Mail
What’s old is effective again. Whether for ABM or more broad-based comms, DM is cutting through. Enter your best direct: self-mailers, 3D mailers, in-mail video, etc. There’s lots of innovation going on. Let’s see it!
Sales Enablement
Digital: What have you done of late to keep the sale team wealthy and wise? Enter your best sales enablement apps, interactive tools, battlecards, presentations, collateral and more. This is blocking and tackling that closes business!
Analog: Same as above, but in physical form. Amazing collateral and cases. Leave-behinds. Send-aheads. Compelling, communicative, informative and, dare we say, inspiring.
Internal Activation
Don’t work on the inside, won’t work on the outside. Enter your best campaigns or initiatives for launching, promoting or enhancing your brand and campaigns among employees. This category includes everything from sales kick-offs to brand launches to employee engagement programs.
B2B2C Campaigns
In financial services, pharma/healthcare, and plenty of other categories, B2B has a significant “C” component. This category is for business-to-business campaigns that also encompass consumer audiences.
Agency Self-Promotion
In a massively competitive market, the great agencies aren’t sitting still. This category is for the promotional and thought leadership campaigns that are setting the B2B marketing agenda. Big idea campaigns that are moving the industry forward? Apply here!
Best Concept Killed By Client
Enter the best creative ideas you had this year that were never saw the light of day. The client may have been clueless, but our judges sure aren’t.
The “Clausen” Best in Show Award
You can’t enter this one. From among all the amazingly great work, our jury will select the amazing-est! Our best in show award is named for Ned Clausen, long-time Executive Director of BMA NYC who helped make the ACE Awards the preeminent creative awards in all of B2B.
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