Categories

Categories

There are eight enterable categories this year:

  • Best TV newcomer
  • Best TV ad planning
  • Best use of sponsorship
  • Best use of content
  • Best small budget use of TV
  • Best ongoing use of TV
  • Young TV Planner of the Year
  • TV Planning Agency of the Year

As always, judges will award a Grand Prix chosen from the winning campaigns in each category and other special awards for particularly deserving papers may be presented at the ceremony.

Please note: for all entries, referenced TV activity must have taken place largely within the calendar year January to December 2023. For the 'Best ongoing use of TV' category, the period is a minimum of three consecutive calendar years, one of which must be 2023.
 

Best TV newcomer

This category is for brands who are new to TV, or that are returning after not using broadcast TV to advertise for a period of five years. For returning brands to qualify, they must have been absent from broadcast TV between January 2018 and December 2022, returning to TV in the calendar year 2023.

Please note: we will accept launch campaigns that started before the end of 2022 where most of the activity took place in 2023. If in doubt about any aspect of this category, please get in touch.
 

Best TV ad planning

If you’ve delivered a particularly brilliant TV plan that you’re proud of and that achieved great results for your client, then this may be the category for you.

Evidence shows that putting TV at the heart of your plan produces positive results. We’re looking for excellence in planning on linear TV and/or addressable and/or BVOD. Perhaps you’ve used the very best of the advanced TV tools available to drive results; or demonstrated exceptional use of insight; or innovated in a way that others can learn from. Your campaign might be integrated brilliantly with other media or may be an outstanding solus linear TV or BVOD campaign; whatever it is, it needs to be good enough to inspire envy from your fellow planners.
 

Best use of sponsorship

Our TVs are packed full of quality programmes that viewers love and feel strongly about, and so aligning your brand to an existing programme is an excellent way to deliver many brand objectives.

In this category we are looking for examples of brands who have sponsored a programme (or strand or channel) with sponsorship idents that sit around the programme.

In your entry, tell us how you knew that sponsorship was the right choice, why you opted for a TV programme sponsorship and why you selected this particular TV property. We also want to hear about any ways you amplified the association which could include product placement or licensing or promotions but with the sponsored property at the heart of the communication.
 

Best use of content

Developing your own content can be a more rewarding solution than sponsoring an existing programme. This might take the form of a commissioned ad-funded programme (AFP), an advertorial within the ad break, contextual advertising (that references the programme it appears within), short-form content, an integrated product placement or even a televised branded event.

In your entry we would particularly like to hear about how you collaborated with the TV companies to ensure you got the most out of your partnership. We would also like to see what additional amplification techniques you implemented, such as product placement, licensing, promotions, or other similar additional components.
 

Best small budget use of TV

This entry must demonstrate how you got the best out of TV on a lower budget. TV budgets are often many millions of pounds, because TV advertising continues to deliver excellent ROI at high spend before diminishing returns set in. But TV is often the best media choice when your budgets are more modest too.

This category is for 2023 campaigns which spent less than £500k (gross) total media spend on all forms of TV, from linear and VOD spots to sponsorship or product placement. This budget must reflect your TV spend for the entire campaign, not just an isolated part of a larger campaign. You must demonstrate the effectiveness of the entered campaign as isolated from any other above the line marketing activity from the same brand. Previous short-listed low budget campaigns have spent as little as £15k. The planning choices you make within a limited budget can be more critical to success; those decisions and your ingenuity will be rewarded.
 

Best ongoing use of TV

TV keeps delivering value years after campaigns have aired, so consistent TV advertising can produce exponential returns. Entrants need to tell us how they have used TV over three or more years for their advertiser; how the activity has evolved to produce the best results, how advanced TV tactics were used, how TV was integrated with other media (if used) and what learnings from each year were taken forward into the next. Entries must feature broadcast TV in every calendar year over the period featured (including January-December 2023).*

View the criteria for full details.*
 

Young TV Planner of the Year

We want to find the future industry leaders and to celebrate all the great work being done by TV planners aged 30 years and under. With TV advertising proven to deliver the majority of a brand’s marketing-generated profit, being a TV planner is a role which carries enormous responsibility for a brand’s success. TV advertising opportunities are also being transformed by technology, so this is a hugely exciting and inspiring space to work in, demanding creativity, curiosity, and collaboration in addition to the rigorous craft skills that TV planning has always required.

To enter, you just need to tell us - in 500 words - why you deserve to win this award and recruit a director from your agency to champion your cause.

View the criteria for full details.* Entrants must be 30 years or younger on December 31st, 2023. If you have entered previously but are still within the stipulated age bracket, you are eligible to enter again.
 

TV Planning Agency of the Year

This exceptional agency will have demonstrated that they are committed to innovative TV planning and to exploring and exploiting the world of opportunities that TV in all its forms now offers. Their pioneering approaches to TV planning will have achieved impressive results for their clients. From helping brands on to TV for the first time to developing sophisticated AV planning systems, from clever uses of advanced TV to creative collaborations with the TV companies, this agency has consistently got the best out of today’s TV.

To enter, you just need to tell us - in 1000 words - why your agency deserves to win this award, include a testimonial from a client, and make sure you’ve submitted an entry into at least one other category.

View the criteria for full details.*

*Please note that ‘Best ongoing use of TV’, ‘Young TV Planner of the Year’ and ‘TV Planning Agency of the Year’ have different entry criteria to the remaining categories.