About

The Drum Agency Business Awards (formerly The Drum Network Awards) aims to celebrate the very best run agencies.

Why is this important? Because clients want to know the businesses they depend on for advice, are well managed in their own right.  Not only that but this event give you the chance to give your key back office team - who perhaps don’t normally feature in awards - the recognition they deserve. And of course winning an award for being a well run business is a strong statement about what a great place to work you are - an ideal way of positioning yourself to attract the best talent.

It will also allows The Drum - one of the world’s largest marketing platforms - to help keep its readers up to date with best practice, the best companies and the best people, helping them identify the best partners. In other words, if you win, we will tell the world about it.

Agencies are amongst the best run businesses in industry. So let us celebrate that fact and remind the world that your expertise includes running great businesses as well as great marketing campaigns. 

Motivation

Picking up an award proves that all the hard work was worth it. It gives your team the energy to keep pushing boundaries and raising standards.

Client relationships

It's good to remind your clients why they work with you from time to time. Having the work you've done for them recognised by the industry is powerful stuff. Even more so if you bring them along to the awards night to pick up the trophy with you.

Recruitment

If you pick up awards, it also picks up the interest of new talent. You can expect smart people to be knocking at your door to see if you have a desk for them.

New business

Good clients who are after good work keep an eye out for the good businesses who are winning awards. A few extra trophies can give you a real advantage when you're hunting for new business.

PR

There's no better way of getting publicity than for being excellent. The Drum will cover all of the shortlisted work on thedrum.com. With over 1 million unique visitors and over 200,000 social followers, that’s no small deal. And we recommend that you use an award win for further PR opportunities too (but we don't need to tell the PR industry that!). If you achieve something this special, you really should make a noise about it.​

Knees up

Then, of course, there's the awards show. And our awards shows are legendary. They're a great opportunity to reward your staff, pamper your clients and let your hair down.

Standard - First entry - £195 + VAT 

Standard - Additional entries - £95 + VAT
 

• You may enter as many categories as you like, however each entry must be treated as a separate entry and payment made for each.
   
• In order to get the discounted rate for any additional entries, please ensure you enter them all at once.
   
• If you are a member of The Drum Network, you will receive 10% off your entries, and if you are a charity you will receive 40% off your entries.
   
• If you are a Drum Network Member, please see The Drum Network subpage to find out how to claim your 2 free entries.
   
• If you aren't a Drum Network member but would like to join.  Please contact memberships@thedrum.com

Your Agency Business entry must adhere to the rules below:

• Entries must be received no later than the published deadline date. 
   
• All submissions must be made online. 
   
• Entries must have been live to market at some point between September 2018 and September 2019. Entries do not have to be created within this timescale.
   
• Do not include password protection or if essential, include passwords for judges to access.
   
• All entries must be supplied and conform to the category rules/submission formats.
   
• Work entered into more than one category must be treated as a completely separate entry.  Multiple entries can be made but separate payment must be made for each.  Please note: you will ONLY receive the 2nd entry rate if you enter all your submissions at the same time. Leave your entries in your basket until you are sure they are complete. Refunds will not be given.
   
• The judging panel will only read and use the entries/reports for the purposes of the judging and are required to sign NDAs.
   
• The judges reserve the right to re-allocate entries that in their view are entered in an incorrect category. The judges also reserve the right to remove categories where entries do not meet the standard for nomination. These entries will not be refunded as they will have been judged accordingly.
   
• The judges’ decision is final. 
   
• Due to the number of entries received, the awards cannot give feedback on individual entries.
   
• The organisers reserve the right to verify that all entries have been commercially produced for a commercial client where relevant.
   
• All entries submitted must be legal. Any entries containing offensive material will be disqualified. Any entry that has a complaint upheld against it by the Advertising Standards Authority will be disqualified.

There are four groups of categories in 2019 and certain categories require specific entry templates, there are multiple opportunities across all groups and you can enter as many as you wish.

Your entry template is your entry report, once completed you must convert to PDF and upload under the Entry Report section at the time of submitting.

• Agency Business Awards - Overall Agency of the Year Categories Entry Template: Download
  - Agency of the Year
  - Experiential Agency of the Year
  - PR Agency of the Year
  - Digital Agency of the Year
  - Creative agency of the Year
  - Social Media agency of the Year
  - B2B Agency of the Year
  - Advertising Agency of the Year
  - Start-up Agency of the Year
  - Marketing Agency of the year 0-50 staff
  - Marketing Agency of the year 50 - 150 staff
  - Marketing Agency of the year 150 – 300 staff
  - Marketing Agency of the year 300 + staff
   
• Agency Business Awards - Talent and Culture Categories Entry Template: Download
  - Agency Wellbeing
  - Learning and Development
  - Diversity and Inclusivity
  - Agency Culture
  - Recruitment
  - Great Place to Work 2019
   
• Agency Business Awards - Business Performance Categories Entry Template: Download
  - Business transformation
  - Corporate Purpose
  - Growth and Expansion
  - Business Development
  - In-house promotion
  - Client Services
  - Creativity and Innovation
  - Strategy and Planning
  - Commercial transformation
   
• Agency Business Awards - The Work Categories Entry Template: Download
  - Best use of Technology
  ​- Best use of Data
  - Best Digital Campaign
  - Most Effective campaign
  - Most Creative campaign
  - Best live experience

Drum Network Members

If and only if you are Drum Network members, as part of your  package, you are entitled to two free entries.  To claim these free entries: 

1. Log in to the website and create your entries.
2. Contact us to let us know which entries you'd like for free.
3. We will make your entries skip the payment section and go forward for judging. 
4. You can enter more than just your 2 free entries. Once we have put your free entries forward for judging, add your extra entries and then go through the payment process.
 

Please Note: the discounted 2nd entry price of £95 will only apply when you pay for all of your entries at the same time so leave your entries in your basket until you are ready to submit.