About the awards
The awards are open to everyone, everywhere. The Drum Awards is a global competition for advertisers and their agencies, partners and suppliers. If you’ve worked on a campaign or been involved in producing work across any of our categories, these awards are for you.
Early- bird
£476 +VAT(if applicable)
Standard
£595 +VAT(if applicable)
Extended Deadline
£714 +VAT(if applicable)
Early-bird deadline: Wednesday,18 June, 2025
Official deadline: Thursday, 4 September, 2025
Extended deadline: Thursday,18 September, 2025
We announce the nominees via our website and social channels (make sure to follow us), the winners will later be revealed during our live awards show. You will also receive an email notifying you of the results.
Nominations announced: Wednesday, 8 October - 15 October - 3.00pm BST
Wednesday, 8 October
- Agency Business
- Experiential
- Design
- PR
Friday, 10 October
- Social Purpose
- Media
- Social
Wednesday, 15 October
- Digital Experience
- Content
- B2B
- Advertising
Winners announced: November 17-20, 2025
The results will be revealed during The Drum Awards Festival week, taking place from 17-20 November. All 11 shows will be hosted at The Drum’s very own venue, The Drum Labs, Shoreditch.
The week will feature a mix of afternoon and evening shows, where we’ll walk through the nominations in each category and announce the Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners. Gold and Silver winners will receive their Drum trophies on stage.
Our festival schedule is available here. Please note, the times are subject to change. The final schedule will be confirmed following the nominations announcements but be sure to save the date now!
Entry rules
Entries must have been live at some point between the following dates: August 2024 - September 2025. Entries do not have to be created within this timescale.
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.
The judges reserve the right to re-allocate entries that in their view are entered in an incorrect sub-category. The judges also reserve the right to remove sub-categories where entries do not meet the standard for nomination.
These entries will not be refunded as they will have been judged accordingly.
Submitting your entries
To find out exactly how to enter, you can follow this handy guide.
You can pay via credit/debit/AMEX card on our website once your entries are complete.
Payments must be received by the entry deadline to qualify for judging.
Yes, you will be able to edit your entries up until the official deadline.
To edit your entries log on to your Dashboard > 'Awards' > 'Nominations' and edit.
The judging process
Entries will be evaluated by the jury with weighting across three core criteria: Planning, Execution, and Results.
The weighting of each criterion varies by sub-category, depending on the focus:
- Equal weighting: These sub-categories place a balanced emphasis on all three criteria.
- Creative-led: These focus more heavily on creative excellence, though planning and results remain important to overall success.
- Strategy-led: These prioritize the strategic direction, including effectiveness, objectives, and outcomes, while execution and results are still considered.
- Agency Business: This category is judged primarily on the strategic decisions driving agency success. Execution and results may be referenced, but they are not central to the evaluation.
Please refer to individual sub-category descriptions for detailed guidance.
After pre-judging, judges will meet to determine Gold, Silver, and Bronze winners. Their decision is final, and they may move entries to other categories if deemed appropriate.
Entries will be judged objectively, regardless of budget or scale, to ensure fairness for all projects.
After the final deadline, the judging panel will sign an NDA before they are given access to read your submission and view your images, videos, and links.
By entering these awards, you give the organizers the right to publish/exhibit screen grabs and/or submitted reports. If you wish to upload a modified/less commercially sensitive version for publishing purposes, please do so on the entry upload form under the "Entry report for publication" section.
Please note that we cannot guarantee judges' feedback on individual entries, however, if you would like a better understanding of the process, get in touch via our live chat where you can speak with a member of The Drum team.
Sure!
You can nominate yourself/colleague/client by completing this form with your details.
A member of The Drum team will be in touch if the application is successful.
Please note that completing this form does not guarantee a place on the jury. Our team will reach out should you be selected to participate.
We are committed to fostering diversity and inclusivity within our panels, and welcome applications from all backgrounds.
More information regarding the criteria can be found on the application form.
If you have any further questions regarding the awards, reach out to us on our live chat, which can be found at the bottom right-hand corner of your screen and one of our Awards Experts will be happy to help.