There’s just two weeks left until the first phase of the 2021 Agency of the Year awards program ends. Strategy is reminding media agencies to submit the cases they intend to enter in advance of the June 18 deadline.

As previously announced, last year’s criteria amendments (such as media agencies not submitting video case studies) were removed this year.

Media agencies will need to fill out this form before the deadline in order to state their intent to enter the program.

In it, they will submit (1) the name of the client, (2) the name of the campaign, and (3) the dates when the campaign was in market, for the three cases they plan to submit in June/July. Media shops are allowed to enter other categories (such as Agency or Digital), as long as the campaigns meet the criteria.

As always, the work must have appeared (or will appear) in the 13-month period from June 2020 to July 2021. All of the campaigns have to be for different brands, cannot include self-promotional work and must be Canadian (if it’s a global campaign created here, it must have appeared in this market).

What also remains is our no double-dipping policy: agencies must submit unique campaigns for each competition. For example, an agency can’t enter the same work for a specific CPG brand in Media Agency of the Year and Digital AOY, even if it just includes digital-driven creative that was a part of the overall campaign also entered into Media AOY.

The entry fee ($750) is payable when the entry is uploaded and is a cost per agency for each award category, not per case.

Once an agency’s campaigns have been vetted and approved by the editorial team, they will be invited to submit their full written case studies and visual assets for our expert judges to review.

The submission period will take place between June 28 and July 19.

Following this phase, the cases in each category will be judged by senior Canadian media agency executives and marketers to determine a shortlist of agencies, which will be announced later in the summer. The Gold, Silver and Bronze winners for each competition will be revealed this fall, and winning portfolios will once again be published in strategy’s end-of-year magazine, continuing our long-held tradition.

To read about last year’s winners and for more extensive entry details, visit the Agency of the Year website.