We want you to have the best chance of winning a Future is Female award, so we've pulled together our best advice on how to enter and succeed.
Who Should Enter?
The Future is Female Awards is open to anyone who identifies as a woman. It is an independently judged awards program recognising people and performance — and participating is optional.
You can enter yourself or nominate another candidate in the industry who you think deserves to win. Around 80% of our entries are people endorsing others, so consider who you'd love to see recognised.
If you nominate another person, please remember to leave an endorsement for them from you, a happy client, an appreciative co-worker or another professional endorser. You can enter as many other people as you wish, so if you have a large collection of deserving colleagues, enter them all!
If you are nominating yourself, we love the self-belief! But please also include an outside endorsement, as these are important for us when validating entries. We ask all entries to include this.
How Much Does it Cost to Enter?
Absolutely nothing. We have all seen many industry awards where the shortlists and winners are always drawn from the same small pool of people whose companies can afford to enter them. We believe that talent is everywhere, so we made our entries free so that there are no financial barriers to entry for all women in our industry.
Official Awards Criteria
The Advertising Future is Female Awards honour women who fulfil the following criteria:
1. Proven significant career achievements
2. The ability to effect organisational change within their own company or across the industry
3. Acted as a role model or mentor for others
Why these criteria? The Future is Female Awards believes it's important to recognise a diverse list of roles and types of people; we want to reflect the whole marketing, creative and advertising industry, from brands to tech. Some people have focused more on business goals; others on inspirational or important work for the industry. We like them all. Our motto is 'great minds think unalike,' and we love representing that in people, too.
How is it Judged?
The judges have the final say on the Advertising Week Future is Female Awards winners, as decided by a blind vote. Advertising Week is responsible for compiling all judging scores and revealing the winners. One winner will be named in each category. Decisions by judges are final.
This page is to familiarise yourself with the rules of the competition before submitting your entry.
What makes a good entry? Our judges tell us that good entries are generally shown through:
1. Provable claims. If you grew the business, explain by how much. Use specifics, not simply generalisations.
2. Show us your work. A link, document or image that showcases the work you've done is a huge aid for the judges in understanding your impact.
3. Endorsements! Whether you are submitting an entry for yourself or another candidate, please remember your professional endorsements. You can add as many as you like; don't be shy. But these endorsements are crucial because they're how we can validate your entry.
What's the Entry Period?
The Advertising Week Future is Female Awards is open until the deadline of 15 March 2024.
What's the Prize?
The Advertising Week Future is Female Awards is a community. Winning an award or being shortlisted gets you the official winner title and entry to our exclusive community, where you will be invited to judge future awards, receive VIP access to Advertising Week events and talk on our stages/podcasts wherever possible. It's not an award for one night; it's joining a community.