Celebrating 28-Years of Creative Excellence

Small and medium-sized agencies worldwide produce a great deal of outstanding advertising, yet creative competitions are dominated by large advertising agencies, large clients, and large budgets.

Since 1994, the Summit Creative Award has recognized creative firms and helped them stand out in the crowd. This international advertising competition offers participants a unique opportunity to showcase their talents alongside similarly positioned agencies and to have their work judged by experts in the advertising field. Our exclusive award selection process means winners have earned the right to broadcast their achievements far and wide.

Companies and individuals from more than 50 countries and across five continents have participated in this prestigious 28-year competition – the first and best of its kind.

Our organization, whose aim is to laud the creative work of less-than-huge agencies makes competition affordable and accessible. We offer streamlined internet submissions, many ways to tout winner’s achievements, and a friendly, knowledgeable customer service staff. Award certificates and internet medallions are free to winners, and elegant custom trophies are optionally available.

Summit Awards offers:	Who Should Enter:
International recognition Prestigious 28-year reputation Reputable blind judging Affordable entry Signature, custom trophies No required "acceptance fee" for winners Friendly, knowledgeable customer support Winner-controlled microsites	Advertising, Digital, and PR agencies In-house marketing/creative departments Interactive firms Video producers Website design companies Creative boutiques Graphic designers Freelancers

Go to Entry Platform

Eligibility

The Summit Creative Award is exclusively for companies, boutiques, and individuals with annual billings below $30 million (see Guidelines for more information).

Organization	Maximum Size (in millions)
Advertising Agency, Interactive Agency, Public Relations Firm, Media/Publishing company	$30 Billings
Advertiser in-house marketing department	$30 Marketing budget
Video/audio production, web developers, animators, media company	$25 Billings
Graphic design firm, Video/Film production, Display/Package design company	$20 Billings
Not-for-profit organization, Creative boutiques, Commercial art/photography	$15 Revenue

Submitter must have produced entries within the last two calendar years until the final deadline (all of 2020, 2021, up through the final 2022 deadline.)
Entries may not have been previously entered in the SCA competition unless 51% of the work is revised.
All entries must be submitted for judging exactly as published, aired or implemented and may not be modified for awards.
The Summit Awards may request proof of initial production, publication and/or air date.
The Summit Awards reserves final determination on eligibility.

Judging scope

Each category employs slightly different judging criteria. Broadly, the following are the SCA judging criteria:

The strength of Concept/Ideation/Big Idea (originality and uniqueness of approach; message targeting, and honing; the synergy between concept, copy, and layout/execution) 1-20 pts.

Quality of execution (How well executed is the idea (visual appeal, the tone of voice, chosen media, placement, etc.) 1-10 pts.

Ability to communicate and persuade (How well did the creative move the target audience closer to the action or encourage a change in thoughts) 1-10 pts.

Judges' power points (used at the judges' discretion to boost submissions they identify as exemplary) 0-10 pts.

Benefits

Association with the prestige of the Summit Awards competition is press-worthy and garners media and social exposure.

The Summit Awards is committed to helping winners make the most of their success. Winners are publicized through various platforms, social networks, and at the award’s website: www.summitawards.com.

The Summit Awards is the only awards organization to offer winner microsite profiles. The microsites are free, fully customizable company profiles hosted on our highly trafficked website driving traffic to winners’ sites. Past winners have had thousands of visitors explore their microsite profiles, increasing their website’s prominence and visibility on the internet.

These microsite profiles offer an easy-to-use, built-in WYSIWYG editor, space to upload images of winning entries, and links to winners' portfolios. The meta tag spider locates winners' sites meta tags which significantly increase web rankings. Companies who search out winners' accomplishments visit these profiles while deciding where to invest their advertising dollars.

Winners

Winning entries receive the coveted Best of Show, Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Finalist awards. Our signature custom trophies are a symbol of creative excellence and demonstrate that your firm has achieved the pinnacle of advertising and marketing communication success.

Judges select Best of Show from among Gold-winning entries. To ensure the Summit Award and the winner’s integrity, the competition’s bylaws limit the number of winning entries.

Industry Assistance

The Summit Awards is the only awards organization that gives back to the industry by offering need-based assistance to qualified entrants and discounted fee structures for students. Summit Awards is committed to helping reduce barriers for freelancers who need financial assistance. Please email sia@summitawards.com for details.

On behalf of our highly talented team, I am both honored and humbled at this recognition of our creative excellence and commitment to high standards. Having achieved Bronze Awards in a competition inclusive of 27 countries is a very high point of this year’s achievements.
Denise Rainey | President & CEO
Rainmakers Strategic Solutions LLC.
I'm so proud of my team. I know the work they do is exceptional, and seeing it put against other agency work, run through the gauntlet, and still come out with a win speaks volumes.
Andrew Oleson | Owner
PDG + creative
We are honored to be recognized by the Summit Creative Awards. Winning an award such as this shows our team’s dedication to creating the highest quality content in the industry.
John Trest | Chief Learning Officer
Inspired eLearning
Winning a Summit Creative Award is an exciting accomplishment with vetted judges, tough criteria, and the blind judging processes. We are ecstatic to have been chosen for this prestigious international award.
Debi Burrows | Head Storyteller and Strategist
Penguin Suits
We’re honored to receive a Silver Summit Award and elated that our work is being celebrated by our clients and the industry.
Stephanie Crockett | Senior Vice President
Eric Mower + Associates
We are honored to accept this award, as it is a culmination of all of our hard work as a team. Go, team!
Nicole Hanusek | Owner
Smack Happy Design
This was our first time winning a Summit Creative Award. We’re extremely honored to be awarded, for the competition in this awards program runs deep.
Vintage Foster | President
AMF Media Group