The competition is designed for students and junior creatives across the UK, predominantly in the marketing and creative industries, but all backgrounds are welcome.

The competition is free to enter!

Official deadline: Thursday 17 November, 2022 (midnight GMT).

We announce the shortlisted nominees via this website, articles posted on the thedrum.com and across The Drum’s social channels (LinkedIn and Twitter).

The winner will later be revealed during The Drum Social Purpose Awards 2022 which will take place at The Drum Labs in Shoreditch, London and be live streamed globally online. You will also receive an email notifying you of the results.

Winner announced at our awards ceremony: Thursday 8 December

This competition has been designed to celebrate emerging creative talent.

You can find the full details in The Brief

You’ll gain several benefits by entering the competition, including the chance to:

1. Showcase creativity
An opportunity to flex your creative muscles and showcase your talent by designing a real-life campaign for a purpose-led brand

2. Gain free PR exposure
Free promotion for you/your work through editorial, social and video opportunities on The Drum and across partner organizations

3. Learn from the best
Knowledge sharing and learning with industry experts from Canon, The Strategic Mailing Partnership, JICMAIL, Nutshell Creative, Join the Dots, Latcham, Marketreach, AutLay

4. Build your network
A chance to build your professional network and make contacts with key players in the marketing, print and mailing industries

5. Career-ready skills
Learn about and implement the latest data technologies and media capabilities, while developing a wide range of skills

6. Industry collaboration
An opportunity to remain as a key stakeholder in the implementation process, once the winning entry is chosen

The competition is open to all young emerging talent in the industry – whether you’re currently studying or already in the workplace.

You do not need to come from a marketing background, although some knowledge of this discipline will likely help you when answering the brief.

All entries submitted must be legal. Any entries containing offensive material will be disqualified.

The judges reserve the right to remove entries where they do not meet the standard for nomination. These entries will have been judged accordingly. The Drum is not legally obliged to provide explanations behind the nomination and judging process.

To find out exactly how to enter, you can follow this handy guide.

Yes, if you save your entry as you go then you will be able to edit them up until the official entry deadline, via your entry dashboard. Follow these steps to edit your entry. 

If you need to make any edits, please do so before the official entry deadline on Thursday 17 November.

To edit your entry, log on to your 'Dashboard' > 'Awards' > 'Nominations' and edit.

All entries will be reviewed by a judging panel of industry experts, including a representative from YMCA. The winning entry will have the opportunity for further collaboration with Canon and YMCA, but please note, this is not guaranteed.

In the event that your entry is nominated, we will use the images and or additional supporting documents that you have supplied during the awards show. We will also use the winning entry images on editorial articles after the show, related social posts, and potentially a documentary produced by The Drum and Canon.

Our team is available to support you if you have any questions, or technical issues with the form.

For questions regarding the awards or your entry, please contact kirsten.dear@thedrum.com 
For technical issues, please contact christine.white@thedrum.com and we will get back to you as soon as possible.

Entries will be judged objectively on their own merit. It’s a fair playing field regardless of what background the entrant comes from.

The jury will be looking for evidence of:

• Clear strategic, data-driven thinking combined with creativity and innovation
• Alignment to the brand’s core purpose and guidelines
• Planning for multiple touchpoints - You will need to show the customer journey throughout your marketing campaign explaining what those channels and touchpoints are, and why they’re important. Your entry must include at least 1 element of letterbox printed media
• At least 2-3 variations of personalisation in your creative to reflect dynamic messaging based on how you plan to segment different audiences and target them
• Consideration of the environmental impact of your campaign execution

Unfortunately not. The jury panel for this competition has been pre-selected from a group of specialists in the industry.

Details of this jury can be found here.

Please note that we cannot guarantee judges feedback on individual entries, however, if you would like a better understanding on the process, get in touch with kirsten.dear@thedrum.com

Entrants for this competition may get access to a series of mentorship opportunities - more details to be confirmed.