American Advertising Awards

Celebrating creative excellence, this is the industry’s largest contest.

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We are accepting entries from November 10, 2025 through January 18, 2026 at 11:59 pm.

Please read the rules and follow all instructions carefully:

Submitting is easy. Just follow the prompts, upload your work, and arrange payment. When you're done, email your manifest to us.

A few tips:

Eligibility: Before submitting, double-check the rules to confirm that you and your work meet the contest's eligiblity requirements.
Categories: Be sure to select the correct category. For example, in the Professional division, a Magazine Advertising Campaign should be entered in cateogry 012C, but a Newspaper Advertising Campaign should be entered in category 013D. See the rule PDF for a full list of categories.
Digital assets: All work is submitted digitally. No hard copies are required. Some categories may request or require multiple files. Follow all instructions carefully!
Desktop vs mobile: The submissions portal may be easier to navigate on desktop (not mobile).

Our rockstar judges rate all submissions on a standard 100-point scale. To maximize impartiality, the judges are all from outside of our market, and judge's view the assets without seeing the entrant's info.

Based on the scores, the judges award:

Best of Show (for the top creative of the night!)
Gold ADDYs (to the top ~10% of entrants)
Silver ADDYs (to the next ~12% of entrants)
Judge's Choice (1 from each judge)

From the entire entry pool, the judges also select a winner of the Mosaic Addy, given to the submission in any category that best exemplifies a spirit of diversity and inclusion. Learn more about the Mosaic Addy.

This special local judge's choice award honors work that best exemplifies a spirit of diversity and inclusion. If you're already entering the show, there's no extra application necessary: All work submitted in ANY category automatically competes for the Mosaic addy, too. So if you have work that demonstrates an understanding of and sensitivity to the needs of a diverse audience, submit to the American Advertising Awards today.

Congrats to the 2025 Winners

Congratulations to our 2025 ADDY winners in the Local, District, and National rounds of the American Advertising Awards:

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Local Round

Congratulations to all the winners of our 2025 Local contest, who were selected from nearly 200 fantastic submissions!

Think Media Studios, who wowed our judges with their work for The Cleveland Cavaliers.

See the full list of Local winners here.

2025 Winners Book

2024 Winners Book

2023 Winners Book

District Round

Our Local winners advanced to the 2025 District round, where several Cleveland competitors earned regional recognition:

Special Judge's Choice ADDY

Think Media Studios for “In the Paint” in the category Film, Video, & Sound, Branded Content & Entertainment - Non-Broadcast for The Cleveland Cavaliers.

Gold ADDY

Think Media Studios for “In the Paint” in the category Film, Video, & Sound, Branded Content & Entertainment - Non-Broadcast for The Cleveland Cavaliers.
Think Media Studios for “In the Paint” in the category Elements of Advertising - Innovative Use of Interactive/Technology - Creative Elements - Single for The Cleveland Cavaliers.
Marcus Thomas LLC for “DEWALT 100 Year Anniversary” in the category OOH & Ambient Media - Single Event for DEWALT | Stanley Black & Decker.
Ninety6 for “Hot Ones with Dr. Rick” in the category Film, Video, & Sound - Branded Content & Entertainment Campaign for Progressive Insurance.

Silver ADDY

Falls & Co. for “Book Donation Campaign” in the category Public Service - Ambient Media - Campaign for Kid’s Book Bank.
Falls & Co. for “Book Donation Cat” in the category Public Service - Ambient Media - Single Occurence for Kid’s Book Bank.
Little Jacket for “Let’s Break Video” in the category Elements of Advertising - Cinematography - Single for BurkleHagen.
Marcus Thomas LLC for “78 Quality Points And Counting” in the category Cross Platform - Integrated Advertising Campaign - B-to-B Campaign - Regional/National for KraftMaid.
Marcus Thomas LLC for “Holidaze Campaign” in the category Cross Platform - Integrated Advertising Campaign - Consumer Campaign - Regional/National for The Ohio Lottery Commission.
Opal for “Uphold” in the category Sales & Marketing - Book Design for Arhaus.

National Round

Winners of the District round advanced to the National round, where two Cleveland agencies were honored among the very best of the best in the nation:

Ninety6

Congratulations to Ninety6 for winning a National Gold ADDY for “Hot Ones with Dr. Rick” in the category Branded Content & Entertainment for Progressive Insurance.

Check out Ninety6’s winning work here.

Marcus Thomas LLC

Congratulations to Marcus Thomas LLC for winning a National Gold ADDY for “78 Quality Points and Counting” in the category Integrated Advertising Campaign - Regional/National B-to-B for Kraftmaid.

Also, congratulations for winning a National Silver ADDY for “DEWALT 100 Year Anniversary” in the category Event for DEWALT | Stanley Black & Decker.

Check out both of Marcus Thomas LLC’s winning entries here.

See the full list of National winners here.

Photos by Rustin McCann