Your Work Deserves the Spotlight: Enter the 2025-26 American Advertising Awards
- John McCarthy
- 6 days ago
- 4 min read
Prefer to watch instead of read? We've created a 5-minute video that covers everything you need to know about entering the Addys. Or continue reading below for all the details you can reference later.
That campaign you stayed late perfecting. The concept that finally clicked after weeks of iteration. The design that made your client's jaw drop. Right now, it's living quietly in your portfolio—but what if it could do so much more?
The American Advertising Awards—the Addys—represent your opportunity to showcase the Inland Empire's creative excellence on a stage that extends far beyond our region. This isn't just another competition. It's the creative industry's most comprehensive recognition program, and it's designed with one purpose: celebrating the artistry and innovation of what we do.
A Clear Path from Local Recognition to National Acclaim
The Addys follow a three-tier structure that begins right here at home. You'll compete first at the local level against the Inland Empire's finest creative work. Gold winners automatically advance to the District competition, where you'll face off against the best from Southern California and Southern Nevada. Succeed there, and you're competing on the national stage.
Here's something many creatives don't realize: even a local Silver award can advance to District judging. Why does this matter? Because each level features entirely different judges with fresh perspectives. Local silver winners regularly earn gold at District or National levels. Different judges see different strengths, creating new opportunities at every tier.
What Truly Matters: Pure Creative Merit
The most liberating aspect of the Addys is its singular focus on creative excellence. Judges evaluate three elements: your concept, your execution, and your originality. That's the complete criteria.
They're not reviewing your client's revenue growth. Marketing metrics don't factor into scoring. Campaign ROI isn't part of the equation. This competition exists to honor the craft itself—the work that stops people mid-scroll, the ideas that shift perspectives, the execution that reminds us why we chose creative careers.
Our Awards Chair, Mark Landon, shares a telling example. One of his clients runs advertisements that are deliberately cluttered and chaotic—because they work exceptionally well for that business. Customers respond, sales flourish, and the strategy succeeds commercially. But those ads wouldn't win an Addy, because this competition celebrates creative distinction, not just marketplace effectiveness.
More Than 200 Categories for Every Type of Creative Work
The breadth of the Addys is genuinely remarkable. With over 200 categories spanning both professional and student divisions, there's recognition for virtually every creative discipline and medium you work in.
Product packaging, restaurant menus, annual reports, social media campaigns, logo design, photography, copywriting, website development, application interfaces, video production, and brand identity systems—all of these have dedicated categories. Whether you're an established agency creative director or a student building your first portfolio, your work has a place in this competition.
The Single Non-Negotiable Rule
While the competition has various technical requirements around file formats and submission specifications, one rule stands above all others: complete anonymity in judging.
No names appear on entries. No agency logos. No watermarks or identifying elements of any kind. Judges evaluate work without knowing its creator, ensuring that every piece succeeds or fails purely on creative merit. The playing field is perfectly level, which is exactly how recognition should work.
Strategic Entry Approaches
Consider this scenario: you've created an integrated brand campaign for a local business. That complete campaign represents one entry. But you can also extract the strongest individual components and enter them separately—the print advertisement, the social media content, the video piece.
Take it further. Enter the individual creative elements that made the campaign successful. That distinctive logo you designed? Enter it in typography and logo design. Those compelling photographs? Submit them in the photography categories. The copy that actually made people read to the end? That belongs in copywriting.
One exceptional project can generate multiple entry opportunities, each evaluated on its own merits within its specific category.
Important Dates and Investment
Your submitted work must have been published or deployed sometime during 2025. The entry deadline is January 23, 2026, with a final late deadline of January 30, 2026. Winners will be announced on February 16, 2026, with the Awards Gala taking place in March 2026.
Entry Investment:
AAF Inland Empire members receive preferred pricing—$110 for individual entries and $125 for campaign entries. Non-members pay $130 and $145, respectively, a $20 difference per entry, making membership valuable even for just a few submissions. Student entries are significantly reduced to $50 for individual work and $60 for campaigns.
For AAF-IE member discount codes, contact Mark Landon at Mark@ShowFrontEnd.com.
Timeline at a Glance:
January 23, 2026: Entry deadline
January 30, 2026: Late entry deadline
February 6-12, 2026: Judging period
February 16, 2026: Winners announced
March 2026: Awards Gala (details forthcoming)
Questions About Categories or Entry Strategy?
Navigating 200+ categories and determining the optimal entry strategy for your work requires expertise. Mark Landon, our Awards Chair, provides guidance specifically for this purpose. Whether you're uncertain about category selection or have unique work that doesn't fit obvious classifications, reach out directly.
Mark Landon, Awards Chair(909) 986-7502Mark@ShowFrontEnd.com
Why This Matters for the Inland Empire
When people discuss advertising's creative centers, the conversation typically turns to New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, and perhaps Austin. But exceptional creative work happens right here in the Inland Empire—you know this because you're creating it.
The American Advertising Awards give you the platform to demonstrate that world-class creative thinking isn't geographically limited. This is your opportunity to contribute to the creative narrative of our region, to show that boundary-pushing ideas and flawless execution happen in eastern Los Angeles County, San Bernardino County, and western Riverside County.
Ready to Enter?
Your work deserves recognition beyond client approval and portfolio placement. It deserves to compete, to be evaluated alongside the best creative work in our region and beyond, and to represent what's possible when talented creatives are given the opportunity to shine.
Don't let another year pass with your best work sitting quietly in your portfolio. The Inland Empire's creative community is waiting to see what you've created.
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