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Categories

There are twelve categories in this year’s awards program:

  • Emerging Trend: AI Strategy (new in 2024): Recognizes ingenious approaches that seamlessly integrate artificial intelligence into the strategic planning and/or the execution of campaigns, enabling brands to connect with audiences in transformative ways. Submissions should demonstrate exceptional use of generative AI or machine learning in shaping strategic insights and/or in optimizing the delivery of brand messaging and product engagement.

  • B2B Strategy (new in 2024): Recognizes strategic thinking that led to transformative success of business-to-business engagement, whether products, accessories, services, software or solutions.

  • Brand Pivot Strategy: Recognizes the strategic insights from brands that found extraordinary ways to support customers and the public at large, and/or repositioned a legacy brand or product in fresh, contemporary, and relevant ways in the face of disruptive change in the economy, category or product​.​

  • Connection Strategy: Recognizes strategic thinking that directly led to smart and innovative use of media that connects consumers to brands in relevant and transformative ways. 

  • Experiential Strategy: Recognizes extraordinary marketing strategy that fuels compelling brand experiences, whether physical, virtual or hybrid.

  • Gaming Strategy (new in 2024): ​Recognizes strategy to capture the receptive, engaged audiences of the gaming industry, whether for a game itself or an in-game brand or product.

  • Healthcare Strategy: Recognizes insights that informed the CX/engagement strategy of a healthcare service, product or Rx drug brand. Inclusive of big ideas and innovative use of technology or media that connects customers to brands in relevant and transformative ways. Identify whether HCP or Consumer.

  • National Strategy: Recognizes marketing efforts that spanned an entire country, either in the United States or in the country for which they were designed.

  • Nonprofit Strategy: Recognizes work done in support of a social cause or not-for-profit company.

  • Product/Service Creation Strategy: Recognizes new-product ideas, service offerings, launches and the like.

  • Public Relations Strategy: Recognizes work that earned media, attention, and influence to shape perceptions of a brand, company, or issue.

  • Regional Strategy: Recognizes thinking that influenced a marketing initiative at the local or regional level, either in the United States or in the country for which they were designed.

Prizes

Trophies will be given to Gold, Silver and Bronze winners. A Grand Prix prize will be awarded to the one entry that our executive judging panel deems to be the best of all the papers submitted across all categories. We may also award Agency of the Year or Network of the Year if warranted.

Deadlines & Fees

There are three pricing tiers:

  • Early Deadline: $500 Members, $600 Non Members (per entry) for entries completed & paid for by Friday, April 19, 2024 (11:59PM EST)

  • Regular Deadline: $750 Members, $850 Non Members (per entry) for entries completed & paid for by Friday, May 17, 2024 (11:59PM EST)

  • Final Deadline: $1,000 Members, $1,100 Non Members (per entry) for entries completed & paid for by Friday, June 14, 2024 (11:59PM EST)

Payment methods

The submission site accepts payment via American Express, MasterCard, Visa and Discover. If you are unable to pay by credit card, you can pay by company check or wire transfer provided you first contact the 4A's (awards@4as.org) to make payment arrangements well in advance of the deadline date; unpaid entries will not be reviewed and passed to the judging phase.

Winners will be announced at the 4A's Jay Chiat Awards Ceremony, on Monday, September 30, 2024, in NYC.

Entry Details

Only submissions that were in-market between January 1, 2023 and December 31, 2023 will be considered for the 2024 Jay Chiat Awards.

If you entered in 2023 and won an award, you may enter the case in another category, provided there is substantial new information, insight and creative material to make a strong case in that category.  

Likewise, if you entered in 2023 and did not win an award, you may enter a rewritten case, provided your resubmission includes new information in regards to insight, creative and/or effectiveness.

The Jay Chiat Awards case study should be submitted as a PDF file.

The entry cannot be longer than 25 pages/slides.

You can only submit the same campaign across two categories.

The Written Case Study 

Your case study is expected to include:]

A title

A written case study. Your written case has two parts (in a single file):

Part 1: A 200-word introduction that specifically explains how the strategic insight you uncovered went beyond the obvious and drove to a meaningful marketing opportunity and/or created an advantage for the brand. Papers that do not include this will be disqualified.

Part 2: A narrative with a maximum of 1,500 words (this word count does not include the 200-word summary), which includes the following:

  • A clear understanding of the background and business challenge.

  • A great story of the “aha”: What was the human truth you identified? How did that lead to a clearly defined problem and a leverageable strategic insight? How did it incite or provoke thinking that led to the creative execution?

  • Demonstration of the effectiveness and impact of the ideas resulting from this strategy

Creative Supplementary Materials. Feel free to illustrate your case study with up to 5 creative examples and embedded videos. Remember, however, that we publish winning papers*, so don’t include visuals that you don’t hold rights on or could not obtain rights for, e.g., New Yorker cartoons or undocumented information on competitors.

*Regarding the publication of winning papers, we confirm on the submission form that your case study is acceptable to publish, needs editing before publication, or cannot be published. 

Content of Submission Information 

Your submission should include:

  • A written case study (as outlined above)

  • Creative supplementary materials (as outlined above):

    • You can submit up to five pieces of supporting creative examples. Remember: we are not allowing Case Study videos to be included.

  • Accepted file formats: .doc/docx, .pdf, .mpg, .mov, .mv, .mp4, .ppt. For interactive, you can submit a linked or embedded image (.doc/docx, .pdf, .ppt) or you can submit a video. Always be sure to check that the link in the case study works.

  • Files cannot be larger than 200MB; print can be 72 DPI.

Creative elements beyond marketing communications should be included if applicable. For example, visuals featuring architecture, in-store design, uniform design, etc. that were part of the overall execution. These elements can be included in the written paper or as separate files.

Eligibility

All campaigns must be in market from January 1, 2023 until December 31, 2023.

If you entered last year and your entry won an award you may enter the case in another category provided that there is substantial new information, insight and creative to make a strong case in that category.

If you entered last year and did not win an award (i.e., Gold, Silver, Bronze or Honorable Mention), you may enter a rewritten case, provided your resubmission includes new information in regards to insight, creative and/or effectiveness.

NOTE: If you would like to enter a case in multiple categories, you may do so. HOWEVER, please adjust the written study to the particular category. Trying to write a case study that would appeal to all judges, in all categories, defuses the strategy.

Important Considerations

  • It’s critically important that the strategic contribution is clear in every paper and that it is not eclipsed by the creative work. We want to be able to clearly see what you did and how it made a difference in getting to the outcome.

  • Let’s not forget insight, often the essential ingredient of great strategies. Your case study should highlight the insight. Tell us how you uncovered it & what you did with it.

  • Planners and Strategists face multiple challenges in their work and getting to greatness is often a complicated journey. Your paper should document your internal and external challenges and tell us how you managed to overcome them.

  • We recognize that Account Planning and Strategy now encompasses a diverse range of skills; from the briefing process to data analysis. We continually diversify the JCA categories in an effort to acknowledge this.

  • In many agencies, Planning now often involves teamwork. In the case studies, we want to understand how Account Planners/Strategists led their multi-disciplinary teams and what the contributions of the team members were.

  •  The overall Grand Prix winner will be selected from the main category Gold award winners.

DO NOT

  • Names of the agency or agency individuals cannot appear in the written case study or at any time on-screen in your creative examples. You can include client/brand names--and should! Please check the naming convention of your files, too. — they cannot include your agency name. All submissions that include the agency name will be disqualified. Also be mindful that the file name doesn't include the name of any other competition. The Jay Chiat Awards are unique and require thought.

  • Any papers exceeding the proper word count and/or page/slide count will be eliminated in the first round.

QUESTIONS?

Contact awards@4as.org