© 2026 Earned First. All rights reserved.
Select the categories you wish to enter. Please note the entry guidelines.
All entries are evaluated against four criteria:
Earned first thinking & execution
Impact, outcomes & measurement
Creativity & strategy
Degree of difficulty
Recognises campaigns that build credible editorial influence through purposeful relationship-building and high-quality, high-relevance coverage.
Awards narrative craft that generated genuine audience engagement and spread organically without reliance on paid amplification.
Celebrates campaigns that established or meaningfully advanced a brand's cultural standing, consumer relevance or market salience through earned-first strategy, demonstrating evidence of shifted perception, organic reach and brand equity that outlasts the campaign itself.
Celebrates influencer programmes where advocacy was earned through trust, relevance and community credibility—not transactional amplification.
Honours communications that rapidly restored confidence and credibility during high-pressure or high-stakes moments.
Recognises campaigns shaped with, and validated by, community stakeholders whose voices and participation materially influenced outcomes.
Rewards earned campaigns that demonstrably shifted behaviour, decisions, policy or business strategy.
Recognises rigorous, transparent and credible measurement that proves how earned activity drove outcomes.
Honours breakthrough methods, tools, partnerships or models that expand what earned communications can achieve.
Celebrates intelligent, outcome-driven use of AI to enhance insight, creativity, precision or impact in earned work.
Rewards ideas, research or content that established authority, shaped agendas and earned meaningful editorial visibility.
Recognises campaigns that achieved earned impact across markets through deep cultural understanding and thoughtful localisation.
Honours multi-stakeholder collaboration that unlocked stronger earned ideas, faster problem-solving and greater impact.
Celebrates campaigns that delivered a step-change in credibility or trust for a brand, leader or organisation starting from a low, new or challenged baseline.
Recognises multi-year earned strategies that reshaped organisational reputation, trust, or strategic direction.
Honours earned work that influenced policy, regulation or geopolitical narratives with credibility and responsibility.
Rewards leadership communications that strengthened strategic credibility with employees, investors, regulators or the public through earned-first approaches.
Celebrates campaigns that overcame resource constraints through creativity, focus and strategic ingenuity.
Recognises high-stakes earned work that cannot be publicly disclosed. These entries are judged solely by the Earned First editorial team, not external jurors, and no client, campaign or organisational details are revealed in any public materials.
Organisations whose work cannot be publicly disclosed due to commercial, legal or political sensitivity, but whose earned media impact was significant and verifiable. This category exists specifically for work that would otherwise go unrecognised — do not self-exclude on grounds of sensitivity.
Honours earned work delivered in sectors where sensitivity, scrutiny and operational complexity are unusually high—such as financial services, healthcare, energy, technology supply chains, defence, or critical infrastructure—and where credible impact is significantly harder to achieve.
Organisations and agencies that have delivered communications work in sectors where sensitivity, scrutiny or operational complexity is unusually high — including financial services, healthcare, energy, technology supply chains, defence and critical infrastructure.
Celebrates an individual whose leadership has materially advanced the practice, influence and strategic value of earned communications—through vision, innovation, team development, and demonstrable impact on organisational reputation or performance.
Individual communications leaders — agency or in-house — whose leadership has materially advanced the practice, influence and strategic value of earned communications through vision, innovation, team development and demonstrable impact on organisational reputation or performance.
Maximum 3 categories per campaign. Leadership and Confidential Impact categories must be submitted as standalone entries.
Selections cannot be changed after proceeding to the entry form. Please review your choices carefully.
Additional questions will be added based on your category selection. You'll have the opportunity to provide detailed information about your work.