Event Date 04.18.2025
Early Deadline is Friday, April 18!
Submit your best strategic work to the 2025 Jay Chiat Awards.
The Jay Chiat Awards recognize strategic excellence in marketing, media and advertising around the world. If your team developed and executed an extraordinary strategy in 2024 that delivered results, we want to hear about it! Share your shining strategic work with us to be considered for one of the most coveted awards in the industry.
Explore the categories and submit your entry/entries by the early deadline to save.
Winners will be announced on October 6 in NYC.
Timeline and Pricing
Early Deadline: Friday, April 18
4As Members: $500; Non-Members $600
Regular Deadline: Friday, May 16
4As Members: $750; Non-Members $850
Final Deadline: Friday, June 13
4As Members: $1,000; Non-Members $1,100
Strategist Nomination Deadline: Friday, June 27, 2025, 11:59 PM ET | FREE/Included with case study submission (Option to nominate only open to agencies that submit a case study.)
Categories
The 2025 Jay Chiat Awards recognize strategic excellence across 12 categories.
Emerging Trend – AI Strategy
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
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
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.
Local 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. (NOTE: Any campaigns that spanned several countries should not be submitted for this category. Consider submitting in the National/Multinational category. The 4As reserves the right to recategorize all case study submissions.)
National/Multinational Strategy
Recognizes marketing efforts that spanned an entire country or several countries for which they were designed.
Nonprofit/Social Cause Strategy
Recognizes work done in support of a social cause or not-for-profit company.
Product/Service Launch Strategy
Recognizes new product ideas, service offerings and launches, showcasing strategic acumen in identifying opportunities and delivering compelling solutions, including disruptive product innovations or transformative service offerings.
Public Relations Strategy
Recognizes work that earned media, attention, and influence to shape perceptions of a brand, company, or issue.
Nominate a Strategist
Celebrating the minds behind the magic!
Agencies that have submitted an entry to the 2025 Jay Chiat Awards are eligible to nominate an Emerging Strategist and Visionary Strategist | Deadline: Friday, June 27, 2025, 11:59 PM ET
Once you complete your JCA submission, you will be able to access the nomination forms. Self-nominations are encouraged! Case study entrants can submit ONE strategist nomination in each category (Emerging Strategist, Visionary Strategist) with each case study submission
Shine the spotlight on the brilliant strategists behind award-worthy campaigns. The Emerging Strategist and Visionary Strategist awards recognize the innovative thinkers whose strategic vision is central to differentiation. Know an exceptional strategist? Nominate them!
Nominations only open to those who submit a case study in one of the 12 JCA award categories. Nominations close Friday, June 27, 2025.
Who can be nominated?
- The Emerging Strategist award is open to anyone currently employed at an agency who has 1-5 years of Strategy experience in the United States advertising / marketing industry.
- The Visionary Strategist award is open to anyone currently employed at an agency who has 15+ years of Strategy experience in the United States advertising / marketing industry.
- Feel free to nominate yourself!
Who can nominate?
- Anyone from an agency that has submitted to the 2025 Jay Chiat Awards.
Deadline – Nominations close Friday, June 27, 2025.
Fees – There is NO COST to nominate as long as your agency has submitted an entry to the JCAs!
Rules and Guidelines
Entry Details and Eligibility
Only submissions that were in-market* between January 1, 2024 and December 31, 2024 will be considered for the 2025 Jay Chiat Awards.
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 assets 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, and was in-market in the 2024 calendar year. New information can include updated metrics, new phases of the campaign or new market research.
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.
You can only submit the same campaign across two categories.
- 10 total submissions maximum per agency.
- The case study should be submitted as a PDF file.
- The case study cannot be longer than 25 pages/slides.
- The 4As has the right to disqualify any entry that they deem does not fit the rules.
*In-market is defined as a campaign that was actively being shown to the public in some capacity.
The Written Case Study
Your case study is expected to include:
- A title
- Part One: Executive Summary (350-500 words, Approximately 1-2 Pages/Slides)
- Provide a concise and impactful executive summary with a word count between 350 and 500 words. This should specifically explain how the strategic insight uncovered went beyond the obvious, driving a meaningful marketing opportunity and/or creating an advantage for the brand.
- Focus on the key strategic insights and their direct impact.
- Papers that do not include this will be disqualified.
- Part Two: Compelling Narrative (1,500-3,000 words, Approximately 5-15 Pages/Slides)
- Craft a compelling case narrative with a word count between 1,500 and 3,000 words.
- The narrative, combined with the executive summary and visual materials, should not exceed 25 pages/slides.
- A clear understanding of the background, context and business challenge.
- A great “aha” moment: 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, provoke, or challenge thinking that led to the creative execution?
- Demonstration of the effectiveness and impact of the ideas resulting from this strategy
- Part Three: 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.). We do not allow summary case study videos. Any submission containing this type of video will be disqualified.
- Note: Regarding the publication of winning and shortlisted papers, our submission form asks you to confirm that your case study is either acceptable to publish, needs editing before publication or cannot be published. We confirm this again after the judging process has concluded.
Content of Submission
Your submission should include:
- A written case study (in two parts, as outlined above)
- Creative supplementary materials (as outlined above):
- You can submit up to five pieces of supporting creative examples.
- For interactive, you can submit a linked or embedded image in the PDF file or you can submit a video separately as one of the creative supplementary materials. Always be sure to check that the link in the case study works.
- Files cannot be larger than 200MB.
- 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.
Important Considerations
- The Jay Chiat Awards share some elements with other major industry awards, but it’s critically important that you focus this submission on the clarity of the strategic idea, and that it is not eclipsed by the creative work. We want to be able to see clearly 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 and 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 insight development to accessing new tools to the briefing process. We continually diversify the JCA categories in an effort to acknowledge this.
- In most agencies, Planning is often a team sport. In your case study, 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 or page/slide count will be eliminated in the first round.
Terms and Conditions
The person submitting the entry form(s) certifies that he or she has full authority to approve the rights granted contained in these Terms and Conditions. The 4As holds no responsibility if an entrant falsely represents the authority to approve rights.
In order for an entry to be judged and considered for an award, entrant must agree to Terms and Conditions. Later refutation of the Terms and Conditions is not allowed and any award will be forfeited.
If we receive case studies for the same piece of work from different entrants (e.g. if a one agency enters a piece of work that has already been submitted by another agency), the entry submitted by the subsequent entrants (i.e. the entrant that submitted the entry later) will be cancelled.
Entrants grant permission to the 4As to show entries in supplementary presentations at the 4As StratFest 2025, and as often as the 4As deems necessary. Entrants also agree to hold the 4As harmless of any claim that may be made against it for any reason in any presentation.
Publishing Rights
To All Entrants:
The judges have to agree to a non-disclosure agreement before reviewing and judging entries.
A goal of the Jay Chiat Awards is to share the learning. Winning case studies will be published on the 4As website and WARC.
If you are a shortlisted winner, there are two publication options:
- You give the 4As and WARC permission to publish the entry paper as entered.
- You provide a revised paper and/or case study video removing proprietary or sensitive material.
The 4As plans to publish the award-winning case studies, and possibly include selected creative, in the “Winners” section of the Jay Chiat Awards section of the website.
WARC is partnering with the 4As to publish shortlisted entries papers. Please know that the 4As does not provide any creative supplementary material to WARC, only the shortlisted case studies themselves.
