Upon submission, each entry is assessed by the Symbol Creative Awards team to ensure it meets the eligibility criteria. If an entry is approved, it proceeds to the evaluation phase. 

Rejected entries receive relevant feedback from the Symbol Creative Awards team, including on the necessary changes that need to be made for re-submission. Note that last-minute entries that get rejected are not eligible for resubmission. 

Entries in jury-evaluated categories submitted up to a month before the submission deadline receive personalized detailed feedback from the Symbol Creative Awards team regardless of whether resubmission is required.

To give your entries the best chance of winning a Symbol Creative award, we recommend that you:

Every year we invite industry experts and professionals to sit on our jury panel — including creative directors, heads of creative, advertising and marketing agencies, influential designers, trendsetters, and thought leaders, each boasting an in-depth understanding of their respective field.

Each entry is evaluated by a panel of several judges, within a set of categories assigned according to every jury member’s field of expertise. The process ensures that any affiliations of a judge with any of the competing entries are taken into consideration, and respectively no judges are assigned categories where such entries are present.

The Symbol Creative Awards jury evaluates all approved entries in a category on their own merit, based on a set of criteria, a system that ensures that the entries do not compete against one another. The final score of an entry is the total average score from the ratings given by each jury member evaluating the entry.

All entries are evaluated with the application of score normalization, courtesy of our awards management software Evalato. This method includes a mathematical formula that ensures that every entry is scored based on the same set of standards, regardless of how many judges are evaluating the program submissions. Essentially, it helps reduce variation in judging by standardizing each judge’s scores, making Symbol Creative Awards as objective as possible.

Symbol’s People’s Choice Awards will give public voters the opportunity to vote for 1 entry in each of the People’s Choice Awards categories. People’s Choice Awards are free to enter for those with at least 1 entry in any jury-evaluated category.

Once the winners are announced, the results are made public, along with any jury feedback, so the entries can showcase the best practices, strategies, and top innovations in creative communication, marketing, and advertising.