Indie Agency News Top 40

Thank you, AvidXchange

A huge thanks to AvidXchange for supporting our first Indie Agency News Top 40.

Streamline media payments with AvidXchange. Automate workflows and optimize your agency’s finances.

To set up some time to learn more about AvidXchange—and how your agency can get more efficient with your finances, including AP—hit us up here and we’ll get you in touch.

No Categories, Just Great Indie Work

Counting down the top 40 pieces of work from indie agencies and companies worldwide

It’s one of the easiest entry processes in creativity, and unlike other shows, there are no categories.

You’ve already done a ton of work on awards entries this year, so we’re making this one easy on you.

Copy, paste, done.

Three to six fields to fill out

  • Description: A brief description of the work and creative idea
  • The Brief: What was the brief? What were the challenges and objectives?
  • Solution + Results: How did you solve the brief? What were some of the results?
  • Context (optional): Are there any specific cultural/regional/local references for judges to understand?
  • AI Usage (optional): Did you use AI in any part of this work? If so, what was it?
  • Where This Was Entered (optional): Which other shows did you enter this work and in which category/categories?

You can use any medium you’d like. This includes, but is not limited to, case study films, video, audio, PDFs, URLs anything you’ve already created that helps the jury get the vibe of the work.

Counting 'em down

Starting Monday, October 14th, we’ll invite agencies to join us on a livestream to reveal winners.

  • October 14th: Places 40-31
  • October 15th: Places 30-21
  • October 16th: Places 20-10
  • October 17th: Places 10-4

Then, the week of October 21st, we’ll visit the markets of the top three winners. We’ll invite all indies in the market to join us as we reveal the winners live!

Is a Chicago shop taking bronze? We’ll see you there. Could a Denver indie take silver? We’ll see you there. Might a New York agency win gold? See you there!

You don’t have to spend a bunch of money to come to us—we’ll come to you!

  • Bronze: Monday, October 21st
  • Silver: Tuesday, October 22nd
  • Gold: Thursday, October 23rd

(Dates are subject to change based on the geographical location of winners.)

Why enter the Indie Agency News Top 40?​

  • Be part of the only global creativity program for all independent agencies and companies
  • Raise your visibility in the indie community and with brands—we’re big on sharing with marketers and CMOs
  • Share your achievement and creative excellence—all entries make either the top 40 or receive an award of merit, and everyone receives assets to use to promote/market their work
  • Upon request, anyone can receive feedback on their entries and work to help future awards entries in other shows

Meet the Jury Co-Presidents

Our first-ever jury co-presidents are Leslie Sims, CMO/CCO at Impossible Foods and PJ Pereira, Pereira O’Dell Creative Chairman and CCO at Serviceplan Americas!

These two highly accomplished (and awarded) leaders set the tone for our jury, which we’re building. If you’re interested in judging the Indie Agency News Top 40, please go here or fill out the form below. 

Call for Entries Opens: June 26, 2024

  • Early Entry Deadline: July 31, 2024
  • Main Deadline: September 1, 2024
  • Final Deadline: September 16, 2024 Extended to September 18, 2024

Top 40 Finalists Revealed: September 30, 2024

Submissions are accepted ONLY for work produced by an independent agency and presented to the public in the 2023 and 2024 calendar years.

This also means that you may enter NEW work that launches in the eligibility window. Have something dropping on September 1st? Go for it. We’d love to see it!

A few other things:

  • Entries may be paid or unpaid/earned. Please note it in the entry.
  • Entries may be from Indie Agency News members and non-members.
  • An agency may enter up to 6 times.
  • All entries are subject to eligibility review and approval. Entries knowingly submitted that don’t meet requirements are not eligible for a refund.

All winners (including merit) receive social/visual assets to use at no extra cost.

  • $149 per entry through July 31, 2024
  • $179 per entry from August 1, 2024 to August 31, 2024
  • $209 per entry from September 1, 2024 to September 16, 2024

Indie Agency News members receive a 25% entry discount. Please get in touch with us for your code.

Again, you can use any medium you’d like. This includes, but is not limited to, case study films, video, audio, PDFs, URLs anything you’ve already created that helps the jury get the vibe of the work.

We will have several options for you to share your work. Please note the specs below.

Video

  • Formats: MP4, MOV
  • Max size: 1GB
  • Max length: Case films: 2-3 minutes
  • Please provide passwords for any protected sites

Documents

  • Format: PDF
  • Max size: 4MB

Audio

  • Format: MP3, WAV or AIFF
  • Bitrate: 320 kbps
  • Sample rate: 48 kHz
  • Max size: 5MB per file

Images

  • Format: JPG, PNG, GIF
  • Resolution: 72dpi
  • Max size: 10MB per image

Links

  • URLs should link to commercials, websites, microsites, demos, mobile apps, games, etc.
  • Links must be live during the judging process, ending September 24, 2024.

We have some sponsorships available. Please get in touch to learn more.