Beacon Awards

On Time entry deadline: 4:00PM Thursday 23 April 2026

Late entry deadline: 4:00PM Thursday 30 April 2026

Judging period: Thursday 14 May - Thursday 25 June 2026

Awards night: Thursday 2 July

There are several updates this year, including three new categories, updated word counts, and revised scoring weightings.

These changes are designed to improve clarity and consistency for entrants and judges. 

Download our Call For Entry document for more detail.

Positive Change — campaigns designed to create positive impact for society, people or the planet.

Emerging Talent – Media Agency — professionals in their first five years of agency experience.

Emerging Talent – Media Business — rising stars on the media business side of the industry.

Campaigns must have run in New Zealand within the eligibility period (1 January 2025 – end of February 2026), with results attributable to that period.

The Beacon Awards is an agency-blind competition. Therefore, agency names should not be cited in the entry form, support or campaign material or on any other materials that will be seen by the judges.

Please note, campaigns that do not adhere to the eligibility requirements may be disqualified and fees will not be refunded.

Media campaigns launched in the 14 months from 1 Jan 2025 – end February 2026 are eligible for entry. Campaigns may have been introduced earlier but must have run during this period and have data relevant to the qualifying time period. The results provided must also be within the campaign eligibility period but can extend to the end of March 2025 if directly attributable to activity run in the eligibility period.

In the event of a crossover from the previous year, where a 2025 campaign is still eligible for 2026, the case history must be rewritten, clearly demonstrating new elements of the campaign or new results.

The awards are primarily for New Zealand originated campaigns, however, should an entry be based on a media strategy and media idea originating outside of New Zealand, this must be clearly stated so that this can be considered in the judging process.

Sustained Success (Category 20): Advertising campaigns that have been consistently in the market in NZ for a minimum of three years from at latest 28 February 2023 are eligible for entry.

Charity Entries cannot be entered into any other categories.

All Beacon Awards entries are assessed by senior industry practitioners against strategy, execution and results. Every entry is scrutineered before judging to ensure fairness and consistency.

The main stage of judging is Category Judging, where entries are assessed within their entered category as a single cohort. Judges are placed into panels and may be assigned multiple categories. Judging begins online, followed by in-person discussion.

Panels are built to ensure a balanced mix of skills, disciplines and industry experience. Each panel is led by an Executive Judge — a senior client, agency or media owner — who moderates discussion and guides the group towards consensus. Judges are selected from industry nominations, and every entry in a category is read by every judge on the panel, with scores submitted individually. All metal decisions are confirmed in the room during Category Judging, led by the Executive Judge and Convenor.

Best in Show and Media Agency of the Year are judged remotely by an international panel. For Best in Show, the panel reviews all Gold-winning entries and selects the overall winner following discussion. For Media Agency of the Year, judges score each submission and an independent auditor reviews the financial section, with results combined to confirm the final winner.

The Comms Council Media Committee selects the winners for both Emerging Talent categories, Media Business of the Year and Sales Team of the Year.