YouTube Works Awards for Creative Ad Campaigns

What are the YouTube Works Awards?

Over the past decade, marketers have redefined how they communicate with consumers. From the heartwarming to the heart-racing — and everything in between — YouTube has seen how incredible video content can drive equally powerful results.

The YouTube Works Awards celebrate and champion the brilliant minds producing the most innovative and effective advertising creative on YouTube in the past year.

Winners join an esteemed shortlist of trophy bearers that help shape the future of creative effectiveness on YouTube. Plus, they have the opportunity to stand shoulder-to-shoulder with some of the industry’s best within published thought leadership and advertising industry moments.

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Upcoming awards you don’t want to miss

Select a country to view locale specific award and submission details.

In partnership with

Kantar
Contagious

Contest begins

April 2, 2024
Submissions end

May 14, 2024
Winners announced

October 2024

2024

Award categories

Explore the different categories in this year’s YouTube Works Awards.

Creative Visionary

Celebrating the campaign that demonstrated creative ingenuity and brought to life a captivating vision.

This category champions your singular vision of creating something exciting and wholly original. How did your story punch through the page and onto the screen? What key creative decisions were made along the way to delight and excite? How did this make the work more effective, bold, and unforgettable?

Tech Pioneer

Celebrating the campaign that best leveraged technology to drive more creative impact.

We’re looking for campaigns that pushed boundaries with tech, responsibly and effectively, to spark new ideas, evolve the creative canvas, generate assets, or scale the campaign across devices and formats. How did AI, ML, automation, or other technology improve the creative process or help your assets shine? How did you harness technology creatively to elevate marketing outcomes and drive business impact? How did you experiment with new tech to drive results?

Big Screen, Big Results

Celebrating the campaign that masterfully used the TV screen to reach viewers and drive results.

We’re on the hunt for YouTube Connected TV-first campaigns that use the big screen to make a big impact on their awareness and consideration objectives. How did you fine-tune your creative for the big screen? Did you set out to captivate audiences watching YouTube from their living rooms?

Multi-Format Storytelling

Celebrating the campaign that best adapted original storytelling for formats of all sorts.

We want to see how you flexed your chameleon colors for different viewing contexts — whether it’s on the go on mobile or relaxed in the living room. When did you use different ad formats — long, short, vertical, audio, or otherwise skippable — to meet your audience on their terms? How did you navigate the changing tides of what viewers expect from their video content?

Brands as Creators

Celebrating the campaign that best demonstrates brands behaving like creators.

We don’t just mean channels with flashy content or brands that partnered with creators — we’re looking for brands that show us that YouTube is in their DNA. This brand regularly crafts content informed by consumer trends and knows how to nurture passionate online communities. In what ways did your content meet audiences where and how they’re watching? How did you deliver entertainment and inspiration — just like a creator would?

The Changemaker

Celebrating the campaign that walked the walk on social or environmental issues.

We’re looking for campaigns that demonstrate a brand’s fierce commitment to diversity, inclusion, sustainability, environmental issues, or other social causes. How did your campaign balance your brand’s purpose with a tangible impact that extends beyond the bottom line? How did you inspire and empower your audience to take action?

The Underdog

Celebrating the campaign that beat the odds and made big waves.

We’re looking for campaigns from small or medium-sized brands that had big-name ambitions and achieved the results to match. How did you transform limited resources into major impact? What brilliant creative idea or novel consumer insight helped your campaign punch above its weight?

Grand Prix

Celebrating the most effective, creative, and innovative campaign that also drove exceptional business results.

The Grand Prix is our top prize; awarded to the campaign that breaks ground in multiple ways. This isn’t a category you can enter, but one you can hope to win if you show that your campaign checks all of the boxes.

Our 2024 U.S. Grand Jury

Ashwini Karandikar

EVP, Media, Technology, Data
4A’s

Ellie Bamford

CSO, North America
VML

Fernando Machado

Operating Partner
Garnett Station Partners

Jess Vultaggio

VP, Creative Culture & Effectiveness
Kraft Heinz

Jonathan Daly

Head of Communications Strategy
Johannes Leonardo

Judy John

Global CCO
Edelman

Kristin Lane

Head of Brand Strategy & Advertising MassMutual

Liv Lewis

Executive Vice President
EGAMI Group

Maria Elisa Vélez

Managing Director
DoorDash

Matt Peterson

YouTube Creator

Pedro Pérez

Chief Creative Officer
FCB Chicago

Ryu Yokoi

CDO, Personal Care NA & US Media
Unilever

Shannon Washington

Global CCO
Gotham Inc

Tyler Bahl

SVP and Head of Marketing
Activision

How to enter

Identify your most effective YouTube campaigns from last year, review the Terms & Conditions, and fill out the submission form below during the entry window (now closed).

The YouTube Works Awards are easy to enter, and free. So if you’re part of a marketing, media, creative, or agency team, show us your best-in-class digital work for your chance to take center stage!

Our judges will select the winners across each category and a Grand Prix will be awarded to the submission that best demonstrates brilliant results, storytelling, and creative effectiveness on YouTube.

Questions? Contact us at [email protected]

Go to submission form Read terms and conditions

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Best practices

Our judges are looking for campaigns that have creatively, strategically, and effectively leveraged YouTube to achieve a clear business impact. Make sure you set the scene and be clear about your KPIs. The metrics you provide will help our judges understand your work and the challenges of your category and marketplace.

• Consider co-writing your submission; media and creative collaborations help to tell the full story
• Tell a story with a beginning (objectives), middle (approach), and end (impact)
• Stick to simple and concise
• Include critical context around your creative
• Remember we need all relevant media referenced in your submission
• Note any factors external to YouTube that could have impacted results
• Share as many metrics as you can and include objectives, KPIs, and benchmarks