Native Advertising Awards 2024

Best use of Artificial Intelligence

AI can be used in most parts of native advertising. Show us how you have used AI or machine learning technology to gain superior results in your campaign. It might be the way you developed the strategy, how you produced the video, distributed the content or measured the KPIs.

Most creative Native Advertising Campaign

This is a call for all the wonderful native creatives and their best work.

We’re looking for sophisticated commercial beauty, innovation to die for and mad creative mindsets brought to life in a one-of-a-kind campaign that makes everything else fade away compared to this master stroke.

Best Native Advertising User Activation Campaign

If you've gone above and beyond in making a native ad campaign that did more than just encourage readers to consume, like, comment, and share - this category is for you. It embraces fun formats and gamification elements - still with a focus on non-disruptiveness, great content and added value to readers/users engaging in the campaign.

Most effective Native Advertising Campaign

WARNING: Math ahead!
This award goes to a native advertising campaign with a business case so smoking hot and ROI numbers so enviable that the effectiveness holds true legacy potential.

Best Native Advertising Strategy

The award will go to the bullet proof native advertising strategy that excel on all parameters. From the creative and innovative production to the execution, distribution and promotion of the whole shebang. Not to forget the ROI – a pretty strategy is not enough, you have to be able to show that it was worth the investment.

Best Native Advertising Program B2B

Show us your most fierce program across platforms. We want to know how you managed to engage and excite an audience while promoting a brand, product or service in a relevant, informative or entertaining way.

And let's stress that we are talking native advertising here and not 'business as usual' ads.

Best Native Advertising Program B2C

Show us how you managed to engage and excite an audience while promoting a brand, product or service in a relevant, informative or entertaining way.

And let's stress that we are talking native advertising here and not 'business as usual' ads.

Best integrated Program (Omni-channel integration)

Were you courageous enough to integrate more than one channel in your native advertising mix? And did you manage to leverage your omni-channel program with a great result?

We’re looking for the best and boldest program out there that managed to make it all come together.

Best use of Native Advertising on a Small Budget

Not all great native advertising demands big budgets. This category acknowledges all the profs managing to do so much with very limited. Your native ad effort is a proof that great results may be achieved even on a small budget.

Small budget = €40.000 / $50.000 or lower

Native Advertising Agency/Studio of the Year (over 20 employees)

This award goes to the large native ad agency/studio that did a prestigious job creating new, great projects – projects serving as an inspiration for the entire industry.

The jury looks at the agency’s projects and overall performance over the past year, the creativity that went into the campaigns and the innovation that can act as a beacon of inspiration.

To be eligible for this award, the agency/studio has to submit work in at least one additional category.

The winner will be picked by the Chairman of the Jury and 4 jury members based on entries and number of nominations.

Native Advertising Agency/Studio of the Year (under 20 employees)

This award goes to the small native ad agency/studio that did a prestigious job creating new, great projects – projects serving as an inspiration for the entire industry.

The jury looks at the agency’s projects and overall performance over the past year, the creativity that went into the campaigns and the innovation that can act as a beacon of inspiration.

To be eligible for this award, the agency/studio has to submit work in at least one additional category.

The winner will be picked by the Chairman of the Jury and 4 jury members based on entries and numbers of nominations.

Native Advertising Platform/Network of the Year

Not all platforms are built equally. And some may be more accessible, more service-minded, more data-oriented, and more easily integrated than others.

The jury looks at who has done an extra good job this year, bringing customers on board and keeping them happy by delivering results that are reflected in an exponential increase when it comes to marketing monetization.

The winner will be picked by the Chairman of the Jury and 4 jury members based on entries and numbers of nominations.

Native Advertising Marketer of the Year

We are looking for the no.1 native advertising professional out there right now.

The one marketer who has proven that native advertising is here to stay, who has a rare set of skills that illuminates the potential in the native advertising discipline, and has delivered results to brag about.

This person is the one to watch and the one to beat, when it comes to creating native advertising like no other.

The winner will be picked by the Chairman of the Jury and 4 jury members.

Best Design

Your use of design - creativity, colour, fonts and graphic elements combined - has made way for a branded content campaign so extraordinary and beautiful that it should be awarded a prize.

Best Research Project

A lot of insightful research projects are being done around the World covering the effects of native advertising.

We want to honour the research projects that truly enlightened us with new perspectives. Don’t hesitate to send in your brand-new findings.

Best Use of Text

Sometimes carefully chosen words, sentences and storylines are all it takes to win over an audience. Copywriting is an art in itself.

If your pen worked wonders in a published article in print and/or digital media and you managed to captivate, engage and excite your readers with your story, your work deserves to be honoured.

Best Use of Video

Did you manage to produce and distribute video content that was so good that you are still riding the waves from your paid media efforts? Tell us how you managed to engage users and pulled off a great success story for future native advertising playbooks.

Best Series of Sponsored Articles

You made not one… but several articles taking the reader on a journey of amazing storytelling with a commercial destination in mind – yet you delivered content so informative, so relevant and so entertaining that the reader did not mind reading your content as a part of their consumption of editorial content.

Best Series of Sponsored Videos

You made not one but an entire series of great native ad videos that took the viewer on a journey of amazing storytelling built on topics and themes with a commercial destination in mind. Moreover, you delivered content so informative, so relevant and so entertaining that the viewer did not mind viewing your content as a part of their consumption of their daily dose of online content.

Best Use of Infographic

Often, infographics make stats, facts and figures go down more smoothly and it can be a helpful choice of format to make complex and abstract topics more digestible and concrete.

And you managed to do just that this year. You made an infographic that did the trick – made complex matters seem simpler, and brought a better general understanding of an abstract matter to more people through beautiful graphic art.

Best use of In-Person or Virtual event

People do business with people. And sometimes people need to be together IRL or virtually to make magic happen. Show us how you leveraged events either as a stand-alone project or as part of a bigger native advertising campaign.

Best Use of TikTok

Have you run a campaign on TikTok that was so creative, so engaging that it is worth premiering with more than a high five?

Your tasteful use of TikTok could be what’s earning you an award as this year’s best use of TikTok.

Best Use of AFP Broadcast

Moving pictures… and stories on screen. You brought your content ideas to broadcast TV and told stories so engaging that the viewer numbers and business results left no doubt about your success.

To be eligible in this category, your content should have been aired with a television station (international/national/local)

Best Use of YouTube

Was YouTube your preferred channel of choice for native advertising in one of your recent campaigns and did you have success with killer content on this channel that added value to the brand in question? Natively speaking of course!

Let’s dive into your choice of channel, creative execution and ROI and see if that will earn you the award as the best use of YouTube this year.

Best Use of AFP Web TV

Are you rocking web TV like no other with AFP content so relevant, informative and innovative that the audience keeps coming back for more and maybe even subscribing to the channel because of you?

Did you succeed in leveraging your native advertising efforts to meet important KPIs for the marketing strategy in question?

If you are nodding away, you should submit your work and have the chance to win the award for the best use of AFP Web TV.

NB. This category is not for stand-alone video content but for advertiser-funded programs such as conceptual online series/web TV shows.

Best Use of Print Media

Did you rock print media with your native ads this year? Did you produce a piece so brilliant that the readers applauded it in a way that led to a closer brand-customer relationship? A piece so original, innovative and relevant that it may earn you the title of true print native ad pioneer.

You got the piece to brag about – we got the jury. Bring it on!

Best Use of Podcast

Have you taken on native advertising in the podcast medium and did you live to tell about it? Oh how I loved the disruptive listening experience… said no one ever!

So if you are the proud owner of a case of smooth native ad integration in a podcast that proved both relevant and effective, you should apply for this category.

Best Use of Instagram

Have you run a campaign on Instagram that was so creative, so picture-perfect and so engaging that it is worth premiering with more than a high five?

Your tasteful use of Instagram could be what’s earning you an award as this year’s best use of Instagram.

Best Use of Facebook

Share your best Facebook native ad campaign with us – the campaign that was so creative, so innovative, so beautiful and so engaging that it left you AND your Facebook audience with your arms raised in triumph.

Best Use of Online Media

To click or not to click, that is the question.

Is your online native advertising strong enough to intrigue online media users, relevant enough to get them hooked, and informative enough to even make them consume it through and through and share it around to their own peers?

If your native ad case encompasses an extraordinary audience experience, our jury is eager to take a closer look at it.

Best Use of Influencer

Some people have had great success building an audience on earned and owned media. And their audience could be leveraged by the right match of the brand without seeming disruptive. You are that brand, and your influencer strategy was so successful that it calls for a nomination.

NB. All entries in this category need to be focused on paid influencer marketing to be considered native advertising

Best Use of Native Advertising in Email

Did you do an exceptional one-off long-form email or a programmatic email campaign containing sophisticated examples of native ads?

Did you do a textbook example of an email campaign that neither disrupted the receiver, nor made them hit 'unsubscribe', then this category is most definitely worth a shot for you.