Details
After years of judging branded content awards, I've seen it all: the brilliant, the baffling, and the beautifully average. The truth is, a great entry isn't about the logo, the budget, or the number of influencers with teeth like piano keys.
It’s about why anyone should care.
The truly great ones. The proper ones. They start with a human truth so sharp it could open a tin of sardines; something you feel in the ribs before you even notice the brand. Because that’s the secret: advertising is tolerated, but stories are loved!
Too many entries mistake data for depth. The work that wins (the work that deserves to win) knows its place in culture. It understands timing. It arrives when the world is ready to listen, not when the client is prepared to post. It doesn’t shout; it hums. Confidently, like a record that’s been played enough times to know its groove.
And there’s always that spark - the 'of course' moment! The idea is so right that you wish you’d written it, because it couldn’t have been conceived by anyone else, for anyone else, anywhere else. It just fits, like a tailored suit or a well-earned pause in a conversation.
Do you want a formula to make this more memorable? Ok.
Truth + Timing + Taste + Tension = Great Branded Content
Truth: The human pulse; the bit before the brainstorm. You find something real, not a trend, but a feeling, and you say it out loud before the lawyers arrive.
Timing: The cultural hinge. Good ideas arrive politely; great ones crash the party just as the world's ready to hear them. It's less about launch dates, more about knowing when the audience is leaning in.
Taste: The craft. The restraint. The difference between a campaign that seduces and one that shouts. You can feel the taste in the pacing of an edit, the silence in a line, the choice of one perfect frame instead of ten mediocre ones.
Tension: The spark between what the brand wants to say and what people actually need to hear, the crackle between commerce and culture. That's where relevance lives.
Good luck! And submit your work here.