Entry Guidelines

Understanding the underlying values of the awards

The USPAs seek to uphold the integrity, effectiveness and fairness of the partner and performance marketing industry for media owners, agencies, publishers and brands.

Shining a light on campaigns that follow our core principles that should be, where possible, demonstrated throughout your entries.

Evalato Updates!

Evalato has just gotten easier to use. Here are the changes that will make your awards journey more user friendly:

You can now add an entry, just click the pen icon next to the category title. Here you can change the entry you are submitting for or add more to your portal.
You can now also cancel an entry, by saving a draft version (empty or part finished) and this will allow for a cancel button to appear in its place.
While you will not be able to change submitted applications, you can alter the draft entries before submitting. Or, if you have submitted for one deadline and paid, you can now add another category ready for the next deadline!
You are no longer measured by characters, word count is now in play (200 words for the executive summary, 250 words per marked criteria).
Registering more than once under the same email is now available, so if you are just testing the process you can reapply, however we recommend using the same account.
There is a NEW supporting evidence upload option for links, images and docs to help support your entry.
You can now pay via ‘bank transfer / request invoice’. An invoice will be sent to you, but this is only available if you are submitting 2 or more entries.
Assets can now be sent to us by email no longer than 1 week after the shortlist, such as a holding asset i.e your company logo to be used for the ceremony.

Entry Tips

The below tips will help you to make your entry shine. Many of them are common sense but you would be surprised how many entries we see which fall foul in the rush to meet the deadline.

Read the marking criteria and take note of what sections attract which marks.
Make sure your submission stands out from the crowd and isn't just industry standard/practice.
A good story is always better received, so something that will keep the judges reading on for more!
Where possible, include SMART objectives - They must be Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Relevant and Time-Bound. This section is typically where people lose the most marks. For example, rather than “Our objective was to increase sales” it should be “Our objective was to increase sales through paid search by 20% by January 2025”.
Start gathering evidence and a framework for your entry as soon as you can. Aim to have your entry complete a couple of days before the deadline so you can use the time to review.
Avoid using too many acronyms. Get someone outside of the industry to read it to see if they understand your story.
Relate your results back to your objectives and what you did so that we can see cause and effect.
If submitting the same entry into multiple categories - please tailor the entry to the category you’re submitting for via the language used.
ONLY the executive summary will be viewed by the public - if you win the category. If you do not want the public to see any parts of the executive summary please state *JEO at the end of the sentence you do not want to be used (*Judges Eyes Only).

Common Mistakes to Avoid

Ensure you leave enough time for client sign-off and avoid those Last Chance fees.
Refer back to your objectives and ensure that you’ve checked off how you met or exceeded them; this is a common error.
Clear results based on relevant quantitative or qualitative metrics are what the judges are looking for – don’t let them get lost in the submission.
Your entry MUST be aimed at US clients.

Judging Process and Writing Your Entry

Our panel of judges will carefully review each submission against the provided judging criteria.

Criteria differs between categories, therefore be sure to check the first page of the entry form you are entering for clarity.

Judges typically review between one and four categories each after a careful review of conflicts of interests.

Scores are collated, challenged and discussed with groups of judges moderated by our content team at the virtual Judging Day.

Each category will be awarded Gold and where applicable Gold and Silver.

We reserve the right to reallocate your entry if we feel an alternative category is more suitable or the category falls short of entries that year. We will inform you if this is the case.

Commercial Confidence

One of the biggest reasons for point deduction by judges is not including clear evidence of commercial success and ROI, which is especially problematic for an awards ceremony that has been geared around measurable marketing. More information and greater transparency will enable the judges to score you fairly.

To alleviate concerns, we require all judges to sign a non-disclosure agreement, and they will not be able to judge a category that their company has entered. Any conflicts of interest are also challenged and disclosed before assigning them entries.

Please mark and highlight anything that should not be disclosed by either our journalists or on screens during the ceremony with ‘judges eyes only’.

Where stated that content cannot be marked as Judges Eyes Only (JEO) in the entries, please note that this information may become public should you win. This information is used by our content and marketing team to help with elements such as winner bios, post-event communications and development of the winner articles, published on hellopartner.com.

Industry Choice Awards

Industry Choice Awards will be voted by the judges and then the shortlist will be announced for the industry vote. The overall scores will be collated to award the winner.

The following categories will be available for submission:

Voting will open on the same day as the shortlist is announced and closed 1 week after. Companies entering will be notified of the public voting dates with as much notice as possible to allow companies to prepare for their promotional campaigns. Incentivised campaigns are strictly prohibited.

What makes a winning entry?

“As a judge I’m always so impressed with the dedication, innovation and creativity that is happening in our industry, and by the energy and passion everyone puts into their marketing campaigns. Sometimes as judges, we are reading through dozens of submissions! The ones that stand out to me are clear, well organized and can simply (whether through visuals or in their written submission) show how they solved a problem in a new, creative, innovative way. It’s not about who had the biggest budget, the flashiest campaign, or the most complex and impressive data.

It’s about simply identifying the problem and sharing how your team solved it so that we can all learn and grow from each other’s experiences and push our industry forward. I hope these tips will help you as you put your submissions together!”

An outline or simple list helps you get started. Read the marking criteria closely (then read it again!) and start with a basic outline to build your submission. This makes sure you’re hitting all the requirements and gives you a strong and easy way to get started. Sometimes staring at that blank screen and getting started is the hardest part and I find starting with a basic outline or bulleted list makes it easier to jump in.
Make sure your objective is clearly defined, and remember that sometimes HOW you identified a problem or challenge is as impressive as how you approached the solution.
What makes this work stand out? Did you use a new technology to get your results? Is this the result of a new partnership? Did you try something risky that you weren’t sure would work? How does this campaign stand out from other work you’ve done or that has been done in your category? I want to know why your work is outstanding.
Don’t rush! We are all guilty of waiting until the last minute to submit for awards, but if you can give yourself plenty of time, you’ll be able to have a second (or third!) set of eyes review your entry and make sure it reads clearly, tells a great story, and really showcases the best of your work.
KISS! Keep It Simple Stupid! Ok let’s leave off the stupid bit, but really, keeping it simple is always best. Don’t overcomplicate your submission with complex data or charts that only your team can interpret. Tell me in simple, clear terms your objective, your approach and your results. Show me with visuals, explain the steps you took, tell me the results and how they solved the problem or met the objective.

Jodi Rieger

Director, Client Development - CJ

First Entry Deadline