People + Agencies 2026
People + Agencies is the show that honors the humans and shops behind another banner indie year.
Founders who bet on themselves. Strategists who kept clients honest. Creatives whose work moved culture. Operators who kept the lights on when the numbers didn't. Teams that built something worth being part of. And the shops that made all of it possible.
Every December, 40 names hit the livestream during Top 40 Week — five days of reveals in front of the whole indie community. A Hall of Fame class gets a bigger honor: induction, celebrated live in NYC.
Put yourself, your team or your shop in the running.
Call for Entries Opens
Mon, Aug 24, 2026
Final Deadline
Sat, Oct 31, 2026
Entry Fees
Early Bird
$159
Through Sun, Sep 20, 2026
Main
$179
Through Sat, Oct 17, 2026
Final
$199
Through Sat, Oct 31, 2026
IAN Members save 25% — applied automatically at checkout.
Entering three or more? 5-Pack $575 ($115 each) or 10-Pack $1,000 ($100 each) — flat-price entry credits, org-wide, never expire. Buy from your dashboard after sign-up.
Currently open
Early Bird — $159
Before you enter
Read the Entry Kit
Categories (all 16, plus Hall of Fame and Pet of the Year). Rules. Entry format. How judging works. Timeline. Pricing. Written so you can skim it in three minutes and reference it whenever.
Open the Entry Kit→
Past winners
See the caliber of work that’s won
The full archive of past IAN Top 40 winners lives on IndieHQ. This is the bar.
Browse past winners ↗Categories
16 categories across three tracks. Different finalist counts by track — Agency At-Large is single-winner and coveted, People and Agency Craft + Work each honor top three. 40 total finalists.
Agency At-Large
1 finalist per category · The agency’s soul
- 10 Toes DownFor the shop that stood firm on its values, culture or niche—even when saying “no” was painful. This salutes the hard choices: firing a toxic high-paying client, refusing to pitch for unethical industries or sticking to a model that others said couldn’t be sustained.
- Addy Hot StreakGoes beyond mere financial growth to dissect the engine driving a massive winning run. We’re looking for repeatable strategy, positioning or operational magic behind the momentum.
- Best Living RoomCulture isn’t ping-pong tables, free beer or mandated back-to-office days—it’s safety, trust and shared purpose. This category honors an agency where people actually thrive, stay long-term and do their best work without burning out.
- No FlukesNo one-hit wonders here. We’re looking for the agency delivering high-caliber, sharp creative work month after month across its entire client roster, not just for a single hero client or speculative pitch project.
Agency Craft + Work
Top 3 finalists per category · How the agency practices its craft
- Under The Radar + On The MoneyChampions the unsung heroes of brand growth. Work that delivered massive commercial impact, deep community engagement or absurdly good ROI without relying on viral hype or traditional PR-push tactics.
- Unskippable IdeaFor digital, social or content-led work that actually earned attention in a world designed to tune ads out. We’re not talking forced impressions and massive paid media spend. Come with receipts for how people genuinely wanted to watch, read or interact with the work.
- Digital DetoxOnly analog efforts are eligible for this category. Give us paper and posters, IRL activations where people were able to engage in a moment without being locked to documenting on their phones. Let’s see what ya got.
- Rooted RegionalHonors grassroots and regional campaigns that completely captured a local vibe. Work that understood the nuance of a specific community or city so well that it moved the market.
- Shift CreatorRecognizes work that fundamentally changed how a brand operates, pivots or speaks—not just a one-off campaign, but work that shifted the actual business trajectory or brand perception long-term.
- Create Your Own Category — WorkNone of the above categories are adequately capturing the creative brilliance you feel is worthy of some hardware? Here’s a wild card avenue to shoot your shot. Bonus points if you include what you’d call your award category.
People
Top 3 finalists per category · The humans behind the work
- The Solo EngineDedicated to the solopreneur, independent consultant or internal force of nature who wore every hat—strategist, producer, media specialist, creative—and single-handedly drove a project across the finish line.
- Silent ProducerThe operational mastermind, media muscle, project manager or fixer who never asks for the spotlight but is the sole reason chaos turned into brilliant execution. The person everyone secretly knows holds the whole thing together.
- Dynamic DuoCelebrating the magic that happens when two distinct roles click—whether that’s two indies joining forces, a creative technologist and producer, a media strategist and creative director. Regale us with your dream team impact.
- The Un-Agency PartnerA client-side award for the client contact who acts like a true creative partner: championing brave ideas, removing bureaucracy, protecting the vision and making the work better.
- The Signal FinderFor the media strategist, buyer or data architect who saw a truth in the noise that everyone else missed. The person who turned raw audience behavior into an actionable media playbook that unlocked real growth for a brand.
- Create Your Own Category — PeopleNone of the above categories are adequately capturing the pomp and circumstance worth bestowing a rockstar you know? Here’s a wild card avenue to shoot your shot. Bonus points if you include what you’d call your award category.
Special Honor · $199 flat
Indie Agency News Hall of Fame
Career-long legacy. Committee-selected. Up to 5 inductees per year. Honored in NYC on December 1.
Special Add-On · $99
Pet of the Year
Why is this pet a good boy/girl? $99 add-on. Public vote. 25% of all Pet entry revenue goes to the winner's chosen animal charity.
For jurors
Want to judge?
IndieHQ Awards is judged by working indie creatives, strategists, and editors. If that’s you, we’d love to have you on the jury. The commitment is 6–8 hours of remote judging in your assigned week, on your own schedule.
Apply to judge →