People + Agencies 2026
Everything you need to know before you enter. Read it once, reference it whenever. Questions we didn’t answer? Hit the “Ask a question” button on any dashboard page and we’ll get back to you.
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 ↗An awards show for indie agencies, run by indie agencies
IndieHQ Awards was built by Indie Agency News for independent agencies, creative professionals, and the people doing the work that deserves the spotlight. Accessible entry fees. A jury of working indie practitioners. A rubric focused on real craft, real strategy, real outcomes.
What breaks through here is what breaks through in good journalism: a specific, surprising truth told with confidence and without decoration. Judges are working indie creatives and editors. They’re immune to marketing language. Lead with the counterintuitive bet, name the specifics, let the proof land without editorializing.
The test that never fails: if any other shop could submit the same entry word-for-word, it’s not ready. Real differentiation — creative, operational, cultural — can’t be faked with language alone. The entry has to describe something that could only come from you.
Timeline
- August 24, 2026Call for Entries opens · Early Bird pricing begins
- September 20, 2026Early Bird deadline
- October 17, 2026Main deadline
- October 31, 2026Final deadline · Submissions close
- November 1, 2026Round 1 judging begins
- November 11, 2026Final 40 revealed
- November 12, 2026Round 2 judging begins
- December 1, 2026Hall of Fame honored · NYC
- December 7, 2026Winners revealed · Livestream week
Once Round 1 begins, your entry is locked from further edits. You can still swap the case film, images, docs, or link URLs up until then — narrative and credits close at the Final deadline.
Pricing
IAN members save 25% automatically at checkout — no code required if you’re signed up with your agency email. Not a member yet? Join here and the discount applies the moment your membership is active.
Add-ons. Hall of Fame nominations are $199 flat (separate from Standard Scored entries). Pet of the Year is $99 and can be added to any Standard entry.
One entry, one category. If you want the same work considered in multiple categories, that’s multiple entries at the tier price. Each is judged independently against that category’s rubric.
You enter, you’re in. Entry fees are non-refundable.
Categories
Categories are grouped into three Standard Scored tracks plus two special honors. Each track has its own finalist math: Agency At-Large names one winner per category (that’s the whole point), People and Agency Craft + Work each name three finalists per category. Forty finalists total across all Standard Scored categories.
What kind of shop are you? These categories reward the agency's identity, culture, and independent character. The narrative isn't about a single campaign — it's about who you are.
- 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.This is for: Agencies that walked away from money or growth to protect what they stand for.
- 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.This is for: Agencies on a real winning run — new business, new clients, new relevance — with a repeatable reason why.
- 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.This is for: Agencies where people stay for years because the culture is real.
- 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.This is for: Agencies putting out great work across their whole roster every month — not just one showpiece client.
Categories that honor specific work and the discipline behind it. Enter your best campaign in the category where the craft is strongest — not where the category name sounds most impressive.
- 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.This is for: Work that drove serious results without a viral moment or a big PR machine behind it.
- 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.This is for: Digital, social, or content work people chose to watch, share, or engage with — no paid reach required.
- 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.This is for: Work that lives entirely off-screen.
- 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.This is for: Work made for one specific place — not a national campaign with a local flavor.
- 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.This is for: Work that changed a brand's trajectory for the long haul, not for a quarter.
- 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.This is for: Brilliant work that doesn't fit any of the above and deserves its own frame.
Individual and team honors. The subject is a person or a specific group — their thinking, their body of work, their contribution to the industry. Nominations from peers welcome.
- 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.This is for: One person who wore every hat on a project and shipped it end-to-end.
- 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.This is for: The producer, PM, or fixer whose fingerprints are on everything great that shipped but whose name is on nothing public.
- 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.This is for: Two people whose partnership produced work neither could have made alone.
- 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.This is for: The client who acts like a creative partner — champions bold work, clears friction, protects the vision.
- 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.This is for: The media or analytics person who saw something in the data no one else did, and turned it into growth.
- 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.This is for: A rockstar you know who doesn't fit any of the above and deserves their own frame.
Reserved for sustained, industry-level impact — not just excellent recent work. Would this person’s absence from the Hall feel like an oversight to the broader indie community? If yes, nominate.
The tier ladder
Every entry earns recognition. Where you land depends on how your work performs with the jury — but no one leaves empty-handed.
One tier per entry. Every entry earns the highest level it reaches — a single result, not a stack. Your assets and coverage reflect that one tier.
Judging
Every Standard Scored entry moves through a two-round process, scored against a category-specific rubric by a jury of working indies.
Round 1 — every entry gets seen. Judges score against the category rubric. The strongest work in each category advances.
Round 2 — the advancing entries go back to a jury for the final call. Tier placements are locked here.
Winners revealed in Livestream Week — a public event, not a private ceremony behind a paywall.
Judges rotate each cycle. They’re under NDA on every entry regardless of confidentiality level. Anyone with a conflict of interest recuses themselves from the category entirely.
Entry format
Entries have a small, focused shape. No 5,000-word treatises, no 40-page decks required. Judges read a lot of these — make the case tightly.
- Agency, client, campaign, category — the basics. Agency At-Large entries name the agency as the primary title. Agency Craft + Work and People entries lead with the campaign or person name.
- Narrative — up to 500 words. This is what wins or loses the entry. Lead with the counterintuitive bet. Name specifics. Let proof land without editorializing.
- Credits — everyone who touched the work. Paste from a deck if easier — we’ll clean up formatting when we publish.
- Media — images (up to 15 MB each), case decks and PDFs (up to 15 MB each), and case film (video hosted directly on our CDN, so any size works). Case films are optional. Judges score the work and how well you make the case for it — a strong written case with real specifics scores just as high as one with a beautifully cut film. Upload what actually helps make the argument.
- Link URLs — the case-study page, press coverage, launch site, anything you want a judge to see hosted elsewhere.
- Charity choice — a portion of every entry fee goes to a nonprofit. You pick which one from our list.
Everything auto-saves as you go. You can leave and come back — nothing’s gone until you submit and the deadline passes.
A paper-friendly version of the entry form so your team can gather content offline, iterate on the narrative, and paste in when ready. Totally optional — the online form is faster once you have your thinking together.
Rules
Eligibility
Open globally. Work must have run publicly (or been released internally with measurable impact) inside the show’s eligibility window — August 1, 2025 through October 31, 2026 for People + Agencies 2026. Work that lands inside the window before the final submission deadline counts — enter it now, drop the launch link once it’s live. Not sure if something qualifies? Ask before submitting, not after.
Client + agency approval
You confirm at submission that you have permission from the client and/or agency to enter this work, and that any featured brands or people have consented to being publicly showcased if the entry is honored. Required to submit. If your client hasn’t approved the entry, don’t enter it yet.
Confidentiality
Every entry picks a publication level: Full (normal showcase treatment if the entry wins) or Name only (only the agency name and entry title show publicly; case details, narrative, and media stay private). Judges see everything regardless of level — they’re under NDA. If you’re under NDA or client confidentiality constraints, pick Name only and add specifics in the Confidential Details field so we handle every downstream context correctly (press, showcase pages, winner comms).
Category migration
By submitting, you agree that IndieHQ Awards editorial may move your entry to a more suitable category if judging surfaces a better fit. We only do this when it clearly helps your entry. You’ll be notified when it happens.
One entry per category
Same piece of work in three categories = three entries at the tier price. Each gets judged independently.
Refunds
You enter, you’re in. Entry fees are non-refundable.
Truthful entries + our right to audit
You certify at submission that everything in the entry — agency, client, campaign, narrative, credits, results — is truthful and accurate. IndieHQ Awards reserves the right to audit and verify any claim. If we find a discrepancy, we may reject the entry; for intentional misrepresentation, we reserve the right to bar the agency from future participation. This isn’t a threat — it’s the guardrail on an honor-system show. The credibility of every winner depends on it.
Judging integrity
Judges recuse themselves from any category with a conflict of interest. If we discover a judge scored an entry they had a conflict on, their score is voided and the entry is re-scored by the rest of the jury.
Intellectual property
You keep ownership of everything you submit. By entering, you grant IndieHQ Awards a non-exclusive license to display your entry on the platform, in showcase pages, in press releases, and in winner archive materials — subject to the confidentiality level you selected.
Full legal terms: Terms of Service · Privacy Policy
QuickCoach — expert review before you submit
Not sure your entry is ready? Request a QuickCoach review from inside the entry editor. A working indie expert reads your entry copy against the category rubric and writes back with specific, actionable coaching — what’s working, what’s soft, what would land harder.
Non-members get one free QuickCoach review per show. IAN members get three per show. Response arrives in five business days.
Questions we get asked a lot
Can I enter the same campaign in multiple categories?+
Yes. Each category is a separate entry at the tier price, judged independently against that category's rubric. You can also add multiple categories to a single entry — you'll be charged one tier fee per category slot at checkout.
Do I have to be an IAN member to enter?+
No. Anyone can enter. Members get 25% off entry fees automatically and three free QuickCoach reviews per show cycle. Non-members can still enter every category and get one free QuickCoach review.
What if my client won't let me publish the case?+
Pick 'Name only' as your publication level. If the entry wins, only the agency name and entry title show publicly — narrative, results, and media stay private. Judges still see everything (they're under NDA).
What if I miss the Early Bird deadline?+
You move to the Main tier price. If you miss Main, you move to Final. All tiers get the same treatment — pricing just goes up as the deadline gets closer.
Can I edit my entry after submitting?+
Yes, until Round 1 opens — but only the media (case film, images, docs, link URLs). Narrative, credits, and category are locked at the Final deadline. This gives you time to swap in a better cut of your case film without letting the actual argument shift after judges start reading.
What file formats do you accept?+
Images: JPG, PNG, WebP, GIF, SVG (up to 15 MB each). Documents: PDF, DOC, DOCX, PPT, PPTX (up to 15 MB each). Case film goes through our CDN — any size, any common format.
Who are the judges?+
Working indie creatives, strategists, and editors from indie agencies, in-house teams, and freelance shops. Rotating jury each cycle. Full jury list is published before Round 1 opens.
How does the charity contribution work?+
You pick a nonprofit from our list at submission. A portion of every entry fee goes to that org at the end of the show cycle. We publish the total we contributed after Livestream Week.
Something's broken / I have a specific question.+
Every dashboard page has an 'Ask a question' button. Send it, we'll get back to you personally — usually within a business day. No support tickets, no help-desk maze.
Which language would help you enter?
The interface is English today. That won’t be forever. We’re asking indies around the world which languages matter most to them, and translating those first — starting with Top 40: Classic in 2027.
In the meantime: your browser can translate this whole site in one click. In Chrome or Safari, right-click the page and pick “Translate to…” — every button, every form field, every category description. The entry flow works fine that way. Category names stay in English on purpose (the metaphors don’t translate cleanly, and we’d rather show you the real category than a robot’s guess at it).
Tell us what would help you most:
Ready?
Start an entry, take your time, come back to it. Autosaves as you go.