YOUR 2026 SHORTLIST REVEALED...
The wait is finally over. After weeks of intense deliberation, we are thrilled to officially reveal the shortlist for the Campaign Tech Awards.
Congratulations to all of our 2026 finalists!
YOUR 2026 SHORTLIST REVEALED...
The wait is finally over. After weeks of intense deliberation, we are thrilled to officially reveal the shortlist for the Campaign Tech Awards.
Congratulations to all of our 2026 finalists!
Awards Dinner: Thursday 4 June 2026 at Jumeirah Carlton Tower.
International Categories Key Info
International Winners Announced Editorially on Campaign: Thursday 4 June 2026
This award will recognise the technology and creativity behind campaigns that produce real, demonstrable engagement with their target audience.
This award celebrates campaigns and projects that showcase AI as a transformative tool for creativity. Judges will look for entries that leverage AI to bring unique and imaginative ideas to life, from content creation to interactive experiences and beyond. Entrants should clearly outline the type of AI technology used, describe how it enabled groundbreaking or novel outcomes, and provide evidence of the impact on audience engagement, brand perception, or campaign reach.
This award is for campaigns that demonstrate both excellence and creativity across a range of channels. The objectives of the media strategy must be clear and the entry should include how the campaign was modified for online and offline channels and how the channels came together to deliver outstanding results.
This award celebrates agencies and tech providers who have enabled brands to give their consumers an engaging, personalised and targeted brand experience using proximity technology or location-based data. Open to all stripes of agency and tech companies.
This category recognises the outstanding use of AI to optimise business processes, drive efficiencies, or enhance operational performance. Open to any sector, entries should clearly explain the AI approach implemented – such as machine learning, predictive analytics, or automation – and illustrate how it delivered significant improvements in productivity, accuracy, or cost-efficiency. Judges will seek clear examples of how AI positively impacted key performance indicators and overall operational outcomes.
This award recognises innovative use of augmented or virtual reality to create immersive brand experiences. Judges will look for campaigns that not only pushed the boundaries of AR/VR capabilities but also showcased clear strategic objectives, creative storytelling and achieved outstanding results.
This award is for campaigns using technology to deliver targeted and personalised communications. The winner will pair brilliant creative with insightful use of data and media to deliver a highly tailored message to the customer resulting in great engagement and conversions.
This category rewards branded experiences that use innovative and ground-breaking technology to consumers, help drive deeper engagement for fans and deliver an unforgettable experience for the customer. This can be a digital or physical experience, including an immersive event or physical technology, the sky’s the limit.
Awarded to the best creative idea using in-game technology. Campaigns entered into this category will have utilised the comms opportunities of any type of gaming (including console games, PC games, social or mobile gaming) to reach audiences in new and exciting ways.
This award honours inventive campaigns that have used innovative technology to deliver exceptional brand engagement. In particular, judges will be looking for an application of technology or idea that is experimental and demonstrates a forward-thinking approach, even if the technology itself is not being used for the first time. Judges will look for entries that showcase how solutions were conceived and implemented, including any unique tools, methods or technologies used, as well as measurable outcomes that illustrate the impact of the innovation on business or audience engagement.
This award seeks to recognise innovative brand activity through insight. The winning work will show that insight was used not only to solve a problem but also contributed to the brand’s overall marketing mission.
We are seeking proficient and successful management of a paid search campaign. Successful entrants must demonstrate an innovative use of the channel, incorporating data and new tools where necessary, managed by an in-house team or for a client. Judges will seek alignment to brand values and goals across a well thought-out and delivered effort.
We are seeking an innovative and effective paid social campaign or strategy that gained a stellar set of results via a performance-based effort. Whether the objective was to drive sales, engagement, leads or even footfall, entries should demonstrate how client objectives were met and ROI achieved from the activity.
This award is open to media owners, media agencies, brands or creative agencies that have maximised the use of automated media solutions to create memorable campaigns. The judges will look for clever and creative ways of using data and optimising programmatic media deployment to achieve outstanding results for clients.
This award celebrates innovative use of technology to transform customer relationship management. Judges will look for entries that show how tools such as automation, AI, data platforms or personalisation strategies enhanced customer engagement, loyalty or lifecycle value. Successful submissions will demonstrate measurable impact on relationships, revenue or retention, and showcase creativity in reimagining how brands connect with customers.
The UK’s out-of-home industry has been transformed by digital and there are more opportunities than ever before to use tech in ingenious ways to reach consumers. This award recognises memorable and powerful advertising created by innovative and creative uses of technology.
The winner of this award will demonstrate excellence in using technology in a creative campaign. Entries can be from commercial brands, agencies, tech providers or charities. Entrants must show how they have identified a specific audience need and created a piece of work (of any medium) that improves social, environmental and economic outcomes. It may or may not be pro bono work.
The Grand Prix will be awarded to the campaign who receives the most nominations and awards throughout the evening. Each entry that makes the final shortlist will score points, and these points will be used to identify the leading agency. The scoring system will allocate an appropriate tally for each entry, depending upon the results. This category cannot be entered directly.
This award recognises emerging tech companies making an outstanding impact in advertising, media or marketing. Judges will seek businesses that combine innovation with commercial success, whether through disruptive technology, inventive services or bold new approaches. Open to brands, agencies, platforms, or suppliers launched within the past three years, entries must clearly show achievements, growth and how the start-up is reshaping the industry landscape.
Note: The entrant must have begun trading within three years of 5 November 2022.
This award will celebrate the individuals, in brands, agencies or tech partners, that are leading the charge and creating great work, using smart technology, that delights and engages consumers and re-imagines the world. Personal nominations are welcome, as are entries from colleagues, company leaders and partners.
This category will focus on a team in a business taking an innovative approach towards technology in advertising and marketing. From the top AI teams to martech and production, teams will be judged on specific campaign performances or a body of work. Entries should demonstrate conversions achieved or customer actions delivered which have had a measurable impact on their brand or customers’ businesses. Entries are welcome from brands, agencies or tech providers.
Our international categories will return for 2026, designed for companies based outside the UK that wish to celebrate their innovative use of creative technology. Please note that these categories will be announced on the Campaign website on Thursday 4 June 2026. They will not be announced at the live awards ceremony. These categories are open to participants from all countries worldwide, with the exception of the United Kingdom.
INTERNATIONAL CATEGORIES KEY DATES & PRICING:
First Entry Deadline: Thursday 19 February
First Entry Deadline Fee: £350*
Second Entry Deadline: Thursday 12 March
Second Entry Deadline Fee: £550*
Final Entry Deadline: Thursday 26 March
Final Entry Deadline Fee: £650*
Shortlist Announced: End of April
Winners Announced editorially on Campaign: Thursday 4 June
*Price per entry. Please note listed prices do not include VAT
The rules for entry and entry template sections, found on the entry kit, are also applicable for these categories. Please refer to this for how to structure your entry.
This award recognises the most effective use of AI for a campaign or business optimisation. Entries must clearly explain what type of AI was used, how it was implemented, and how it produced demonstrably better results and performance for a brand.
This award recognises tech innovations created as part of a brand campaign or branding initiative. Entrants must be able to demonstrate that the technology made a difference to the campaign. The winning entry must also explain how the tech furthered brand goals or solved brand problems.
This award will celebrate the individuals, in brands, agencies or tech partners, that are leading the charge and creating great work, using smart technology, that delights and engages consumers and re-imagines the world. Personal nominations are welcome, as are entries from colleagues, company leaders and partners.
"The whole agency and our client were able to join in the celebrations - we all reflected on what a great campaign it was."
"This award has contributed to raising our profile this year and solidified the fact we have such a hard working team."
"We were up against some tough competition, we are proud to be recognised for our work with our clients."
"The campaign tech winners badge is a great asset to have across our website, social media and email footers. We also reference this in our pitch decs."
Elke Karskens
Head of International Marketing | OpenAI
Elke Karskens leads International Marketing at OpenAI. Previously, she spent over a decade at Meta holding various marketing leadership roles followed by senior general management roles at Coinbase. She started off her career at Skype. Known for building high-impact teams and guiding brands through moments of transformation, she brings deep expertise in global strategy, digital innovation, and storytelling that connects technology to real human benefit.
"From the rise and implementation of generative AI to immersive experiences and data-driven creativity, the Campaign Tech Awards honour those redefining what’s possible through innovation and ingenious ideas. With the judging now done, I was hugely impressed at the range of entries and the novel ways teams are solving problems for clients and people. I’m excited to celebrate the best work and teams at our evening awards ceremony in June!"
Lucy Shelley
Tech Editor | Campaign
The Adtech and Martech leaders
You are the companies, from agile startups to established giants, building the platforms that are the engine room of modern marketing. Your technology is delivering a demonstrable competitive advantage.
Agencies with the Tech Edge
You haven't just bought technology; you've built it. You have developed your own tools and platforms that give your teams and your clients a unique, winning advantage in the market.
Forward-Thinking Brands & In-House Teams
You have taken control of your own technology stack. You have integrated and deployed technology in an innovative way to transform your customer experience and drive exceptional business results.
Our campaigns are testament to the ability of our teams and our clients to embrace challenge, and we are thrilled to be able to celebrate them again this year!
The experience of entering the awards was pretty seamless. Once we had written our 'hero' award entry, we were able to tweak this to fit within the campaign tech award entry requirements.
We received exposure from the award on the Campaign Tech Awards website, which saw us listed as the winners of a very competitive category, with big brands and great campaigns. So it was great to gain exposure at the top of this list!
This award has contributed to raising our profile this year and solidified the fact we have such a hard working team.
We were up against some tough competition, from pioneering thinkers and creatives using ground-breaking tech, so we are proud to be recognised for our work with our clients, for campaigns that both innovatively and effectively transformed the shopper journey.
One of the things we need to get better at doing as an agency is writing case studies, and promoting our wins. Writing the entry for the Campaign Tech awards was a great way to hit this nail on the head. We gathered all the stats, dug into all the results and pulled together a very detailed, strong award entry, which we were then able to use as a hero content piece for other assets creation. We were thrilled to have won the award.
The whole agency and our client were able to join in the celebrations- we all reflected on what a great campaign it was.
The team involved were so excited to have their work recognised in such a public forum from a recognisable name like Campaign. The award has taken pride of place on display in the office.
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