Key Dates

  • Early Bird Deadline: February 28th, 2025
  • Deadline for Entry Submissions: April 11th, 2025
  • Judging Period: April 18th – April 25th, 2025
  • Awards Ceremony: June 13th, 2025

Entry Fees

  • Early Bird (until February 28th, 2025): £175 + VAT
  • Standard (March 1st – April 11th, 2025): £225 + VAT

Who Can Enter?

The Election Campaigns categories are open to all companies and organisations involved in the creation and execution of political campaigns, including political and public affairs consultancies, marketing and communications agencies, and political organisations themselves.

The Public Sector Campaigns categories are open to all companies and organisations involved in the creation and execution of public sector communication campaigns, including political and public affairs consultancies, marketing and communications agencies, and governmental, non-governmental, and intergovernmental organisations themselves.

Eligibility

Entries must meet the following criteria to be eligible:

  1. The work comprised in the entry must have been publicly released, implemented, or performed in a campaigning environment between April 11th, 2024 and April 11th, 2025.
  2. The work must have been created and executed with client approval and as part of a genuine political or public sector communication effort. Work that is created for the purpose of entering competitions is not eligible. Polaris Awards may require that entrants provide written confirmation from clients or any other document or information needed to verify the authenticity of a work.
  3. Entries must reflect the work in its original form, as it was originally released, implemented, or performed. The work must not be modified for entry and any information submitted must be true and accurate.

If you have questions about whether an individual entry is eligible, please contact help@polarisawards.com.

Entry Process

Entrants must adhere to the following rules:

  1. Entries must be submitted online using the Polaris Awards entry system. An entry consists of the information and supporting materials that are submitted into a particular category through the entry form in the entry system.
  2. Each entry can only have one entrant organisation. The entrant organisation is the company or organisation on whose behalf the entrant submits the entry. The entrant organisation may also be the client of the work comprised in the entry.
  3. Entries must adhere to the information and material requirements of the entry system. Information submitted must adhere to the character limits of the entry form. Supporting materials submitted must adhere to the guidelines outlined in the Supporting Materials section below.
  4. Entries must be submitted in English. Original campaign assets which are not in English must be translated or subtitled exactly as they were released and implemented, before being submitted as supporting materials. Any other supporting materials, such as displays or case videos, must be in English.
  5. Entries must be presented anonymously. Information and supporting materials submitted must not contain any references that might identify the entrant organisation or any contributors to the work, except in the Credits section of the entry form.
  6. Information and supporting materials must be final when an entry is submitted. Entries cannot be edited once they have been approved and paid for.
  7. Entries must be submitted into the relevant categories. The same entry can be submitted into more than one category; however, a separate entry fee will apply for each submission.
  8. Entries must be submitted in accordance with the deadline for entry submissions. Please note that an entry will not be considered submitted until the applicable entry fee has been paid.
  9. Polaris Awards may refuse or withdraw an entry at any time if the entry:
    • Does not meet the eligibility criteria,
    • Relates to work which has been held by a relevant authority to be in violation of any national and international laws, regulations, or industry codes of practice of the territory or territories in which it ran,
    • Contains racist, sexist, or otherwise discriminatory content,
    • Contains content that offends national sentiments, religious sentiments, or public taste.
  10. Entries cannot be submitted without the permission of the client of the work. By submitting an entry, the entrant confirms that they have secured the permission of the client of the work.
  11. In respect of any third party material that forms part of an entry, the entrant must obtain any permissions and waivers of moral rights necessary from the copyright owners to use their material in connection with the entry prior to submission.

If you have questions about the rules governing the entry process, please contact help@polarisawards.com.

Supporting Materials

Each entry requires at least one media file or other supporting material that illustrates the work. Supporting materials must be used to supplement the information in the entry form and must not replace it. They must be directly uploaded to the entry system.

Here are the guidelines for the supporting materials:

Images

  1. Up to 5 image files can be submitted for each category selected. These must be copies of the original campaign assets or displays of the work.
  2. Files must be in JPG or PNG format with a maximum resolution of 1500x1500 pixels.
  3. Files must not be larger than 15MB each.
  4. File names must not contain non-Latin characters.

Videos

  1. Up to 2 video files can be submitted for each category selected. These must be copies of the original campaign assets or case videos explaining the work.
  2. For videos which are not in English, translations must be included in the file as subtitles. Any subtitles must be clearly legible.
  3. Runtime must not exceed 3 minutes for each file.
  4. Files must be in MP4 format (H.264 + AAC or MP3) with a maximum resolution of 1920x1080.
  5. Files must not be larger than 100MB each.
  6. File names must not contain non-Latin characters.

Audio

  1. Up to 2 audio files can be submitted for each category selected. These must be copies of the original campaign assets.
  2. For audio which is not in English, translations must be uploaded separately as Word documents.
  3. Runtime must not exceed 3 minutes for each file.
  4. Files must be in MP3 format.
  5. Files must not be larger than 50MB each.
  6. File names must not contain non-Latin characters.

Documents

  1. Documents are allowed only in the following categories: A15. Radio & Audio (Single), A16. Radio & Audio (Multiple), A17. Phone.
  2. Up to 1 document can be submitted for each eligible category selected. These must be transcripts or translations of the work.
  3. Files must not contain any hyperlinks.
  4. Word count must not exceed 1000 words for each file.
  5. Files must be in DOC or DOCX format.
  6. Files must not be larger than 50MB.
  7. File names must not contain non-Latin characters.

Supporting materials that are not in line with these rules will not be taken into consideration for judging.

Withdrawals and Refunds

The following rules apply with regard to entry withdrawals and refunds:

  1. No refunds will be made on entry fees after entries are submitted.
  2. If an entry which has been paid for is withdrawn either by Polaris Awards or the entrant, the entrant can either submit a replacement entry before the deadline for entry submissions, or use the credit at a future Polaris Awards event.
  3. In the event of a complaint against a winning entry, an investigation will be conducted by Polaris Awards. If the investigation upholds the complaint, the entry and the award may be withdrawn.

Judging of Entries

Entries will be judged by the international Polaris Awards Jury, which is composed of experts from industry associations, political and public affairs consultancies, marketing and communications agencies, media and technology firms, and other experts on political and public sector communication.

Judges will be asked to review and score entries from 1 to 10 on each of the following criteria:

  • Strategy (20%)
  • Creativity/Innovativeness (20%)
  • Execution (20%)
  • Effectiveness/Results (40%)

For the Craft category group, the judging criteria will be weighted differently:

  • Strategy (10%)
  • Creativity/Innovativeness (40%)
  • Execution (40%)
  • Effectiveness/Results (10%)

Once judging is closed, entries in each category will be ranked according to their weighted average scores to determine Gold, Silver, and Bronze Polaris winners. Each level has a minimum score requirement for entries to be eligible for an award:

  • Gold: 8.5
  • Silver: 7.5
  • Bronze: 6.5

Announcement of Winners

Winning entries will be announced at the Polaris Awards Ceremony, which will take place in London, United Kingdom on June 13th, 2025.

Winning entries will receive the Polaris Awards trophy. Trophies will bear the name of the entrant organisation and show the section, category, and level of the award.

Trophies with inaccurate information will not be replaced unless the information on the trophy does not match the information submitted in the entry.

Replicas for trophies can be purchased by other companies, organisations, or individuals credited as contributors in the entry after the Polaris Awards Ceremony.