Communications is about creating powerful ideas based on deep insights that connect brand messages with audiences in meaningful ways and through the right channels at meaningful moments.

The Communications category will recognise any type of campaign designed and launched to meet a client’s business outcomes. This includes media and paid advertising campaigns, branding work, and/or public relations.

The judges are looking for breakthrough campaigns – either single or sustained – that helped deliver incredible results, either from brilliant creative, inspirational and purposeful use of media (paid/earned), or a combination of the two.

We build seamless and distinctive experiences to make brands a part of people’s lives – creating more memorable engagement and driving better business results.

The Experience category will recognise work done for a brand/client outside a communications campaign that delivers better outcomes for the business.

The judges want to understand how a brand or customer experience was improved by the work of you and your teams. This can include a large variety of customer touchpoints, from packaging and loyalty programs to customer-facing platforms (e.g. website, application, voice).

What is important is how the new and improved touchpoint and moment resolves pain points, or surprises and delights the consumer.

Note: Experience touchpoints focused on the point of sale (e.g. sales-focused website, retail store) should be entered into the Commerce category.

We want to make it easy for our clients to sell within the complex ecosystem of how and when their customers want to buy. The Commerce category will recognise work that better drives the consumer to purchase for a client.

This can include moments in offline commerce, like a retail store redesign, new merchandising, or new technology or operating model for sales staff. This can also include online platform builds or optimisation, either D2C or through a third-party retailer, marketplace, or social commerce. The judges want to understand how your work improved the commerce experience for your client and the business outcomes that resulted from the work.

In a world where technology is accelerating and accentuating the possible, the opportunities for brands and businesses to engage in deeper, more relevant relationships with customers are unparalleled.

Technology and data underpin every aspect of the work we at WPP for our clients: how we understand consumers and markets; how we plan, buy and optimise campaigns; and how we connect consumers with brands and businesses.

Technology and data allow us to innovate, increase efficiencies and productivity, and enable us to deliver and measure work that moves consumers and grows brands.

This award will recognise work that is innovative and impactful in the use and application of technology to amplify creative transformation for our clients.

At WPP, we use the power of creativity to build better futures for our people, planet, clients and communities. The Grand Prix encapsulates WPP’s proposition as a creative transformation company through an outstanding combination of ingenuity and execution to transform business and improve lives.

The jury will look for:

Business progression. How does this work go beyond a single campaign?
Creativity. How has imagination unlocked new possibilities?
New ground. Has this ever been done before?
Elegance of solution. Is this a useful, usable, delightful solution?
Purpose. Does this help realise the clients’ purpose?
Scale of impact. What has it achieved now, and for the future?
Longevity of impact. Will this change the industry, as well as the client’s brand?

The judges are also looking for strong stories around collaboration and how you used the unique advantage of WPP – its convening power, its breadth and depth across capabilities – to drive better results for your client.

You can enter this category independently. The first-round judges will also have an opportunity to put forward work entered in the other categories if they feel it meets the criteria above.