Last-minute tips from the jurors as Mumbrella Awards approach deadline
This Friday night at 10.30pm, 9Gem is airing the truly terrible 2001 Steven Seagal film Exit Wounds. I only mention this because if find yourself channel surfing, landing on this film … and you haven’t yet entered the 2026 Mumbrella Awards … you’ve got one hell of a last-minute entry on your hands.
The Mumbrella Awards close at midnight on Friday, March 6, so stop watching Seagal and get cracking!
If you happen to be slightly better prepared, and have put your homework off until the last few days, then never fear.
There’s still plenty of time to enter to win one of 36 different awards, split into categories across Campaign Excellence, Craft and Innovation, Specialist Disciplines, Agency and Team Awards, and Culture and Values.
Do you have the most effective TV ad of the year? The best marketing team? Are you part of this year’s finest creative agency? Check out all the categories here, then choose your destiny. Or why not choose multiple destinies and enter your work and your team into a few different categories.
You too could be like creative agency BMF, which last year won four awards, including the Ad Campaign of the Year for its ‘Go A Little Extra’ campaign for ALDI Australia; Creative Agency of the Year, Account Management Team of the Year; and the Mumbrella Award for Culture.
One (or four) of these Mumbrella Award trophies could be yours … if you’ve never held one, you’ll be surprised at the heft
We have a jury stacked with over one hundred executive marketing leaders, plus the great Thomas Barta as the jury chair.
If you manage to make the shortlist, you’ll be pitching to them at our high octane live judging day, on May 21 at the Hilton Sydney, and then celebrating the industry with over 700 of your media and marketing colleagues on July 23 at The Star in Sydney. Sounds fun, right?
If you want an extra advantage before putting your entry together, please read on for some valuable entry tips from our jurors. And if you need some extra, extra inspiration to enter, why not check out all the winners (and all the photos) from last year’s awards? It was a blast!
And remember, entries close at the stroke of midnight on Friday, March 6.
Enter the 2026 Mumbrella Awards here
The 2025 Mumbrella Awards jury at the Hilton Sydney.
Michael Magee, Chief Marketing Officer, The Kraft Heinz Company
“The strongest entries demonstrate a unique and disruptive approach to the business problem whilst demonstrating exceptional (and where possible) sustainable results.
The key is distilling your story down to its essence – clarity and simplicity bring great work to life.”
Joanna Robinson, Chief Marketing Officer, The Iconic
“As judges, we’re looking for clarity and proof, not hype. Start with the real business problem, show the strategy behind the work, and then demonstrate impact with credible results.
The best entries connect creativity to commercial outcomes, with evidence we can trust.”
Kate Gildea, Marketing and Communications Director, Estee Lauder Companies
“Help the jury understand the context you were operating in. Benchmarks, category norms, budget constraints, or market challenges help jurors properly assess the significance of your results.
We also don’t expect perfection; we value honesty. Entries that acknowledge challenges, trade-offs and learnings often feel more credible and ultimately more impressive.”
Tracy Hardwick, Marketing Director, Pepsico
“Tell a story that makes sense to a 10-year-old. There is an art to simplicity – it’s much harder to be choiceful and succinct. But if you can do this – and make the story easily understood — versus proving every metric grew — then you will cut-through the clutter and stand out.”
Kedda Ghazarian, Head of Marketing, Bonds
“A great idea grabs attention, but a great insight grabs hearts. The best campaigns don’t just say something clever – they reveal something human. That’s the magic that makes your entry impossible to ignore.”
Bonus inspiration
Remember, midnight March 6. Get entering!
