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10th Annual Shorty Impact Awards

Open Entries

May 13, 2025

Early Deadline

June 26, 2025

Regular Deadline

August 21, 2025

Late Deadline

September 11, 2025

*Fees apply per category.

Dates are subject to change. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date.

Verified non-profits can apply for a $100 USD discount per entry per category by submitting verification documents online before checkout. Verification documents may include non-profit incorporation or tax-exempt documents.

SUBMITTING AN ENTRY

All deadlines are at 11:59 PM EDT.

NOTE: Entries are only considered complete after you complete the payment process and the entry has been published. ALL entries must be published to be eligible for judging.

You will be able to edit your entry once the payment is secured. Payment can be made securely by credit card using our online entry form. Entry fees are non-refundable. You may enter the same project in multiple categories. If you're looking to have separate case studies for your entry, please check out our FAQ page to learn how to split your entries up before you submit the payment.

ELIGIBILITY

To be eligible, the work entered must have been at least partially live between August 1st, 2024 and July 31st, 2025. Unless otherwise noted in the category description, spec work and incomplete work are not eligible.

REQUIREMENTS

All entries will require a written portion of their work or campaign. The writing will be in the form of a case study with an objective, strategy & implementation, and results.

You may download an entry template here.

Every entry is allowed to submit media, including images, videos, links and credits. To learn more about media download our entry kit.

WINNERS AND HONOREES

The Shorty Awards winners and honorees, including Finalists, Gold, Silver, and Bronze Honorees; are chosen by the Real Time Academy. The decision is made based on three main criteria: purpose/impact, creativity, strategy & execution, and engagement. Check out the judging section to learn more about the criteria.

Finalists, winners, and honors must have a minimum score to be considered. With that said, there could be no distinctions in a category if the entries don't meet the minimum score.

The Shorty Awards has a special honor given to the entry with the highest number of public votes, the Audience Honor. This distinction is based on public votes. All finalists are eligible to compete for the distinction by promoting their entries to get the highest number of votes from their FANS!

The Audience Honor is a separate distinction, meaning that it will not interfere with the decision of winners and honors, which are solely chosen by the Academy members.

OF THE YEAR AWARDS

The Of The Year Awards are the highest honor given to brands, agencies and nonprofits that have excelled overall in a given season based on the type of the organization identified as the award recipient in the entries. Which include:

• Named the Winner in at least one category.
• Received at least three total distinctions.
• Have the highest number of distinctions within their peer group (brand, agency, non-profit).
• There is a maximum (but no minimum) of one Of The Year winner per peer group.

The Of The Year awards will be given based on three different categories: small, medium and large.

Size Breakdown

Agency/Brand Of The Year.

Agency of the Year and Brand of the Year will be awarded in each of the following categories:

• Small (<1,500 employees)
• Medium (1,500-1,999 employees)
• Large (>2,000 employees)

Nonprofit Of The Year.

Non-Profit of the Year will be awarded in each of the following categories:

• Small (<100 employees/volunteers)
• Medium (100-499 employees/volunteers)
• Large (>500 employees/volunteers)

This will allow each agency, brand or non-profit to be recognized for their work with the understanding that larger organizations have greater resources and should be compared against other organizations of similar size.

People Of The Year

A NEW Of-The-Year category celebrating visionary, creative, and innovative individuals for their work showcased at the Shorty Awards and Shorty Impact Awards. People can be awarded under the following categories:

• Strategist
• Creative
• Media Plannner
• Researcher
• Community Builder
• Producer
• Brand Marketer
• Non-profit Marketer
• Account Executive
• Changemaker
• Innovator
• Creator

Open between May 14 to September 12, 2024. Nominate yourself or a colleague, client, or partner - up to one person per category and a maximum of three categories. Learn more and nominate here.

JUDGING CRITERIA

The Shorty Awards are judged by the Real Time Academy. Experts and leaders in digital and social media, members of the Academy have been selected on the basis of their deep industry knowledge, professional reputation and outstanding achievements, including previous Shorty wins.

While preparing your entry, be mindful of the fact that your work should demonstrate excellence in one or more of the following areas:

Creativity & Innovation

Demonstrate a well-executed strategy along with originality and innovation, resulting in a memorable and “out of the box” outcome.

Strategy & Execution

Clearly defined and effective strategic plan that is key to a brand, agency or organization meeting their objectives. The plan should be aligned with the objectives.

Impact

Demonstrate how this entry creates meaningful social impact, not just successful campaign or business metrics, but also positive societal outcomes, supported by quantitative and qualitative evidence such as changes in awareness, sentiment, behavior, actions or policies.

Please note: Selected industry experts are asked to judge the Shorty Awards according to their area of expertise. This ensures a true jury of your peers is responsible for considering the work and that it will be judged fairly and accurately.

The agencies, brands and non-profit organizations with the highest number of points will be eligible for Agency of the Year, Brand of the Year or Non-Profit of the year.

PAYMENT POLICY

Entries are non-refundable. You may ask for credit when withdrawing entry and the team will assess case by case to understand the reasoning behind the credit request.

Entries can be paid online. Invoices are available for submitting five or more entries. Invoices are due receipt, hence can not be modified once they are generated and sent. To avoid this, make sure you ask for the exact number of categories you are looking to pay via invoice.

CONTACT INFO

Have questions? Visit the FAQ page or you can reach us via the online chatbot or email us at [email protected]

PRIVACY POLICY

All information submitted through the Shorty Awards is subject to our privacy policy.
To review our privacy policy click here.

ADMINISTRATOR; RELEASE; LIMITATION OF LIABILITY

The Shorty Awards are administered by Shorty Awards LLC (“Shorty Awards”), which will be entitled to make all final decisions regarding the awards in its sole discretion. Shorty Awards reserves the right, in its sole discretion, to suspend, cancel or modify the Shorty Awards at any time. By participating in the Shorty Awards, whether as a nominee, a nominator or otherwise, each participant agrees to release and hold Shorty Awards and its employees, officers, directors, shareholders, agents, representatives, affiliates, advertising and promotion agencies, consultants and legal advisors, harmless from any and all losses, damages, rights, claims and actions of any kind in connection with the awards, including, without limitation, personal injury, death, and property damage, and claims based on publicity rights, defamation, or invasion of privacy. Shorty Awards reserves the right to publish all entries wholly or in part, as case studies or for publicity purposes. PARTICIPANTS AGREE THAT PARTICIPATION IN THE SHORTY AWARDS SHALL BE AT THEIR SOLE RISK. IN NO EVENT SHALL SHORTY AWARDS BE LIABLE UNDER CONTRACT, TORT, STRICT LIABILITY, NEGLIGENCE OR OTHER LEGAL THEORY (I) FOR ANY LOST PROFITS OR SPECIAL, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, PUNITIVE OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES OF ANY KIND WHATSOEVER, SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES (HOWEVER ARISING) OR (II) FOR ANY DIRECT DAMAGES IN EXCESS OF (IN THE AGGREGATE) $100. THE FOREGOING LIMITATION OF LIABILITY SHALL APPLY TO THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW IN THE APPLICABLE JURISDICTION.

USER SUBMISSIONS; APPEARANCE RELEASE

Any and all content submitted by a nominator, a nominee or any other participant in the Shorty Awards is referred to in these Terms of Service as a “User Submission.” Each participant shall be solely responsible for his or her own User Submissions and the consequences of submitting them. By submitting a User Submission, the participant represents and warrants that he or she owns or has the necessary licenses, rights, consents, and permissions to his or her User Submissions (and all content included therein), including the right to authorize Shorty Awards to use the User Submissions in the manner contemplated herein. By submitting the User Submissions to us for public display, the participant hereby grants us an irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, non-exclusive, royalty-free, sublicenseable and transferable license to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display, and perform the User Submissions in any media formats now or hereafter created and through any media channels now or hereafter created. Finally, by submitting the User Submission, the participant represents and warrants that the submission is not done in violation of any state, federal, or international law or regulation, including, but not limited to, laws regulating personal data protection. In addition, any person who attends the awards ceremony or any other event associated with the Shorty Awards hereby grants us the irrevocable, worldwide, perpetual, royalty-free, sub-licensable and transferable right to use, reproduce, distribute, prepare derivative works of, display and perform any audio recordings, photographs, video or other images in which such person may be included that are taken at such event, whether accurate or distorted in character or form, without restrictions to changes or transformations, in conjunction with such person’s own name or a fictitious name at our discretion, or no name at all. The use of any trademark, service mark or logo of Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube or any other media outlet is not meant to imply such media outlet’s endorsement of, or affiliation, with The Shorty Awards in any way. We will not tolerate violations of intellectual property rights. If you are a copyright owner and believe that any User Submission or other Content infringes upon your copyrights, you may submit a notification pursuant to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (“DMCA”). To provide us notice of an infringement, you must provide a written communication to the attention of “DMCA Infringement Notification Dept.” at Shorty Awards LLC, 382 NE 191st Street, PMB 94561, Miami, FL 33179-3899 or by email to [email protected] that sets forth the information specified by the DMCA (see http://www.copyright.gov/title17/92chap5.html#512). You may be liable for damages (including costs and attorneys’ fees) if you materially misrepresent that an activity is infringing your copyright.