Thursday 13th November 2025 Arena MK, Milton Keynes
OK, so you’ve decided to enter the APEA Awards – great choice, you’ve taken the first step towards rewarding your team with the attention and recognition their brilliant work deserves. Now all you have to do is write those entries!
Does this sound familiar? You make a mental note to start your entry when you get a spare moment… then life gets in the way. Weeks pass, then suddenly you're facing a looming deadline and are rushing to pull everything together (hoping it does justice to the brilliant project you're trying to showcase). Worse still, you don't ultimately enter at all!
Let’s change that! Writing a great Awards entry doesn’t have to be stressful or time-consuming. With a little focus and a bit of planning, it can be straightforward, even enjoyable!
Here are some simple tips to help you craft strong, stress-free entries, which will give your hard work the recognition it deserves.
This is the best first step. Take a few minutes to read through all the categories and identify the ones that best align with your prospective submissions.
Getting this right is crucial; misplaced entries could seriously hurt your chances. We’ve seen fantastic 'Forecourt Project' entries mistakenly submitted under 'Non-Retail Fuel Installation', and stunning 'Health & Safety' initiatives sold short in the 'Innovation' category. Don’t let a simple oversight undermine a great submission (and risk your win).
A no-brainer, which can be done before you have decided the categories you're going to enter. In fact, doing so will greatly assist you to make the right choice on the best categories to enter (as you can view the questions / scoring)!
Register your account on the Awards platform right now - it takes 2 minutes!
You will only need to do this once. Once signed up you can save, leave, return as you please, always picking up where you left off (no need to do the entire entry in one go).
Log in to the Awards platform and take a moment to read through the entry questions and judging criteria for your chosen categories. You can even download or print them for easy reference.
Then, spend 5 minutes thinking about how you’ll answer each question. What makes your project stand out? What results or impact can you highlight?
Consider calling a quick team meeting on the entry questions; it’s a great idea to chat this through with colleagues to collate a broad range of insights and entry headlines/highlights from different perspectives.
You don’t need to write thousands of words to impress our judges. However, please do assume they know nothing about you or your entry. So, be clear, be thorough and explain everything.
Keep your answers concise and to the point. Avoid repetition (seriously—no one likes repetition… see what we did there?). Make every word count!
If you feel like you have a worthy entry but you're worried your English skills will let you down - please don't let that stop you! We can assure you, our judges aren't scoring you on your grammar or spelling, they're judging you on your entry.
That said, the judges do need to be able to understand what you're trying to tell them. So perhaps identify a colleague that could proof your entry draft(s); you can offer to take them to the Awards as a treat if you get shortlisted!
You can also speak to us - once you've registered on the awards platform you can contact the awards organisers and ask for their help.
We would be more than happy to help you format your entry to make it as clear as possible - and we are totally independent of the judges.
Whilst our judges are a trusting lot, they also love to see claims and statements backed up by evidence.
Our Awards platform allows you to easily submit supporting evidence docs, and the most successful entries are usually the ones that have taken the time to provide this! ‘Evidence’ can take many forms—it doesn’t have to be complex. Think along the lines of:
Whatever you include, make sure it supports your story and helps the judges clearly see the value and results of your work.
Last year, 16 organisations started their Awards entries but didn’t finish in time. Despite reminders and follow-ups, they missed the deadline, and with it, a major opportunity!
So that’s 16 businesses that could have had their latest product, service, or site reviewed by our panel of VIP judges and seen by industry decision-makers with the power to open real doors.
That’s 16 names that weren’t read out by our celebrity host, Dara Ó Briain, at the APEA Awards Dinner in front of 600+ senior industry figures.
That’s 16 missed chances to be a finalist (even winner!) and unlock the marketing magic and priceless free airtime that comes with it!
This is the best free marketing opportunity your business gets every year...
... hit the deadline! In and on-time beats perfect but late, every time!