2025 Ad Age Breakout Brands—how to enter

The fight for attention is real. Brands are everywhere—outdoors, on shelves and in your feed. But with shrinking budgets, smaller teams and sharp-eyed consumers, breaking through the noise is no small feat. In 2023, Ad Age published the first class of Breakout Brand Leaders, a group of 25 individuals behind the marketing success of emerging brands. Last year, we expanded the program to include work—campaigns, collaborations and branding efforts that have driven outsized success for new and challenger brands. For this year’s Breakout Brands awards, we’ve introduced three new categories. The final deadline for entries is Wednesday, May 28, 2025. What is Breakout Brands? The Breakout Brands program consists of Breakout Brand Leaders and Breakout Brand Work. Breakout Brand Leaders recognizes individuals who are driving the marketing success of up-and-coming brands today. Breakout Brand Work honors campaigns and marketing efforts driving the success of up-and-coming brands. Breakout Brand Work categories include: B2B Campaign of the Year, Best Design/Branding of the Year, Best Partnership/Collaboration of the Year, Best ROI: Work that Works, Best Use of Social Media, Experiential Campaign of the Year, Print/Out-of-Home Work of the Year, Purpose-Led Campaign of the Year and Video of the Year. What’s new this year? We introduced three new work categories: • B2B Campaign of the Year • Best ROI: Work that Works • Best Use of Social Media What counts as a Breakout Brand? Breakout Brands is not just for direct-to-consumer or startup brands. Executives at and marketing efforts for older brands that are currently experiencing a renaissance or have recently burst on the scene are also eligible. There are also no requirements on the age of the brand; however, entrants should demonstrate the recent success of their brand with metrics including sales figures, market-share gains, growth in investment, or similar data. Are the Breakout Brands awards for U.S.-only companies/individuals? The Breakout Brands are open to anyone anywhere in the world. What does the entry form require? For Breakout Brand Leaders, you will be asked to submit background information on your nominee, business results from the past 16 months and a headshot. For Breakout Brand Work, you will be asked to submit background information on the marketing efforts, metrics and data to demonstrate the success of the work and examples of the work. How much does it cost to enter? The Breakout Brand Leaders entry fee is $375 per entry. The Breakout Brand Work entry fee is $425 per entry. When is the deadline? The final deadline is May 28, 2025, at 5 p.m. ET Enter Breakout Brands at AdAge.com/BreakoutBrands.

2025 Ad Age Breakout Brands—how to enter

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