Eligibility Rules & Conditions

Eligibility rules and conditions are applicable to all entries submitted in the competition.

General Conditions

1. The Golden Drum competition is open to all agencies, advertisers, clients, design or production houses, media and other parties involved in the creation or production of marketing communications registered in the following countries: 
   Albania, Austria, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Israel, Italy, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lebanon, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Norway, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Ukraine and Uzbekistan.

2. All entries must have been aired/published/implemented for the first time between 22 August 2023 and 21 August 2024. Except in group A Brand Building – category Brand Vitality and H B2B – category B2B Brand Vitality where the start of the communication must have been aired/published/implemented for the first time before 22 August 2023. Entries must not have been entered in the Golden Drum competition in previous years.
3. Entry deadline: 21 August 2024 4 September 2024. Entries cannot be cancelled or withdrawn from the festival for any reason after 21 August 2024.
4. Shortlists will be announced on 2 October 2024 at 8 AM (CET). Winners will be announced on 10 October 2024.
5. Entries cannot be submitted without the prior consent of the advertiser/owner of the copyrights of the advertisement.
6. The quality of entries submitted and ownership of entry copyrights are the sole responsibility of each entrant. Entrants release the Festival organizer of any responsibilities to any and all third parties.

Competition Eligibility

7. Each advertisement, event or campaign constitutes one entry. An individual entry may be registered once in the same group, EXCEPT in sections One-Channel and Omni-Channel Drum, where one entry can be registered into up to three different categories within each group. In all groups in section Craft Drum (A. Industry Craft, B. Motion Craft, C. Digital Craft and D. Innovation Craft), and Creative Media Excellence Drum, (B. Excellence in Media), the same entry can be submitted into multiple categories within those specific groups.
8. If the same entry is submitted into two or more groups, the relevance of individual submission and the clarity of its presentation regarding the selected group are the sole responsibility of each entrant.
9. If there are several agencies associated with the same entry, the latter is considered a joint entry. If the entry is submitted as such, the associated agencies shall be allotted points proportionately (i.e. if a work with two agencies receives 10 points, each agency shall receive half or 5 points).
10. If an entry has been created with a contribution from other companies or agencies and this contribution is deemed smaller, these other companies or agencies may be registered in countries other than those listed in Point 1 of the Eligibility Rules & Conditions. Other companies or agencies may be credited for their contribution on the entry submission form under “additional company credits”. No points shall be collected by these additional company credits for overall Festival’s awards.
11. Ads forming a series shall be entered separately, and each single entry judged separately. The pricing of the series applies as follows: first entry of the series will be charged by the entry fee for the individual group (by the entry fee posted on the Golden Drum website Fees & Payment), while each additional entry within the series will be charged a flat fee of 140 € per entry. If you want a series to be judged as such (as one entry) and shown consecutively, you must tick the appropriate box in the entry form. A minimum of two advertisements in the same category are needed to form a series. A series or a single entry may receive an award. You can enter a series in section One-Channel Drum group A. Film, B. Print, C. Out of home and D. Audio, section Craft Drum group A. Industry Craft, B. Motion Craft, C. Digital Craft and D. Innovation Craft, section Creative Media Excellence Drum group  B. Excellence in Media, and section All Juries group A. Genius Loci/Local Spirit, B. Social good and C. Game Changer. The jury reserves the right to split the series if they deem the quality of the entries forming the series is not on the same level.
12. All entries must be submitted exactly as they were aired/published/implemented, and must not be modified for entry. If an entry is not in English language, it must be translated/subtitled. The translation must be faithful to the original version.
13. Concrete or descriptive business results are considered mandatory credits in the Creative Business Excellence Section. Entries lacking business results will not be considered for awards in this section.
14. Concrete or descriptive media results are considered mandatory credits in the Creative Media Excellence Section. Entries lacking media results will not be considered for awards in this section.
15. It is the entrant’s responsibility to check and enter all the correct credits for an entry. All credits in all Golden Drum publications will appear as stated in the entry. The Festival organizer reserves the right to correct obviously misplaced credits, spelling mistakes or inappropriate use of language, if necessary. Failure to enter the correct details, however, is the sole responsibility of the entrant.
16. All data regarding the authors of an individual entry shall be stated in the catalogue on the website. The Festival’s organizer reserves the right to limit the number of authors to between 6 and 8, and to omit suffixes such as GmbH, Inc. and SA in the entrant’s name for other announcements of competition results.
17. The agency name from the entry form shall be the name under which all their entries are listed and will appear on certificates and trophies if the entry is shortlisted or awarded. Please do not include suffixes e.g. GmbH, Inc., SA etc. Please also note that the agency name, agency network name, brand name and campaign name from the entry form shall be taken into account in the calculation of awards presented on the basis of the Festival’s points system.
18. The Festival organizer reserves the right to change the groups and categories selected by the entrants if they deem that the group or category chosen by the entrant is incorrect, and may move the entry into a more suitable group or category. Changes to groups and categories are only made inside an individual section.
19. All entries must have been created within the context of a normal paying contract with a client, except in the “Social Good” group. The client must have paid for all the media costs or at least their majority.
20. Country of implementation can be different from the country of origin of the entering company and can be different from those listed in Point 1 of the Eligibility Rules & Conditions, EXCEPT in group A. Genius Loci/Local spirit, where the country of implementation needs to be one of the 42 countries eligible to compete at Golden Drum Festival.
21. Any entry that has been deemed in breach of any of the voluntary or regulatory codes of practice valid in the country of its origin by the relevant self-regulatory or regulatory body until the final date of judging shall be considered ineligible. It is the entrant’s responsibility to withdraw an entry if a breach arises prior to judging and voting as well as the Golden Drum awards ceremony.
22. The Festival organizer may refuse entries that offend national or religious sentiments or public taste.

Judging & Awards

23. All registered entries shall be reviewed and judged by one of five international Juries, comprised especially for the One-Channel, Omni-Channel, Craft, Creative Business Excellence, and Creative Media Excellence section. Entries in the All Juries section will be shortlisted by the five juries together and judged for awards by their jury presidents and one representative of each of the five juries chosen by the organiser. The Juries may present a Grand Prix award in each of the 25 groups of entries (except Social Good group, Genius Loci / Local Spirit group and Game Changer group), but they reserve the right to withhold one Grand Prix in each of the five sections. In the exceptional case of a major deviation in the quality of entries judged in more than one group, and with the consent of the Competition Director of the Golden Drum Festival, each Jury reserves the right to withhold the Golden Drum award in two groups from each section. The juries may also present Silver Drum and Bronze Drum awards to the best entries in a category but are not obliged to do so.
24. A special All Juries section featuring groups focused on local spirit, social good causes, and works demonstrating a creative breakthrough, an innovative shift in process or procedures that lead the way forward in advertising will be judged somewhat differently now, and will not have its own jury. Works submitted in this section will be rated by all jury members instead, and awarded by the five juries' presidents and one representative of each of the five juries chosen by the organiser.
25. If the client of the submitted entry is a non-profit organization, the entry may not receive the Grand Prix award in any of the Golden Drum festival groups. If the client is a profit organization, the entry may receive the Grand Prix award, even if the entry is deemed by their content to be social and charity-related. However, all social and charity-related entries (created for profit or non-profit organizations) may be submitted to the Social Good group, which will be judged by all jury members and the winner will receive the Best of Social Good Award. Grand Prix is not awarded in Social Good group. The recipient of this award receives 12 points. The Juries reserve the right to withhold this award.
26. Grand Prix is not awarded in Genius Loci / Local Spirit group. However, the winner will receive the Best of Genius Loci Award. The recipient of this award receives 12 points. The group will be judged by all jury members which reserves the right to withhold this award.
27. Grand Prix is not awarded in Game Changer group. However, the winner will receive the Game Changer Award. The recipient of this award receives 12 points. The group will be judged by all jury members which reserves the right to withhold this award.
28. Entries included on the shortlist and Bronze Drum, Silver Drum, Golden Drum, Grand Prix, Best of Social Good, Best of Genius Loci and Game Changer Award recipients shall receive points as follows:

29. Series of entries included on the shortlist and Bronze Drum, Silver Drum, Golden Drum, Grand Prix, Best of Social Good, Best of Genius Loci and  Game Changer award recipients shall receive points as follows:

Only the points for the highest-ranking award shall be taken into account.

The agency name shall be taken into account in the calculation of awards presented on the basis of the Festival’s points system.

30. The following awards shall be presented on the basis of the aforementioned points system:

• Adriatic Agency of the Year award shall be presented on the basis of the Festival’s points system for the most successful entries from the following Adriatic Region countries: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia and Slovenia. Based on collected points from all four sections, three of the best entries will be announced and one aforementioned award shall be presented. The Festival reserves the right to present the award only and not to explicate the collected points.
• ​Brand Grand Prix for the advertised brand that collects the most points (field“BRAND NAME” in the entry form);
• ​Independent Agency of the Year for the most successful independent advertising agency that collects the most points (field “AGENCY NAME AND CITY” in the entry form);
• Agency of the Year for the agency that collects the most points (field “AGENCY NAME AND CITY” in the entry form);
• Production Agency of the Year for the most successful production company that collects the most points (field “PRODUCTION COMPANY” in the entry form);
• Digital Agency of the Year for the most successful digital agency that collects the most points (field ˝DIGITAL AGENCY˝ in the entry form);
• Media Agency of the Year for the most successful media agency that collects the most points (field ˝MEDIA AGENCY˝ in the entry form);
• Creative Director of the Year awarded to the Creative Director of the Campaign of the Year that collects the most points for the campaign and the individual entries of the same campaign in all categories (fields “CAMPAIGN NAME” and “CREATIVE DIRECTOR” in the entry from);
• Network of the Year for the most successful advertising network on the basis of the points of all agencies that comprise the network in question (field “AGENCY NETWORK” in the entry form).

31. Festival winners have the right to use received awards for promotional purposes, with a proper description of the Festival or the award.

Other Rules

32. Any materials submitted as an entry in the competition become the property of the Festival organizer and will not be returned.
33. The entrant authorizes the Festival organizer to present the entries at the Festival (exhibitions and projections) and on the Festival website goldendrum.com in the catalogue of entries. The entrant also authorizes the Festival organizer to screen or publish the entries without prior consent of the entrant and without charge for the purpose of promoting the Festival. The aforementioned authorization is given for the duration of the copyright, and may be used worldwide for the sole purpose of promoting the Golden Drum Festival.
34. The Festival reserves the right to request a full media schedule from each entrant company to verify the authenticity of the ad(s) in the event that the entry is shortlisted or a winner.
35. The Festival organizer may need to contact the client with relation to any entry at the request of the jury at any time during the voting process, should any questions about the implementation or presentation of the work arise. In such cases, wherever possible, the entrant will be advised before this is done.
36. In the event of a complaint against any winning or shortlisted entry, the Festival organizer reserves the right to request detailed documentation from all parties concerned, including the complainant, the entrants and the client.
37. The Festival organizer shall not hesitate to withdraw an award in case a complaint is upheld.
38. A registered entry will not be considered complete until it has been paid for and the corresponding material arrives at the Festival office or is uploaded through Golden Drum on-line registration system. The Golden Drum does not accept responsibility for late entries.
39. Entry conditions must be strictly observed by all entrants. The completion and signature of the entry form implies the entrant’s full acceptance of the Festival rules. Non-compliance with any of the competition rules results in an entry’s automatic disqualification.
40. Any decision made by the Festival organizers in any matter relating to the Golden Drum Festival is considered final and binding.

See also Judging rules & Regulations.