Press: Golden Drum 2025: Call for entries is now open
PRESS RELEASE
GOLDEN DRUM FESTIVAL
7 MARCH 2025
Golden Drum 2025: Call for entries is now open
The Golden Drum Festival calls for entries. Works aired, published, or publicly released for the first time between 22 August 2024 and 22 August 2025, are eligible to compete for the prestigious Golden Drum awards.
Agencies, advertisers, media companies and creatives from 42 countries are invited to submit their best work by 22 August 2025, across six sections: One-Channel Drum, Omni-Channel Drum, Craft Drum, Creative Media Excellence Drum, Creative Business Excellence Drum and a special All Juries Section. The main competition’s only group open to entries from around the world is the 'Game Changer’, a special group designed for campaigns that break away from traditional advertising approaches.
Golden Drum will again celebrate crème de la crème of the advertising industry in October in Portorož. The festival's new visual identity, "Eye.Sea.You." embodies creativity's essence—seeing beyond the ordinary and connecting ideas in unexpected ways. We believe that showcasing your best work at Golden Drum, will not only capture the creative industry’s attention but also inspire, influence, and shape the future trends together.
Join us from 13 to 14 October 2025 in Portorož, Slovenia and seize this golden opportunity to gain the well-deserved recognition and celebrate with the best!
Novelties in 2025
The Golden Drum Festival continues to evolve, celebrating creativity that embodies authenticity and innovation. In 2025, we are spotlighting exceptional work through the All Juries Section, featuring three distinctive groups:
- Genius Loci / Local Spirit – Honouring campaigns that capture and celebrate local identity.
- Game Changer – Showcasing groundbreaking ideas that redefine creative boundaries on a global scale.
- Social Good – Recognizing impactful creativity that drives positive change for both profit and non-profit organizations.
Given the significance of these campaigns, all five juries will participate in the shortlisting process. The final awards will be granted by the five jury presidents, joined by a representative from each jury, ensuring a diverse and well-rounded selection.
This year marks the beginning of an exciting new partnership with thenetworkone, dedicated to supporting independent agencies that often face challenges in gaining global recognition. Through this collaboration, Grand Prix and Gold-winning works from independent agencies will automatically qualify for the Indie Awards, providing them with a platform to showcase their creative excellence on another international stage.
Furthermore, our continued partnership with Little Black Book ensures that all Grand Prix winners gain direct entry into The Immortal Awards competition, further enhancing their visibility and industry recognition.
Novelties presented by the festival:
Competition
While there are no significant structural changes to the groups and categories this year, updates in the entry process reflect the evolving industry landscape.
AI Disclaimer
A new disclosure question has been introduced, requiring entrants to specify if and how AI technology was used in their submitted works. This initiative promotes transparency, allowing the jury to evaluate entries with full context and fairness.
Cultural context question
To highlight the importance of local markets, the cultural context question - previously unique to the Genius Loci / Local Spirit group - will now be expanded to all groups and categories. This expansion ensures that the jury fully understands the relevance of each entry within its specific brand, market, and moment in time.
Partnership with thenetworkone
Golden Drum is proud to strengthen its connection with the independent agency community through a new partnership with thenetworkone. This collaboration amplifies independent creative excellence on a global level, celebrating and supporting agencies that push creative boundaries and redefine the industry.
As part of this initiative, all independent agencies that win Golden Drum or Grand Prix awards at the festival will receive a complimentary entry into the Indie Awards 2026, allowing them to submit one piece of work into a category of their choice. Eligible works must be aired, launched, or released to the public for the first time between 30 September 2024 and 31 October 2025 and must not have previously been entered into any past Indie Awards.
The Indie Awards stand as the only large-scale international awards dedicated exclusively to independent agencies across all communication disciplines, judged solely by independent agencies.
Julian Boulding, Founder and President of thenetworkone, favours the Golden Drum as the festival he most enjoys coming back to, since “Golden Drum has time for everyone. Large agency, small agency, it doesn’t matter here. Are you looking for talented young people from the other side of Europe, honing their skills, ready to break onto the world’s biggest stages. This is where you will find them.” And he emphasizes the connection of Indie Awards being founded in the same spirit: “Not as a stop-off to gather a few points in the Champions league of creativity, not to celebrate the agency with the biggest budget for awards entry fees and sponsorships – but the agencies and the people who do the freshest, most inspiring, most empathetic work – wherever they are from. “
Eextending partnership with Little Black Book & AdForum
The festival continues its partnership with Little Black Book. As part of this collaboration, all Grand Prix-winning works from Golden Drum will be entered directly and free of charge into competition of The Immortal Awards. The eligibility period for The Immortal Awards runs from 1 September 2024 to 31 August 2025. The company with the winning entry will receive a complimentary membership to Little Black Book, providing entry to the Immortal Awards as well as the opportunity to take advantage of the full Little Black Book offer.
Golden Drum is also featured in the AdForum Business Creative Report, a unique ranking of the world’s most-awarded campaigns by industry sector. "We are proud to have supported Golden Drum for several years, as we share the same mission: to inspire and promote innovative talent within the communications industry." Philippe Paget, Global Chief Executive Officer, AdForum.
International rankings
The festival’s competition is recognized and included on the WARC Creative Rankings, The Drum World Creative Rankings and AdForum Rankings, further affirming its global impact and prestige.
Entry & Delegates fees
Special discounts
All entrants of Golden Drum Festival can choose among the Super Early Bird, the Early Bird, and the Standard Entry fees for the competition.
For every 10 entries, the entrant gets completed delegate pass without lunch for attending the Golden Drum Festival free of charge. More about Entry Fees see here.
All Ukrainian entrants receive a 50% discount on entry fees.
All delegates can already ensure their passes: Complete Pass (with or without lunch) or Young Drummers Pass (under 30 years old), see the pricelist here.
In collaboration with regional Associations, Golden Drum offers a 20% discount on delegate fees for their members. See here the list of Associations the festival is partnering with.
Key competition information
Deadline for Entry Submission: 22 August 2025 at 23.59 CET
Deadline for Super Early Bird Entry Fee: 25 April 2025
Deadline for Early Bird Entry Fee: 27 June 2025
Golden Drum Shortlists Announced: 30 September 2025 at 8.00 CET
Golden Drum Awards Show: 14 October 2025
Groups and Categories: https://goldendrum.com/competition/groups-and-categories
Golden Drum Juries: https://goldendrum.com/competition/juries
Entry System: https://engine.goldendrum.com/
Entry Fees: https://goldendrum.com/competition/competition-fees-payment/one-channel-drum-prices
Media materials
Download images: https://goldendrum.com/press/media-materials
Additional information:
T: + 386 1 439 60 50
Social media:
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/goldendrum/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/golden-drum-international-festival-of-creativity/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/GoldenDrumFestival/
Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/user/GoldenDrumFestival
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About Golden Drum
The Golden Drum Festival was born with a simple idea of bringing together creatives from different, back then often defined as New European countries. Thirty-one years ago, we’ve learned to play by the rules while dancing to the beat of our own drum. In the realm of advertising, rules aren’t guidelines; they are the canvas for our artistic rebellion. We respect them, we understand them, and then we twist them into something unforgettably unique. The Golden Drum Festival was chosen as one of the seven regional award shows included in WARC Rankings.
