All individuals and/or teams at for-profit and non-profit organizations including: sole practitioners, companies, agencies, PR and public affairs companies, associations, government and NGOs, and corporations. Vendors are also eligible to compete on behalf of their client(s). Your work for the 2017 competition must have been first produced, aired or screened between January 1, 2016 and December 31, 2016. Entrants must be directly responsible for the design, creation or production of their submissions. With the exception of Student Awards, all submissions must be created by professionals on behalf of their clients. Non-professional submissions will not be accepted.

The Contest is open for submissions in all media—direct mail, television, internet, phones, radio, newspaper, collateral—and all disciplines, including opposition research, field, fundraising, and international.

The 2017 Pollie Awards Contest is divided in to four divisions:

• Candidate Division – Work created for a Candidate Campaign
• Ballot Initiative Division – Work created for a Ballot Initiative or a Referendum Campaign
• Public Affairs Division – Work created for a Public Affairs or Issue Advocacy Campaign

The contest opens on Monday, October 31, 2016 and closes Monday, January 23, 2017, 11:59 PM EST.

In order to maintain the integrity and fairness of the Pollie Awards, and to prevent possible bias in judging, you cannot include your company name in your submitted work.

If your company is also the client in the entry you are submitting, you may include the client’s name as long as you do not indicate that it is the company you work for. AAPC reserves the right to disqualify entries if they violate this rule.

The overall categories are meant for a series of work from one campaign, i.e. more than one piece of work. The regular categories are meant for one piece of work per entry.

Yes, you may submit the same entry in more than one category. Each entry is charged a separate fee.

The Pollie Contest is judged exclusively online. To guarantee that every submission is evaluated fairly by our peers, only AAPC draws on the expertise of more than 250 judges of equal proportion with regard to political party affiliation. Panels of six to eight judges are comprised of political consultants, public affairs practitioners, academics, political analysts, advertising experts, and media personalities who are randomly assigned categories which are judged primarily on the basis of political effectiveness, creativity and professionalism. Each judge’s score is averaged with those from all other judges evaluating the same Pollie entry. All entries receiving awards must reach a set minimum score to be eligible.

For more information, please refer to the 2017 Judging Handbook.

Yes! Judges can be AAPC members and non-members and they may not evaluate any categories to which they (or their organization) have submitted work. If you are interested in being a 2017 Pollie Contest Judge, please apply today! This year’s judging period will run from Tuesday, January 24, 2017 through Tuesday February 7, 2017. When you are approved, you will receive an email with further instructions.

To show our appreciation for taking your time to be a part of the 2016 Pollie Awards & Conference, your name and company will be featured in the 2017 Winners Book. As a judge, you are eligible to receive a 25% discount off of the applicable full conference registration rate upon completion of on-time judging (Note: you must finish all of your assigned judging by the deadline, February 6, 2017 to be eligible for the discount). Moreover, judging gives you the unique opportunity to review a broad array of compelling work that will surely inspire your own! Note: this offer may not be combined with any other, including Early Bird discounts.

AAPC will contact you if you are selected as a 2017 Pollie Award winner, but will keep your winning entry and award level confidential until the 2017 Pollie Awards Ceremony on March 16, 2017.

The Pollie Award winners will be publicly announced at the Pollie Awards Dinner & Ceremony on March 16, 2017 at Paséa Hotel & Spa in Huntington Beach, CA.

Winners receive a Pollie trophy, a “press kit” including an official winner’s seal and press release template and recognition in AAPC’s printed Winners Book and more.

Please refer to the following illustration.