The Marketing Achievement Awards are South Africa’s premier marketing awards, setting the gold standard by recognising strategy anchored in real insight, execution that delivers, and commercial outcomes that prove the case to your board.

Looking beyond marketing communications, our judges evaluate each marketing initiative holistically: the strategy behind it, the execution that brought it to life, and the measurable business impact that followed.

Solo marketer, agency, or enterprise team, it makes no difference. The MAA is open to all South African organisations, regardless of size or industry. The judges don’t count headcount. They weigh thinking.

If your marketing moved the needle, we want to hear about it.

Three forces shape South African marketing right now.

<Code/>: digital transformation, technology, and AI in all its forms.

Culture: the deep human understanding that makes marketing resonate – not just cultural trends, but insight at its richest and broadest.

Commerce: the business outcomes, the ROI, the metrics that matter to your board.

Season 6 doesn’t ask you to master all three equally. It asks you to show us how you navigated them in a way that drove genuine business growth. Some of the best work leans heavily into one. Some finds power at the intersection of all three. Both paths lead to excellence.

Any individual or organisation active in South Africa whose marketing has delivered measurable business results. Brands, in-house teams, agencies, independent consultants, and entrepreneurs are all welcome.

There is no minimum organisation size or sector requirement. If you can show that your strategy drove real impact, these awards are for you.

Recognition is the obvious answer. It is not the best one.

The discipline of preparing a winning entry forces strategic clarity, surfaces what actually worked, and produces a document that becomes an internal case study, a pitch asset, and a benchmarking tool – all at once.

Add exclusive access to the State of Code, Culture & Commerce industry report, and the entry investment starts looking very different.

Find out everything the MAAs can do for your career, your team, and your business. →]

There are 12 Marketing Excellence categories and 3 Leadership Awards.

Marketing Excellence Categories:
– Excellence in Brand Positioning
– Excellence in Brand Launch Strategy
– Excellence in B2B Brand Marketing
– Excellence in Digital Brand Marketing
– Excellence in Integrated Marketing
– Excellence in Internal Marketing
– Excellence in Marketing Innovation
– Excellence in Product or Service Launch Strategy
– Excellence in Purpose-led Marketing
– Excellence in Resourceful Marketing
– Excellence in South African Resonance Marketing
– Excellence in Strategic Sponsorship Marketing

Leadership Awards:
– Rising Star of the Year (nominated category – see below)
– Marketing Person of the Year (nominated category – see below)
– Marketing Organisation of the Year

Full category criteria are available in the Entry Kit, available here →] 

Category Awards: Your marketing initiative must have been live in market between December 2024 and June 2026.

Marketing Organisation of the Year: Work spanning the past three years.

Rising Star of the Year: Career highlights from the past four years.

Most MAA categories are direct entries: you prepare your case study and submit it via the entry portal.

Two Leadership Awards work differently:

Marketing Person of the Year is a nominated category. Candidates are put forward by the marketing community, shortlisted by MASA and the MAA Council, before being invited to submitting an entry themselves.

Rising Star of the Year can be nominated by a colleague, manager, or industry peer (or) self-nominated – with a supporting endorsement. Candidates then complete a structured entry to support their nomination.

In short: nominated categories recognise individuals through community endorsement, not just self-submission. The entry portal will guide you through the relevant process for each.

The MAAs are open to all individuals and organisations active in South Africa. There is no minimum size or sector requirement.

To be eligible, your work must:

– Have been commercially produced and publicly launched
– Fall within the relevant qualifying period
– Be submitted via the online portal
– Have the approval of the most senior marketing lead on the project

Collaborative entries must have clear agreement on credits and on which party is submitting. Judges’ decisions are final.

Yes you can. But here is what separates winners from participants: tailoring each entry to that specific category’s criteria.

The same marketing initiative can tell different strategic stories depending on the lens you apply. Show judges you understand what makes each category distinct.

Generic copy-paste entries do not win. Ever.

A separate entry fee applies per category entered.

Yes, provided it was live in market during the qualifying period (December 2024 – June 2026) and you have updated your results.

Previous recognition does not disqualify you. But show us what is new. What you learned. How the story evolved.

That is fine. Just ensure you have sufficient results data from within the qualifying period.

Living initiatives often tell the most compelling stories.

One entry per project. If more than one company was involved, all parties must agree in advance on who will submit and how credits will be allocated.

If duplicate entries arrive for the same project, only the first submission will stand – so please align with your partners before submitting. No refunds will be given on subsequent entries.

Not a problem. Brilliant work that drove real results wins – as long as you can prove those results with evidence.

The difference is not whether you tracked everything beautifully throughout the year. It is whether you can demonstrate impact through screenshots, data, and examples that already exist in your systems.

Most winning entries are assembled by pulling together evidence teams already have. The Winning Entry Blueprint in the Entry Kit shows you exactly what judges need to see.

Yes. All entries require approval from the most senior marketing lead on the project prior to peer review.

If you are an agency or consultant submitting on behalf of a client, client sign-off is assumed at the point of submission.

Should any issues arise regarding approval after an entry has been submitted, no refund will be given.

Harder than a copy-paste job. Easier than you think.

Your entry has five components:

1. Executive Summary: A short elevator pitch that frames
   your submission.
2. Section A: What did you set out to achieve?
   Strategy, objectives, and the insight behind your approach. (Worth 50% of available points).
3. Section B: How did you do it?
   Execution, tactics, and how it all came together.
   (Worth 25% of available points).
4. Section C: What were your results?
   Outcomes measured against objectives, and what you learned. (Worth 25% of available points).
5. Section D: Code, Culture & Commerce Context.
   A short set of checkboxes and prompted questions – takes about 10 minutes. Not scored. Contributes to the anonymous industry report that all entrants receive.

Supporting collateral is submitted as a clearly labelled PDF or PowerPoint.

The entry form guides you through each section with prompts. Download the Entry Kit for full criteria – share it with your team and get everyone involved before you start →]

Yes. Entries without evidence of results give judges nothing to evaluate your work against – and that works against you.

Be specific. Show your dashboards or screenshots. Speak to the input and output KPIs that mattered. The more contextualised and evidenced, the better.

Numbers tell you what happened. Context tells you why it matters. You need both.

Mark any sensitive figures clearly as [CONFIDENTIAL] in your entry.

Judges understand commercial sensitivity. If you cannot share exact figures, there are recognised approaches – percentage changes, directional growth, indexed figures, trend analysis, and more. Our guide to presenting results confidentially covers ten proven methods with worked examples.

What judges cannot work with is vagueness masquerading as confidentiality. Show the scale and direction of impact. That is what matters.

• Supporting materials: PDF or PowerPoint, clearly labelled
• Images: JPG or PNG, minimum 1920x1080px
• Logos: PNG with transparent background, minimum 1000px wide
• Video (optional): MP4, 1080p, maximum 100MB – or linked if larger

Reference everything clearly in your written entry: “See Example A”, “Refer to Graph C”. Make it effortless for judges to connect your story to your proof. If they have to hunt for evidence, you have already lost them.

Yes, limits apply per section and are designed to encourage concise, strategic thinking.

Judges prefer clear and compelling over elaborate and exhaustive. Every word should earn its place.

Full word limits are detailed in the entry form itself.

In short, No.

This season’s entry deadline is firm and no extensions will be granted. Life happens, so please plan to submit at least 24 hours before the deadline. 

The deadline for Season 6 is midnight on 11 July 2026.

Yes, changes are possible until the final submission deadline. 

Category Awards: R3,400 per entry (excluding VAT)
Rising Star of the Year: R500 per entry (excluding VAT)
Marketing Organisation of the Year: R3,400 (excluding VAT)

A separate fee applies for each category entered.

All payments are processed securely through PayFast.

You can pay by:
– Credit or debit card (processed immediately)
– Electronic Funds Transfer (processed immediately)

You do not need to pay upfront, however payment is required before your entry can be submitted.

Entry fees are non-refundable once payment has been made. We encourage you to review the entry criteria carefully and download the Entry Kit before committing to payment.

In exceptional circumstances, please contact us and we will do our best to assist.

Please Note: if duplicate entries are received for the same project, only the first submission will be considered. No refund will be given on subsequent entries – so please align with your partners before submitting your work.

Your invoice will be generated automatically during the payment process, using the registration details you’ve provided.

Senior marketing professionals with significant strategic experience, representing diverse industries and sectors across South Africa. These are not theorists. They are practitioners who have solved the same problems you are solving.

The adjudication process is overseen by the Marketing Achievers Council – 25 of South Africa’s most senior marketing leaders.

Category judging panels are drawn from a broader pool of 75+ industry professionals. Judge profiles will be available on our website closer to adjudication. 

Three phases:

1. Online judging: Each entry is individually scored and commented on by a panel of judges. Entries that score 70% or above on aggregate are considered Qualifier material and advance to the next round.
2. Final adjudication: Qualifying entries are discussed in depth by the full panel in person. Judges interrogate the detail behind the top scorers to determine category winners, and may award special Silver Commendations and Bronze recognitions where the work warrants it.
3. Calibration: Scores are reviewed across all categories to ensure consistency and fairness of outcome.

It is rigorous. It is thorough. It is designed to find genuine excellence – and to reward it at every level it deserves.

Every entry is read, considered, and scored by a senior marketing practitioner – by hand. Judges are strictly prohibited from using any AI tool in their evaluation.

This is not only about the integrity of assessment. It is about protecting yours.

Your commercially sensitive strategy, results, and insights are never loaded into any AI system. They are read by a human being who has signed a comprehensive NDA before seeing a single entry.

Your competitive advantage stays yours.

Judge assignments are intentional. We research backgrounds, relationships, and competitive landscapes before allocating judges to categories. Your commercial interests are our highest priority when deciding who evaluates your work.

Judges may enter the awards in categories where they are not assigned to judge. The process is designed to make this work fairly for everyone.

Yes. All entrants receive basic scoring feedback on request. Winners receive full judge comments and a written citation as part of their recognition.

Not winning is not the same as not mattering.

Entrants who score 70% or above receive a Certificate of Accomplishment as a Qualifier.

All entrants receive:

– Scoring feedback from industry leaders (on request)
– Exclusive access to the State of Code, Culture & Commerce benchmark report

The discipline of preparing an entry forces clarity, surfaces what is working, and produces a document your team will use long after the gala.

1. The State of Code, Culture & Commerce Report: For the first time, all entrants receive an anonymised benchmark report compiled from entry data across all categories. Insights on how South African marketers are navigating digital transformation, leveraging cultural insight, and proving commercial value. The broader industry receives headline findings only. Entrants get the full report – a month before that too.
2. Updated Rubrics: Evaluation criteria across all 12 categories have been refined for Season 6, with clearer guidance for both entrants and judges.
3. Team Credits: For the first time, the people behind the work are formally recognised alongside the brand and agency. Everyone who contributed gets their name on the win.
4. Human-only Judging: Every entry is evaluated by hand, by a senior practitioner. No AI tools are permitted at any stage of the judging process.
5. Refined Awards Gala Format: A sharper, more dynamic evening. Trophy winners and the reasons for their win announced on stage. Full citations for all the winners published online afterwards.