Judges will read and pre-score all entry forms, considering any supporting materials submitted. Judges will be asked to give a score for each question within the entry form, as listed in the bullet points below. These will be combined to give an overall score for each entry. All judges’ pre-scores will then be combined and the highest-scoring entries will determine the shortlists.
The awards will be judged by some of the biggest names in social media, who will meet to discuss the highest-scoring entries and then agree on the winner for each category.
Click here to see this year’s judging panel.
Entries should not exceed 1000 words in total and should relate to work undertaken between February 2024 – June 2025.
Judging Criteria:
Judging session – 25 June 2025
Shortlist announcement – 27 June 2025
Judges will read and pre-score all entry forms, considering any supporting materials submitted. Judges will be asked to give a score for each question within the entry form, as listed in the bullet points below. These will be combined to give an overall score for each entry. All judges’ pre-scores will then be combined, and the highest-scoring entries will determine the shortlists.
Judges will meet to discuss the highest-scoring entries and then agree on the winner for each category.
The awards will be judged by some of the biggest names in search. Click here to see this year’s judging panel.
Entries should not exceed 1000 words in total and should relate to work undertaken between February 2024 – June 2025
CAMPAIGN AWARDS
The judges will be looking for clear objectives, creative and effective implementation, and tangible and demonstrable results in the campaign award categories. They will also consider the structure, presentation, and clarity of each entry.
Each entry must include information under the following headings:
Objective(s) & budget (1-10 points)
Tell us what you were looking to achieve from the campaign and any targets that were set. We recommend showing targets as quantifiable metrics e.g., ‘Increase conversions from 150 to 300 a month’ rather than ‘Increase conversions by 10%’.
Please include a breakdown of implementation costs, staffing costs, agency fees etc. All elements of the entry form are confidential and judges will not share this information. If you are unable to provide a detailed budget breakdown, please include the financial band your budget is within along with the percentage budget allocated for staffing costs, agency fees and media spend etc.
Target audience & strategy (1-10 points)
Please provide us with details about the audience you were targeting and your overall strategy to reach them as well as the strategy to meet the overall objectives.
Implementation & creativity (1-10 points)
Please give us a detailed explanation of your implementation for the campaign. Include screenshots to help us visualize campaigns. Provide information on the creativity of the campaign.
Details of any challenges faced and how these were overcome (1-10 points)
What challenges were unique to you and how have you overcome them? What was the end result of overcoming these challenges?
Results & evaluation (1-10 points)
Please relate these to the objectives and targets stated above. Provide actual numbers rather than percentages wherever possible.
Why should your campaign win? (1-10 points)
What do you think sets your campaign apart from the other campaigns being judged? Judges will in particular be looking for the thing that makes this campaign different to the others, what is unique?
Any entries that do not include information under all of these headings will be marked down. If appropriate you may include up to three pieces of supporting materials.
SOCIAL MEDIA TOOL AWARD
The judges will be looking for a clear description of an outstanding social media tool, with an indication of budget. Judges will be looking for new features/tools added in the last twelve months for the software awards. They will also consider the structure, presentation, and clarity of each entry.
Each entry must include information under the following headings:
Overview of Tool/Software
Please provide the judges with a synopsis of what the tool does and how it adds value to the end user.
Total budget
Please include costs associated with running the tool/software and how much you intend to or do sell the tool/software for.
Existing problems and target audience (1-10 points)
Please include details outlining the problems that this tool/software solves and how if at all these problems were previously dealt with. Entrants should detail who the target customers or users of this product are.
USP and Features (1-10 points)
Please outline what is the tool/software’s unique proposition. Entrants should highlight the major features that are unique to the product/software or innovation which help solve a customer problem or benefit the customer positively.
Key Metrics (1-10 points)
Please detail what key metrics have you used to measure whether this tool or product is successful. I.e., does it save money, make things faster, generate more revenue?
Why should your Tool or Software win? (1-10 points)
What single thing about your tool or software is not done by anyone else? What makes it stand out to be award-worthy?
Please include a login and password for numerous users to access your tool/software. We ask you to send a ‘UK Social Media Awards’ log-in to allow judges to be able to test and score your product. In addition, if you’d like to provide a demo or video please provide the link below.
Please note if you’re unable to provide a login please contact awards@dontpanicprojects.com. Judging is based on the application form and the judges’ industry knowledge of the tools. They are a highly experienced judging panel with in-depth industry knowledge. The tool logins requested are for any judges who feel that want to delve deeper into any claims/functionality detailed in the entry.
Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission
Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form
AGENCY/TEAM/INDIVIDUAL AWARDS
Judges will be looking to reward the brightest and most promising social media communicator who has demonstrated an ongoing and sustained commitment to delivering best practices while showing a creative and innovative approach to social media. Judges will also consider the structure, presentation, and clarity of each entry.
Each entry must include information under the following headings:
Overview of the Agency/Team/Individual Nominee
Please include numbers, staff turnover, roles etc for agency and team nominations or current and previous job roles etc for individual nominations
Agency/Team/Individual objectives (1-10 points)
Tell us what you were looking to achieve and any targets that have been set within the agency or team to help achieve your goals. We recommend showing targets as quantifiable metrics e.g., ‘Increase conversions from 150 to 300 a month’ rather than ‘Increase conversions by 10%’.
Recent work example(s) (1-10 points)
Please include details of recent client or campaign work. How does your recent work display creativity and make your team, agency or individual stand out amongst others?
Details of any recent achievements (1-10 points)
What makes your team or agency stand out? Please include details of any achievements you feel make your agency, team or individual award-worthy. What are you proud of?
Details of any challenges faced and how these were overcome (1-10 points)
What challenges were unique to you and how have you overcome them? What was the end result of overcoming these challenges?
Why should your Agency / Team / Individual win? (1-10 points)
Please detail what you feel makes you stand out amongst others and why you feel your entry is award-winning. What makes you unique? What gives you the competitive edge?
URLs
Please detail any supporting documents you are including as part of your submission
Optional – Please upload to the online entry portal when submitting this entry form
CONFIDENTIAL, ETHICAL, TRANSPARENT & FAIR
The UK Social Media Awards prides itself on its ethical and transparent process and confidentiality is taken extremely seriously.
Judges are not allowed to enter any of the categories.
All judging discussions are confidential, and material will not be shared with anyone outside of the judging panel before or after the ceremony. Judging papers will not be shared with any third parties and will be deleted immediately after the judging period. Judges can only access entries they have been asked to score.
Permission to use any material for winning case studies post-event will be sought from entrants.
Don’t Panic Projects are based in the UK and are one of the world’s most ethical and transparent awards organisers. Working with International, industry experts (who cannot enter the awards themselves) their robust, two-step judging process includes remote pre-scoring and virtual or face-to-face final judging sessions.
In partnership with Manchester Metropolitan University the entry process, categories and criteria are refined and developed to ensure the process is trustworthy. Judges sign a judging code of conduct to ensure confidentiality and to provide peace of mind for entrants.
Don’t Panic is proud to display the Awards Trust Mark, an independent accreditation programme which validates the ethical process operated on all their awards.
Don’t Panic believes all awards must have validity so that clients, business partners and employees can trust the system.
