Categories

Industry Sector Spotlight: Banking & Financial Services

This category represents in-house marketing efforts for Banking and Financial Services that have creatively leveraged digital platforms, data analytics, and customer insights to enhance brand visibility, build trust, and foster customer loyalty. In an industry fraught with compliance, regulation, and high security standards, show us how you’ve effectively addressed a campaign with creativity, strategic insight, and measurable impact in promoting financial products or services.

Branded Content

Original content created to support the marketing strategy of a brand by engaging, entertaining, or informing a target audience. This content aims to enhance brand positioning or promote products and services. Eligible creative content includes any material that is not perceived as traditional advertising. This encompasses TV programming, films, documentaries, online videos, games, print media, articles, both online and offline media, branded entertainment, social content, and other types of content, regardless of the format.

Rebrand/New Product Launch

This category celebrates campaigns for companies or brands updating their positioning, undergoing rebranding, or launching a new product. Rebrands of in-house agencies, internal rebrands, or internal product launches are not eligible. Only customer-facing rebrands and product launches will be considered.

Social Media

Best use of social media to achieve marketing objectives.

Top marketing is reflective of an effective collaboration. This award puts the spotlight on the best collaborative efforts involving in-house teams and their external agencies. The in-house agency must be responsible for at least 50% of the work to qualify.

This category includes one or more unique questions that must be answered in addition to the standard entry form.

Best Use of AI

Entries in this category must demonstrate effective use of AI tools and technologies to either support creative concepting, execution of the work, or both. Entrants will be required to explain what AI tools were used to support the work, and how they were essential in creating the resulting marketing asset, campaign, or project.

This category includes one or more unique questions that must be answered in addition to the standard entry form.

Experiential
(in-person and virtual)

Efforts that engaged with a target audience either live/in-person or via a virtual/on-demand experience. All types of interactive engagement are a fit for this category: exhibitions, trade shows, sales meetings, webinars, samplings, product demos, etc.

Spotlighting the industry's change makers and influencers committed to the authentic, accurate portrayals of women and girls in their marketing efforts.

Gender inequality is the one inequality that is truly global in scope. Yet, we know that marketing and media can create powerful change by addressing how women and girls are portrayed in advertising and marketing content.

The ANA's SeeHer Initiative, which has the mission of driving the accurate portrayal of women and girls in media, advertising, marketing and entertainment, has created a unique opportunity for all In-House Excellence Award applicants: The ANA In-House GEM^® Award.

The ANA In-House GEM Award will honor the top creative and powerful work that exemplifies the best-in-class accurate and authentic portrayal of women and/or girls in campaigns produced by in-house marketing agencies.

This category includes one or more unique questions that must be answered in addition to the standard entry form.

Integrated Campaign (All Teams)

Campaigns that used three or more different marketing channels to engage a target audience with a single consistent theme or message. The submission should demonstrate how to the integrated strategy employed various types of media for optimal impact.

Internal Communications (All Teams)

Communication efforts that engage and inform employees about company vision, goals, values, work culture, and DEIB initiatives. All creative formats are eligible: video, print, email, websites, newsletters, magazines, direct mail, etc.

Finding the optimal approach for when, where, and how a target audience receives a message is essential. This category highlights in-house media teams who effectively achieved this balance. Submissions should outline the specifics of the media insight, strategy, and media plan that were executed.

This category includes one or more unique questions that must be answered in addition to the standard entry form.

This category celebrates campaigns for companies or brands updating their positioning, undergoing rebranding, or launching a new product. Rebrands of in-house agencies, internal rebrands, or internal product launches are not eligible. Only customer-facing rebrands and product launches will be considered.

Entries in this category will need to demonstrate the effectiveness of the work and its positive contribution to building a brand and growth of the business. Providing facts and figures (sales, market share, etc.), your submission should explain why the effort was successful based on effectiveness of the creative execution and its measurable objectives. We understand there may be concerns with sharing actual figures in the entry. Data reflecting the effectiveness of the work can be provided as indices or percentages.

This category includes one or more unique questions that must be answered in addition to the standard entry form.

Social Media (All Teams)

Best use of social media to achieve marketing objectives.

Socially Responsible

This category includes creative content addressing current social issues. Eligible entries focus on making a positive societal impact through social causes, charities, or corporate responsibility programs. All creative formats are acceptable.

This specialty honor will go to the team that not only exemplifies excellence in the areas of creativity, strategy, and effectiveness, but represents what it means to be the “best in-house agency."

Fostering the right team dynamic is key to producing work that makes an impact. This award will ask teams to share details on their culture, business impact, and notable accomplishments achieved over the past year.

All in-house agencies - any size, from anywhere around the globe – are welcome to enter.

Only the highest scoring submissions within their main In-House Excellence Award category(s) in the program's main round of judging will be contenders for the In-House Agency of the Year honor.

This honor recognizes a leading individual in an in-house agency who consistently demonstrates excellence in creative and strategic thinking, management of multi-disciplined teams, and thought leadership in their respective industry. There are many ways to be a leader both in title and in practice. This leader champions their team internally, advocates for the benefits of in-house marketing and advertising externally and embodies the spirit of the ANA In-House Excellence Awards to encourage incredible creativity and innovation.

You may nominate your colleague or yourself. It is not required that the individual’s in-house agency produce award-worthy work in another category of the 2026 ANA In-House Excellence Awards to be considered for this award.

NEW!
Multi-Year Impact Award

This award will represent in-house champions of sustained growth, those companies that have experienced three or more years of positive results with their in-house marketing and advertising efforts.

Submissions need to represent efforts that ran in the market between 2023 and 2025, and may have maintained select core elements like theme, spokesperson, and/or tagline, but ultimately achieved positive impact each year.

The top award of the entire In-House Excellence Awards program. A shortlist of the highest-scoring entries in the program will be reviewed by our Grand Jury to determine the one entry that best exemplifies in-house creative and innovative achievement.

Only the highest scoring submissions within their main In-House Excellence Award category(s) in the program's main round of judging will be contenders for Best in Show.