Press entries can be submitted from advertising campaigns that have run in black and white, colour, page banners, supplements and a range of advert sizes.

The submitting agency needs to demonstrate how they interpreted the client brief and met the initial objectives agreed between agency and client. This will be achieved by showing the judges how the best use was made of art direction, copywriting, illustration, photography, typography and design so as to achieve a creative and successful campaign. Your entry for each category will require a brief overview of what the creative brief was and then examples of your creative interpretation of it.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Most Innovative Use of Press

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Best Private Sector Campaign Advert

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Best Public Sector Campaign

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This category is for the best activity in local magazines meeting the overall entry criteria.

Entries can be submitted only from advertising campaigns that have run in local Northern Ireland magazine titles.

The submitting agency needs to demonstrate how they interpreted the client brief and met the initial objectives agreed between agency and client.

This should include art direction, copywriting, use of magazine context and rationale for media and title selection.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Digital entries should reflect the advertising utilisation on all/any of the following: websites, e-zines, Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, mobile apps, games, TikTok, Google Ads, LinkedIn, Pinterest and influencer/content creator partnerships.

The submitting agency should demonstrate how the digital campaign was planned and executed to fulfil the client brief. Engagement is the main focus of a digital campaign and your entry should include screen grabs and analytics to demonstrate the reach of your creative campaign.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Best Social Strategy

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Best Digital Campaign

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Best Use of Data/Analytics

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The submitting agency needs to demonstrate how they interpreted the client brief and met the initial objectives agreed between agency and client. All radio submissions should reflect the best creative use of sound, your script content, its simplicity and how you articulate the message to your audience. Remember to demonstrate your strategy, your media buying, the production needs and any voiceover talent used.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Best Radio Campaign

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Most Innovative Use of Radio

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Most Outstanding Radio Commercial

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The outdoor or ‘out-of-home’ entries must have used OMA member formats. The OMA is comprised of JCDecaux, Global and Bauer Media Outdoor in Northern Ireland.

The formats which are considered for entry are: Billboard 48 sheets, 96 sheets, Squares, Bridges, Banners, Adshel 6-sheets, phone kiosks, Adbox 6 sheets, scroller 6 sheets, Impact Wraps, Rail 6s, Retail, Purchase Points, internal and external bus panels, StorePoints and digital formats including Asda Live, Adshel Live, Billboard Live, InLink, Pulse and large digital screens.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Best Outdoor Strategy

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Best Cross-Format Campaign

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Best Creative Use of Out Of Home

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Best Use of Digital Outdoor

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Television advert entries will be adverts or series of adverts but can be over a short or prolonged period of time within the qualifying period.

Agencies will need to demonstrate how they have creatively interpreted the client brief to produce a creative television advert / series of adverts. This will include the script content and audio to work with the visual messaging.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Best Advert Under £25k

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Best Advert between £25k – 75k

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Best Advert over £75k

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Best VOD Advert

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The PANI international awards seek to recognise locally created work that has been implemented in markets outside Northern Ireland (ROI; GB; Scotland etc.).

Any creativity by NI agencies or for NI based clients that has been used in markets other than Northern Ireland during the designated time period is eligible. These awards will be additional to the existing categories and will be split across the existing TV, Outdoor, Radio, Press, Magazine and Digital.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

Best International – Radio / TV / Outdoor

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Best International – Press / Digital / Magazine

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This category is designed to highlight the wider contribution media owners make in promoting and enhancing their own media product for the benefit of consumers, advertisers and agencies and to recognise that media owner initiatives are a vital part of our creative output.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in categories one and two at the judges’ discretion. There will be one winner in category three.

This award is open to all Northern Ireland media owners.

Best aimed at increasing/delivering audience engagement via promotion or other activity

Best aimed at growing/enhancing the audience base or benefiting and improving the media brand

Best Media Owner Sales Team of the Year

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This award is for the Best Mixed Media campaign and should demonstrate the execution of a creative idea or strategy across a number of media channels. The judges will be looking for evidence of a campaign strategy across a variety of media channels.

You will need to submit examples of the campaign in the various media where it appeared. If some examples are already entered in other media categories they do not need to be re-entered but you should highlight them to us and add in supplementary examples where appropriate along with the mandatory overview/brief to further illustrate the mixed media campaign strategy.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Best Mixed Media Campaign

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Cinema holds the opportunity of a captive audience, how an advertiser adapts their creative to capitalise on this audience within that particular environment can result in huge success. This category wants entrants that have done great work in cinema advertising in Northern Ireland.

Agencies will need to demonstrate how they have creatively interpreted the client brief to produce a creative cinema advert / series of adverts. This will include the script content and audio to work with the visual messaging.

Gold / Silver / Bronze will be awarded in each category at the judges’ discretion.

There are also additional international awards available. Please see the ‘International’ Awards category.

Best Cinema Campaign

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As is traditional with the PANI Awards, the Grand Prix award will be the final award presented and is defined as ‘the best of the best’.

Each GOLD winner of each award from each category will automatically go through to the Grand Prix part of the competition. These Gold winners will then be independently judged by our full panel of judges, who will then score and vote on which campaign should be awarded PANI GRAND PRIX for 2025.

The judges’ decision is final and this process will be presided over by our jury chair, Sir John Hegarty.

To clarify, no further entry criteria or submission is required. Gold winners will automatically qualify and this will be judged prior to the gala event and announced on the night of Thursday 20th November 2025.

Grand Prix Award

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