Canada's Premiere Marketing Awards

The CMA Awards celebrate Canada's leading marketing campaigns and professionals. Annually we bring the marketing community together to witness the best of the best and award creative excellence.

Congratulations to all our 2020 winners!

The CMA is proud to have brought over 1,500 marketers together to celebrate the 2020 Awards virtually this past November. We are now in the process of setting up for our 2021 Awards Show.

Key dates to keep in mind

2021 Judge Applications open in April
2021 Awards Entries open in May

For any inquires, please contact our Events Team at awards@thecma.ca

Want to know what it takes to win Gold?

To help inspire you for this year's creative submissions, we gathered all our Gold winning campaigns from the 2020 CMA Awards in one reel! Watch it now to take a look at the strategy and creative it takes to win.

Stay tuned for when we announce our 2021 date! We’re excited to celebrate the creativity, innovation and ingenuity that our incredible community continues to deliver.

National Marketing Week

National Marketing Week will increase awareness and recognition of the important role that marketers across the country play in serving consumers, stimulating the economy, and supporting local communities. It will culminate each year with the celebration of excellence at the CMA Awards Gala. In the spring, we will provide details of how marketers can participate in this week of celebration.

Learn More

Together with CMA, our Co–Chairs oversee the judging process. We’re very proud to have these leading industry professionals take on this role.

Jennifer Carli
Head, Brand, Social and Content
BMO FINANCIAL GROUP

Shelley Smit
President
UM CANADA

First Round

The First Round is judged online by a panel of judges from across Canada. These judges, all with years of experience in their field, evaluated the entries on Strategy, Creativity and Results, all equally weighted. A panel of Senior Judges and our Strategic Committee are available to the judges for questions and to guide them through the online process.

Second Round

In the Second Round, the Senior Judges and Multi Discipline Judges judge the top entries in the categories and disciplines. The scores from the two rounds are combined to determine Gold, Silver and Bronze awards.

Best of the Best and Top Cause

The top entries from the Second Round are reviewed and the Best of the Best and Top Cause are awarded, making these awards truly representative of the best in Canadian marketing.

Closed for Entries

The goal of the CMA Awards is to recognize the top marketers in the country for excellence in marketing, whatever the discipline, whatever the sector.

Of course, a marketing campaign can't start without a strategy. It can't be done without great creative. And it can't succeed without great results.

This is why the judging process will be based equally on STRATEGY, CREATIVE and RESULTS. A great strategy drives impactful creative. Impactful creative drives great results. And great results – sales, click–through rates, perception changes, behavior changes – are proof that the objectives as set out in the strategy were met or, even better, surpassed.

Our belief: the more equitably the work is judged, the more meaningful the awards will be to the winners and to the entire Canadian marketing community.

How to Enter:

For the 2021 CMA Awards, your campaign must have results tabulated within the last 18 months (between December 1, 2019 and June 1, 2021). Campaigns that ran in Canada or campaigns that ran in other markets but were developed by Canadian marketers for Canadian clients are eligible for entry.

CMA reserves the right to reassign the entry category.

Entries containing results tabulated after June 1, 2021 may be disqualified at the discretion of the judging committee and CMA.

CMA is not responsible for any entrant submission error. The decision of the judging committee and CMA is final.

There are four main areas which must be answered and you will need to be as specific as possible. Provide program details under the topics exactly as listed in the appropriate fields.

DO NOT include the agency name in the body of the text or have it appear on any of the award entry links, documents or URL references.

Your submission must be provided in the fields provided, using the correct character counts as the site cannot accept further information and will truncate the entry field information.

If you deem necessary, a simple graph or chart may be presented to illustrate a point. It may be provided in digital format as part of the creative attachments – no more than one chart/graph. To be eligible, submitted entries must comply with all applicable laws and be consistent with principles reflected in the CMA Canadian Marketing Code of Ethics and Standards, such as professionalism, transparency, accuracy, truthfulness and the protection of personal information.

Ads portraying illegal products will not be eligible.

CMA reserves the right to disqualify entries that do not meet these requirements, in which case the application fee will be refunded.

Recognizing the top campaigns in Canada across 6 Disciplines and 9 Categories

2021 Updates Coming Soon

Each year we present a series of Special Awards that are complementary to enter.

Last year’s Special Awards included:

Cannabis Marketing Award - recognizing originality and creativity
Canada Post Integrated Marketing Award - recognizing the most outstanding integrated marketing execution of the year
Environics Analytics Data Marketing Award - recognizing the best use of data and analytics in marketing
Facebook Mobile Marketing Award - recognizing innovative use of Facebook platforms
LinkedIn B2B Marketing Award - recognizing the best B2B marketing campaigns.

Stay tuned to find out what Special Awards we will feature this year!

Congratulations to our 2020 Marketer of the Year, Lifetime Achievement Award, Best of the Best and Top Cause Winners!

Check out the Winners List to learn about our Premiere Award recipients.

Stay tuned to find out what Special Awards we will feature this year!

The 2021 GLOBES entry site is now open until November 30, 2021.

All CMA winners qualify to enter!

On behalf of the Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide, congratulations on being a Winner in the 2020 CMA Awards.

The Canadian Marketing Association has had a longstanding partnership with the Marketing Agencies Association Worldwide (maaworldwide.com) to recognize the best Marketing Communications work in the world, via the MAA GLOBES Award Programme.

Since 1986, the MAA GLOBES has been and still remains, the elite results-driven global Award Programme which recognizes the Best of the Best Marketing Communications campaigns, from all over the World.

Entry to the MAA GLOBES is only as a Gold, Silver or Bronze Winner in a Partner Award Programme. Please review the entry details before entering.

Entries close 30 November, 2021.

Here’s what Warc London have said about the MAA GLOBES: “The MAA GLOBES are positioned alongside prestigious global effectiveness awards, such as the Cannes Lions, the IPA Effectiveness Awards, the Dragons of Asia, and the Effies”.

Congratulations to the 2020 Winners! It takes a team of Clients and Agencies working together to deliver on Strategy, Creativity & Results.

See the full Winners List.

2021 Award Entries Open in May.