The 2023 Agency of the Year program has officially kicked off.

Agency of the Year is an annual competition where agencies across different disciplines – creative, media, digital, PR and design – vie for the title of Canada’s top shops based on a portfolio of work.

But before they compete, each shop must register to enter.

Agencies that wish to register must fill out the online entry form, where they will be asked to provide the name of the client, the name of the campaign and the dates when the campaign was in market. Companies entering Agency of the Year will provide five cases, while those entering the other categories (Media, Digital, PR, Design and Small Agency of the Year) will enter three cases.

The deadline for registration is May 12. More information can be found on the Agency of the Year entry guidelines site.

Once the campaigns have been vetted by strategy and deemed eligible for entry, agencies will be notified and can compile materials for their full cases, with a deadline of June 9.

As always, the work must have launched in the 12-month period from June 2022 to June 2023. All of the campaigns entered in a single category have to be for different brands, cannot include self-promotional work and must be Canadian (if it’s a global campaign created here, it must have appeared in this market).

There is also a strict no double-dipping policy: agencies must submit unique campaigns for each competition. For example, an agency can’t enter the same work for a specific CPG brand in Agency of the Year and Design AOY, even if it just includes design-driven creative (like a poster or website) that was a part of the overall campaign also entered into AOY.

Payment will only be made after entries are finalized and is done on a per-competition basis.

The shortlists for the 2023 Agency of the Year will be revealed in the fall ahead of the awards gala in November.