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There is no universal game-marketing-award scorecard. Cannes Lions’ Entertainment Lions for Gaming publishes a specific weighted rubric; Clio Entertainment Games, the NYX Game Awards, and The Game Business Marketing Awards describe different judging emphases. To make a strong entry, match the work to the organizer’s current category rules, explain the audience insight behind it, show how the idea came to life, and connect credible evidence to the campaign’s objectives.
The distinctions matter: Cannes Lions assigns 30% to creative idea, 20% to strategy and insight, 30% to craft and execution, and 20% to results. Those percentages apply to that award—not to game-marketing awards as a whole. Other organizers may emphasize creativity, use different scoring descriptions, or focus on coherent campaigns and return on investment without publishing the same weights.
What do game marketing awards judge?
Judges are generally looking for work that is relevant to its audience, distinctive in its idea, well executed, and effective against its stated purpose—but each organizer defines its own criteria and categories. Treat any published weights or requirements as specific to the named program and, where applicable, the entry medium.
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A marketing case is more than a list of channels, assets, or results. It should make the relationship between the audience problem, the campaign’s insight, the creative response, the work’s execution, and its outcomes easy to follow. A striking trailer may demonstrate creativity, for example, but it does not by itself explain why the campaign was right for its target players or whether it achieved its objective.
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The safest first step is to read the current official entry guidance for the award and category you plan to enter. A program’s general judging language may not describe the rules for every medium, and criteria can vary between organizers even when their awards concern similar work.
What are the Cannes Lions Entertainment Lions for Gaming criteria?
Cannes Lions publishes four weighted criteria for its Entertainment Lions for Gaming: creative idea (30%), strategy and insight (20%), craft and execution (30%), and results (20%). These are the published weights for this award; they are not a standard that can be applied to Clio Entertainment Games, NYX, or other programs.
| Criterion | Weight | What the entry needs to explain |
|---|---|---|
| Creative idea | 30% | What was surprising or breakthrough about the thinking, and why did that idea suit the work? |
| Strategy and insight | 20% | What audience behavior, research, cultural insight, or business challenge shaped the approach? |
| Craft and execution | 30% | How was the idea implemented, why were the channels suitable, and how was the work adapted? |
| Results | 20% | What outcomes addressed the original objectives, and what evidence verifies their impact? |
Cannes Lions describes work for this award as engaging gaming communities, adding value to gameplay or the player experience, and pursuing commercial success. That description gives entrants useful context, but it does not remove the need to answer the four criteria with specifics. The organizer also says: Cannes Lions Entertainment Lions for Gaming criteria.
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Convincing strategy shows why a campaign took its particular direction for its particular audience. For Cannes Lions, the entry prompts include audience behavior or cultural insight, relevant research, the business challenge, and why the work fits the target audience. A channel list can describe distribution, but it cannot take the place of that reasoning.
Make the chain of logic visible. Explain the audience and market context first; identify the research or observation that changed how the challenge was understood; then state the objective and why the chosen approach followed from that insight. Include relevant brand, geographic, and cultural context so readers outside the campaign’s home market can understand what shaped the work. If an insight applies to a particular player community or territory, say so rather than presenting it as universal.
A useful test of the explanation is whether a reader can distinguish the insight from the objective. “Players were struggling to find a welcoming community” is a possible audience observation; “increase participation in community events” is a possible objective. They may be related, but they answer different questions. An entry should substantiate its actual claims with the research or context available rather than presenting an assertion as an insight simply because it sounds strategic.
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Strategy also explains why the chosen channels make sense for the audience and goal. Trailers, creator activity, public relations, community programs, and other formats are not proof of strategy by themselves. Describe the role each relevant channel played and how it helped carry the idea to the intended players.
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The idea is the central thought that makes the campaign distinctive; execution is how that thought was delivered. Cannes Lions separates these into two 30% criteria, so an entry should show both the originality of the idea and the quality of its implementation.
Under creative idea, explain what made the approach surprising, fresh, or a breakthrough in its context. Avoid relying on adjectives such as “innovative” or “immersive” without showing what the work actually did and why that mattered to its intended audience. The creative rationale should connect back to the audience insight rather than appearing as an unrelated flourish.
Under craft and execution, describe how the concept became real across the relevant formats and touchpoints. Cannes Lions’ prompts include implementation, channel suitability, and adaptation. Explain how the execution served the idea, how channels worked together where applicable, and what changed for different audiences, markets, or formats. If the work was deliberately built for a single medium, make that case clearly rather than implying an integrated campaign it was not.
Do not collapse the two criteria into a highlight reel. A polished asset can show production quality without proving that the underlying idea was distinctive; a novel concept can be compelling but poorly carried through. The entry is strongest when it lets a judge see both the creative decision and the work that made it effective.
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What results count as evidence?
Results should answer the objectives the campaign set out to achieve. Cannes Lions asks entrants to select objectives, link results to each one, and provide verifiable proof of impact; its guidance also asks for context that helps an international jury interpret the numbers. The organizer’s advice is direct: “Provide tangible results that demonstrate impact.”
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State what each measure represents instead of treating all visible activity as equivalent. Impressions may relate to reach or awareness; engagement may indicate interaction; sales may indicate a commercial outcome. Coverage, views, downloads, community activity, and revenue can each be relevant in context, but none automatically substitutes for another. Explain which objective a figure addresses and why it is an appropriate measure.
Give numbers enough context to be interpreted: specify the date range, geography, audience or denominator where available, and the source or method of verification. A percentage increase without its baseline, period, or population can be difficult to assess. Where a result is qualitative, explain how it was observed or documented and avoid implying a level of certainty the evidence cannot support.
Results are 20% of Cannes Lions’ published rubric, not a license to let a large number stand in for the rest of the case. Evidence can support the campaign’s impact, but it does not on its own establish that the work began with a relevant insight, had a distinctive idea, or was executed well. Keep the line from objective to measure explicit.
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They publish different kinds of judging information, so compare each program on its own terms rather than borrowing another award’s percentages. The categories and criteria below reflect the organizer-specific information in the cited guidance; check the current official rules before submitting.
| Program | Published judging information | What an entrant should take from it |
|---|---|---|
| Cannes Lions Entertainment Lions for Gaming | 30% creative idea, 20% strategy and insight, 30% craft and execution, 20% results. | Use the four weighted components as the structure for this program’s case, and address the gaming-community and player-experience context. |
| Clio Entertainment Games | The judging page emphasizes creativity and describes juror review and majority decisions. The Games program offers medium-specific categories. | Make the creative merit clear and enter the medium that accurately describes the work; do not assign unlisted numeric weights. |
| NYX Game Awards | The FAQ describes a 1–100 judging scale and lists creativity, brief/objective/planning/execution, visuals, innovation/effectiveness, and memorability or overall impression. | Use these factors as NYX’s scoring description, not as another name for the Cannes Lions rubric. |
| The Game Business Marketing Awards (2026) | The organizer seeks coherent campaigns with effective cut-through and ROI, with special attention to innovative ideas. | Show how the campaign works as a whole, the attention it earned, its evidence of return, and what is innovative about its approach. |
Clio category fit deserves special attention. Clio Entertainment Games distinguishes individual mediums such as trailers or PR from Integrated Campaign, which requires at least three mediums. Retail & Premium covers work such as physical displays, packaging, and merchandise; those are eligible kinds of marketing work, not purchases an entrant is required to make. The Clio Entertainment Games entry information describes the categories.
Do not transfer weights between Clio programs either. The general Clio Awards publish 50% creativity and 50% results for their Creative Effectiveness medium, and four 25% components—insight, strategy, creative idea, and impact/results—for Creative Strategy. Those are examples of weights for specific general Clio Awards mediums, not a rubric for Clio Entertainment Games. The general Clio Awards medium criteria should be read within that scope. The Clios’ judging-process page says, “Judging criteria across all programs is creativity”; that broad statement should not be mistaken for a single numeric formula across every medium.
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The Game Business announced its 2026 Marketing Awards on October 26, 2026, with an entry deadline of November 12, 2026 and a planned winner reveal on December 10, 2026. Those dates are time-sensitive: check the organizer’s official site for current entry status and rules rather than assuming the schedule remains unchanged.
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How should you organize a game marketing award entry?
Start with the official form and category rules, then make the case easy to follow. The sequence below is an editorial synthesis of Cannes Lions’ entry prompts, not a universal required format; another organizer may ask for different fields or have different limits.
- Define the audience and market problem. Say which players or community the work addressed and what challenge the campaign needed to solve. Provide the relevant brand, geographic, and cultural context.
- Show the player or community insight. Explain the behavior, research, or observation that informed the approach. Distinguish what you learned about the audience from what the campaign hoped to achieve.
- State the objective and measures. Identify the intended outcome and the evidence that can reasonably demonstrate it. Make sure each measure maps to an objective rather than adding unrelated metrics.
- Explain the original idea. Describe the central creative thought and why it was relevant to the audience and challenge. Show what made it distinctive in its context.
- Describe how the work was executed. Identify the actual deliverables and channels, what role each played, and how the work was adapted. Avoid describing an individual asset as an integrated campaign unless it meets the selected category’s rules.
- Connect outcomes to objectives. Report what happened, when and where it happened, and how the evidence was verified. Include context that lets a judge interpret the results, including a baseline or denominator where available.
Before submission, read the entry as a continuous argument: because this was the audience challenge, this insight shaped this idea; the idea was delivered this way; and these measures show what happened against the objective. If a link in that argument is missing, add the supporting context or narrow the claim.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.How do you choose the right category for a campaign?
Choose the category that describes the work you actually made, not the one that seems to reward it most generously. Category fit determines which judging lens applies and what evidence the entrant needs to make clear.
For an individual trailer, PR effort, or other discrete medium, use the relevant medium if the organizer offers it. For an integrated campaign, confirm the category’s specific requirements: Clio Entertainment Games’ Integrated Campaign requires at least three mediums. Do not assume that several assets within one medium count as several mediums, or that every award uses the same definition.
Retail & Premium is a category for eligible work such as displays, packaging, and merchandise. Its presence in a category list does not mean a campaign needs physical products to qualify elsewhere or that entrants must buy promotional items. Read the program’s own category description and submit the evidence the selected medium calls for.
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If considering two entries for the same campaign, compare category fit, the relevance of the player insight, originality of the idea, coherence and quality of execution, channel suitability, and strength of objective-linked evidence. For Cannes Lions, those considerations map to its four named components; for other programs, use their published criteria rather than imposing those weights.
What should you check before submitting?
A final evidence and rules check can prevent a strong case from being weakened by unclear claims or a mismatched category. Confirm the current-year requirements directly with the organizer, especially when the entry window or category wording may have changed.
- Program and category: Is this the right award program and medium for the actual work?
- Criteria scope: Are you using that organizer’s published criteria, rather than another program’s scorecard?
- Audience and insight: Is the target audience clear, and is the insight supported by relevant research or context?
- Idea versus execution: Can a reader tell what was original about the concept and how it was delivered?
- Objective and result: Is each reported outcome connected to an objective, with enough context and verification to interpret it?
- Geography and dates: Are the relevant markets, time period, and any comparison baseline stated where available?
- Current rules: Have you checked the organizer’s present entry requirements, category definitions, and deadlines?
For the Cannes Lions program, begin with its gaming entry guidance, then confirm the current submission form and category details. The evidence and framing should serve the award’s actual prompts, not a generic assumption about what judges everywhere reward.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do game marketing awards require a big advertising budget?
The cited criteria describe qualities of the work and its evidence, not a minimum campaign spend. Check the specific organizer’s eligibility and entry rules for any budget-related requirement; the judging information summarized here does not establish one.
Can an indie game campaign be eligible for a marketing award?
The supplied criteria do not set out a universal eligibility rule based on studio size or game budget. Eligibility depends on the organizer and category, so consult the current rules for the specific program before preparing an entry.
Does a game marketing award entry need to include confidential sales data?
The cited guidance calls for verifiable results and context, but it does not say that every entry must disclose confidential sales figures. Use evidence that supports the stated objective and check the organizer’s submission rules for confidentiality and substantiation requirements.
Are the 2026 Game Business Marketing Awards still open for entries?
The organizer’s October 26, 2026 announcement set November 12, 2026 as the entry deadline, with winners planned for December 10. Because deadlines can change and the entry window may close, confirm the latest status with The Game Business before acting.
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