MII AIM Awards 2026 Categories

Scroll down this page to view and click on each category to see the shortlisted entrants.

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MII AIM Awards 2026 by Category

The MII AIM Awards are the gold standard for professional marketing achievement, recognising and rewarding excellence in business management through the discipline of marketing. The Awards are open to all members, across all categories, including B2C and B2B, as well as domestic and international players, regardless of company size.

There are 24 categories to choose from and entries are rigorously reviewed to evidence the impact of marketing on your business challenges and opportunities. Each award category is associated with the marketing competencies identified in the MII National Marketing Competency Framework, highlighting the critical link between business challenges, marketing skills and commercial outcomes.

Click on the category headings below to learn more about the category and to submit your entry.

To optimise your entry, please review the helpful guide available at this link. This explains each of the questions you will be asked and the judging criteria. Please note that each questions carries equal marks in the judging so it is important to answer each question fully.

Membership Requirement: If you are submitting an entry on behalf of a brand, the agency must also become a member of the Marketing Institute Ireland (MII). This applies to all submissions.

Emerging Talent

Core Competencies:

All Competencies

QUALIFICATION CRITERIA – Applicants must have no more than 5 years of business experience (within 5 years of leaving school or completing an undergraduate degree). Please note that graduates on graduate programmes are eligible to enter.

This award recognises a rising star in the marketing industry who has demonstrated exceptional potential and impact early in their career in marketing. To be considered, you will need to be nominated by your company and the nomination should show the impact that the individual has had on the business.

The Emerging Talent should be “one to watch” with star quality, an individual who demonstrates initiative, creativity, imagination, adaptability and has a genuine passion for marketing. They should be driven to succeed and have clear goals and ambitions.

The submission should talk about the individual’s talents, personality, application of marketing principles and their positive impact on the team and the business.

The judging panel will look for a clear demonstration of how this marketeer has made an impact and clearly demonstrated marketing best practice. This award will go to a marketer who has shown outstanding potential and impact early in their career.

New Product Development (NPD) Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Innovation & NPD
Marketing Strategy

In delivering strategies for business growth, today’s marketing practitioner must master the skills of bringing new products and services to market, consistent with the overall business and marketing strategies.

Successful New Product Development (NPD) includes uncovering insight, analysis of the competitive environment, management of internal stakeholders and systems to help to deliver the new product / service, and a clear understanding of the commercial market opportunity.

This award will go to a business that has uncovered and transformed a market opportunity into a successful product or service. Entrants should highlight how they uncovered insight, analysed market opportunity, managed the internal NPD processes and stakeholders, and executed the launch to achieve measurable results.

Marketing Innovation Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Innovation & NPD
Marketing Strategy

This category excludes new product development (NPD) which is a separate award category.

The Marketing Innovation Award will recognise those who champion a culture of continuous improvement through innovation across the organisation, developing and or applying new thinking, technologies and solutions that lead to sustained business development over time. Ultimately you will demonstrate business transformation driven by marketing professionalism.

The judges want to hear about your journey, the stakeholder engagement, how the idea was conceived, how your innovative thinking evolved and addressed the business challenge or opportunity. The journey should include details of stakeholder management and how the culture of innovation and creativity was fostered and sustained.

Entries could involve the development of a new marketing strategy or activity, the launch of a groundbreaking new proposition, or an application of an innovative new technology, generating business success. Ultimately you will demonstrate business transformation driven by marketing professionalism.

Gradam Margaíochta le Gaeilge

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Creativity & Communications

Differentiation is key in marketing, and using the Irish language in the marketing mix can be a powerful way of standing out from the crowd. Many Irish businesses seek ways to emphasise their origin and brand values to build stronger connections with the audience. The judges are looking for examples of companies which have harnessed the marketing potential of the Irish language and bilingualism and used this to support branding and positioning in the marketplace. Entrants may be using Irish to attract new customers, increase customer loyalty, harness goodwill, gain a marketing edge over competitors, or enhance their public relations efforts.

Entrants should note that while the use of Irish should be a significant element, the campaign doesn’t need to be entirely in Irish. Instead, it should demonstrate how the inclusion of the language complements and supports other marketing activities.

Tugann an gradam seo aitheantas d’fheachtais mhargaíochta a bhaineann úsáid éifeachtach as an nGaeilge mar chuid dá straitéis iomlán mhargaíochta. Is gné ríthábhachtach é an t-idirdhealú sa mhargaíocht, agus is féidir seasamh amach i lár an aonaigh trí Ghaeilge a shnaidhmeadh isteach sa chumasc margaíochta. Is mian le go leor gnóthaí Éireannacha béim a chur ar a ndúchas agus ar luachanna a mbranda, agus an Ghaeilge á úsáid acu le naisc níos láidre a thógáil lena lucht féachana.
Is é atá á lorg ag na moltóirí ná dea-shamplaí de chomhlachtaí atá tar éis leas a bhaint as poitéinseal na Gaeilge nó an dátheangachais lena n-áit sa mhargadh a fheabhsú agus le cur lena mbranda. D’fhéadfaí seo a dhéanamh trí Ghaeilge a úsáid chun custaiméirí nua a mhealladh, dílseacht a mhéadú, dea-mhéin a chruthú, lámh in uachtar sa mhargadh a fháil, nó chun tógáil ar chaidreamh poiblí.
Ba cheart go mbeadh iarrthóirí ar an eolas nach gá don fheachtas ar fad a bheith trí mheán na Gaeilge, ach gur cheart go mbeadh úsáid na Gaeilge ina cuid lárnach de. Ba cheart go léireodh sé an tslí a dtacaíonn agus a dtagann an teanga le gníomhaíochtaí margaíochta eile.

Insights & Market Research Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Marketing Strategy

Accurate and complete information and insights are the foundation stones of any successful business because they reduce business risk. Marketing decision makers need to determine the feasibility of ideas before committing substantial resources to them. The processes of market research which systematically gathers and interprets data using statistical and analytical techniques of applied science are therefore essential to business success in our increasingly complex world.

This award will go to a business which has demonstrated excellence in the use of market research to uncover insights that led to sound marketing decisions and consequent business success.

International Marketing Award

Core Competencies:

All Competencies

International marketing capability is key to export performance and vital to our island’s economy.

International markets are an essential route to growth for many Irish companies who are limited by a finite home market.

The judges will look for evidence of clear strategic thinking, robust market objectives, rigorous research and planning, and implementation of localised strategies in the target markets, resulting in business success. This may have included launching new products or services abroad, implementing new distribution strategies, or opening new key accounts.

This award will go to a business (B2C or B2B) that has achieved exceptional success in exporting a product or service off our island.

Integrated Marketing Award

Core Competencies:

All Competencies

Integrated marketing ensures that your strategy is faithfully and consistently applied in-market, and it focuses on more than just your messaging across communication channels.

While communications are of course important, the judges will also look at other components of the marketing mix and how they have been developed to successfully deliver your strategic consistency. The increased scope and complexity of today’s marketing environment makes the mastery of this discipline all the more vital.

This award is aimed at businesses that have deployed comprehensive and holistic approaches, whereby multiple marketing tools and channels are leveraged strategically and in unison to deliver exceptional business growth.

This award will go to a business that can demonstrate how their marketing strategy is embedded across every brand activity within the business—not merely through visual consistency, but through a cohesive approach in all they do.

Corporate Social Responsibility Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Responsible Marketing

Note – Entries may reference sustainability initiatives in this category, but please note that there is a dedicated Sustainability Award.

Businesses today are more conscious of the need for exemplary corporate citizenship, driven not just by stakeholder expectations, but also by the business impact of an enhanced corporate reputation and consequent brand loyalty. Marketing is the key to success in CSR, as this is the function with the deepest expertise in meaningful communication and engagement.

This award will go to the business that is leading the field in CSR. Entrants should be able to point to customer and employee engagement, the linking of the CSR initiative with the brand identity, and the results and benefits obtained.

Advertising Campaign Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Creativity & Communications
Marketing Strategy

One of the most visible outputs of marketing is the ad campaign.

This award will go to the entrant that has created an outstanding B2C and or B2B advertising campaign that not only brings their marketing strategy to life through creative execution, but also engages audiences and moves the dial for the brand.

The judges will be examining the strategic thinking behind the campaign, the setting of specific objectives, the clarity of the desired positioning, the audience insight being leveraged, the creative idea and its execution, the media platform selection, and the tangible business results achieved.

This award will go to the campaign that has successfully strengthened their brand’s competitive position by dramatising its value proposition in a way that resonates deeply with consumers.

Marketing Team of the Year Award

Core Competencies:

All Competencies

Teams which bring together a range of complementary skills and leverage these successfully can often point to extraordinary results.

Judges will look for evidence of the impact that teamwork had on optimising performance, focusing on team development and organisation, clear definition of roles, allocation of tasks, generation and sharing of ideas, team motivation, a culture of support, open communications, problem solving and measurement methods.

This award will go to the marketing team which can demonstrate how it has created an inordinately high level of business performance, encompassing both strategic perspective and tactical implementation skills.

Client Agency Collaboration Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Brand Strategy
Insights & Planning
Creativity & Communications

Note: Entrants in this category may include agencies from any marketing-directed discipline, such as advertising, digital, media, sponsorship, research, public relations, and more. The entry must be endorsed and supported by the ‘client’.

Marketers appoint agencies for their expertise and their broad external perspective. However achieving the best results requires a special collaborative effort from both parties, establishing a relational framework encompassing role clarity and constructive challenge to bring out the best in both teams. Great client-agency collaboration can significantly boost the brand and business.

This award aims to highlight instances where this collaboration has been exemplary.

The award will be made jointly to the client/agency based on their success in generating empathy and trust, bonding around a shared mission, unlocking business potential and triggering exceptional results.

Brand Campaign Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Marketing Strategy

Marketers seek to optimise brand equity, the inherent value that sets a brand apart from its competitors in the hearts and minds of consumers.

This award will be made to a business that can demonstrate it successfully developed and implemented a strategic approach to building and managing its brand, creating sustainable competitive differentiation through clarity and relevance built on the brand’s essence and values.

Entrants are invited to showcase programmes that demonstrate how their brand strategy—whether through repositioning, evolving brand identity, introducing new value propositions, or other strategic initiatives—has strengthened the brand’s market position, relevance, and long-term value. Ask yourself if your consumers love your brand?

This award will go to the strategy that exemplifies a deep understanding of the brand’s essence and values, while driving sustainable competitive differentiation and measurable commercial impact. This award celebrates the strategic thinking behind a brand’s growth and success, beyond creative execution.

Customer Experience Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Channel Experience
Marketing Strategy

A great customer experience (CX) is at the heart of building loyalty and enhancing the lifetime value of the relationship. In today’s landscape, CX goes beyond isolated touchpoints to encompass an integrated channel experience – delivering seamless, cohesive interactions across every platform and medium through which customers engage. This cumulative impact of multiple touch points aligned with customer expectations, defines the quality of their experience over time.

Organisations that master CX achieve exceptional satisfaction levels, leading to increased customer loyalty and consequent business success. This is invariably based upon a deep customer-centric approach.

This award will go to the organisation that is performing to the highest levels in CX, with a compelling shared CX vision, a joined-up strategy, a commensurate culture, customer journey mapping and consistent delivery, culminating in excellent business results.

Public Relations Campaign Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Marketing Strategy

Public Relations (PR) is a powerful marketing discipline which aims to connect a business and its key audiences, normally through earned or free media. PR can deliver benefits by building awareness and conveying brand values in both the short and long term. It is seen as providing greater credibility than paid advertising, due to media objectivity, and is therefore a valuable marketing technique.

The judges will look for clarity of goals, tight definition of target audiences, coherent themes, creativity in execution, and meaningful measurement.

The award will go to entrants who can demonstrate how they have effectively deployed PR to support marketing strategies.

B2B Marketing Award

Core Competencies:

All Competencies

B2B marketing presents a unique set of challenges typified by complex buying processes that often involves numerous decision-makers, higher perceived risk due to the size of the contract values and extended lead-to-close timeframes. Marketers in this area must be expert at building business relationships and engaging and negotiating with multiple stakeholders across the different stages of the buying cycle.

This award will go to an organisation that has successfully developed and delivered B2B marketing strategies, with a demonstrated success rate in targeting, tracking and closing opportunities to deliver sustainable and profitable growth. An emphasis will be placed on how organisations leverage alternative B2B channels – such as trade shows, one-to-one engagements, one-to-many interactions – alongside the innovative use of technology and digital marketing. It will be important to highlight how customer relationships are being built over time and entries that demonstrate the delivery of lifetime customer value will be rewarded.

Sustainability Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Responsible Marketing

With the world facing critical environmental, societal, and economic challenges, it is important to consider sustainability when building and executing your business proposition. Marketers are well placed to take a leadership role in this area.

Consumers’ expectations of brands are high and there is a growing demand to drive meaningful change. Marketers have an opportunity to take action to drive this change by authentically embedding sustainability into the brand or business’s core, addressing the issues that really matter to people.

This award will go to the business that is at the forefront of sustainable and responsible practices, recognising those that seamlessly integrate sustainability into their core operations and ethos. Entrants should be able to demonstrate how the entire business was harnessed, including the brands and employees, to ensure the promotion of sustainability and the impact of their actions on both business results and society.

Entries should be supported with data.

Small Business Marketing Award

Core Competencies:

All Competencies

The SME sector is a large and vital element in the economy of our island. Smaller companies must be particularly clever in marketing themselves and their offerings in order to compete against larger and more powerful competitors, both domestically and internationally.

Of particular interest will be the astute leveraging of limited resources and budgets, the application of end-to-end marketing discipline and the demonstration of creativity and flair in delivering success. For example, entrants may highlight their competence in areas such as competitive positioning and value proposition development, target audience profiling and insights, the use of technology to deliver business growth, new product development and so forth.

This award will go to a small business that has strategically addressed their competitive challenges, deployed effective marketing strategies to tackle them, and consequently achieved breakthroughs and profitable growth.

Digital Marketing Campaign

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Digital Optimisation
Marketing Strategy

The on-going development of technology, especially in the area of digital marketing, has greatly enhanced the opportunity for businesses to reach and engage their audiences, often in a two-way dialogue. There are increased opportunities to understand the impact of our marketing investment, affording insights for greater audience engagement, the optimisation of budgets and improved outcomes for the business.

This award will go to the entrants who have demonstrated how they have devised and executed a specific digital marketing campaign (B2C and or B2B), leveraged technology to create real engagement with carefully targeted audiences, and delivered clearly defined results.

Strategic Pricing Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Pricing Strategy

All content shared as part of an entry is strictly managed and password protected to ensure confidentiality. A very limited number of people review the entry at this first stage. MII and our judges will sign confidentiality and non-disclosure agreements in support of entries into this category.

As one of the original 4P’s, pricing plays a vital role in delivering competitive differentiation in the market, enhancing perceived brand value and equity.

Pricing is a strategic tool that has many applications in resolving business challenges as well as exploiting opportunities and or defending market share.

The judges will be looking for demonstrations on how pricing was successfully used for competitive brand positioning at higher and or lower price points, creating and sustaining brand value and equity, building brand loyalty, as a component in new product launches and or brand extensions, and or of course promotional activity. The entry must focus on addressing a business challenge or opportunity and highlight how the strategic management of pricing successfully resolved the challenge or capitalised on the opportunity.

This award will go to the business that highlights how pricing built a sustainable and profitable business.

Digital Customer Journey Award

Competencies:

Digital Optimisation
Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy

The Digital Customer Journey Award is a search for the business that successfully prioritises customer experience through digital engagement.

The judges are looking for brands that exemplify this customer centricity through integrated, personalised, and data-driven journeys across their digital channels. The focus is very much on the digital lifecycle and the continuous optimisation of that journey. Brands that focus on physical customer engagement should refer to the Customer Experience Award category.

In a rapidly evolving business landscape where technology progresses at an astonishing pace, customers expect brands to understand their needs and provide seamless, tailored interactions at every touchpoint along the digital journey. This demands the delivery of personalisation at scale, leveraging unified customer data, applying real-time insights, creating content on-the-go and more recently applying AI.

This award will go to the organisation that is leading the way in digital journey management, setting new standards with a customer-centric approach that drives exceptional business outcomes.

Entertainment Sponsorship Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Channel Experience

Entertainment sponsorship can be a potent marketing tool in building the brand relationship with consumers and customers, from brand awareness through to affinity. It can afford the brand an important opportunity to engage with customers and consumers on a deeper emotional level.

The judges will be looking at the selection criteria for choosing the specific entertainment programme and will want to understand why and how this addressed your business challenge or capitalised on your business opportunity.

This award will go to the organisation that has demonstrated, from strategy through to execution, an effective entertainment sponsorship partnership which has delivered exceptional results such as increased brand affinity, revenues and or market share. Importantly, the judges will want to understand why this particular partnership has created the unique connection with the audience and how that led to success.

The winner will be considered for entry into the European Sponsorship Association “Best of Europe” category.

Sports Sponsorship Award

Core Competencies:

Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy
Channel Experience

Sports is big business and attracts an ever-growing number of consumers and customers, offering a unique opportunity for engagement at a deeper emotional level. The selection of the sponsorship and the way it is leveraged will determine the marketing success of the programme.

Judges will want to understand why the specific sports partnership creates a connection with the audience and how that led to success.

This award will go to the organisation that has demonstrated from strategy through to execution, an effective sports sponsorship partnership which has delivered exceptional results such as increased brand affinity, revenues and or market share.

The winner will be considered for entry into the European Sponsorship Association “Best of Europe” category.

Cultural or Societal Sponsorship Award

Core competencies :

Responsible Marketing
Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy

This award recognises a sponsorship initiative that has delivered meaningful impact at a societal or cultural level. Whether through the arts, social causes, or environmental sustainability, this category celebrates collaborations that inspire communities and contribute to positive change.

Judges will look for entries that demonstrate clear strategic intent and show how the sponsorship has driven measurable outcomes for the community as well as the business. The award is not based on the size of financial investment, but rather on the depth of impact, inclusivity, and the accessibility of the activation. The judges will reward those who use the power of partnership to make a difference – creatively, responsibly, and with purpose.

Successful entrants will showcase how their sponsorship supported commercial or organisational goals and how the partnership aligned with and enhanced brand values as well as the practices that amplified the sponsorship’s reach and relevance.

Long Term Brand Impact

Competencies

Innovation & NPD
Business Performance
Insights & Planning
Brand Strategy

The Long Term Brand Impact award recognises the businesses and brands that champion long term, strategic brand management with a demonstrable impact on business success over a minimum of three years.

In a world that is increasingly fragmented and competitive, the application of professional marketing discipline, delivered through long term strategic brand management, has never been more important to the delivery of business success.
The judges are looking for the brands that can demonstrate sustained improvement in core brand strength and revenue, coupled with innovation through all the business processes and brand touchpoints, including NPD where relevant. You are reminded to recognise the distinction between innovation and NPD.

You will evidence your entry by highlighting how you listen and embrace feedback to build the brand consistently over time through insight, innovation and investment over a minimum of three years.

Your business story can begin at any phase of the product life cycle, from continuous innovation in a mature category to the development and launch of a new brand and how it successfully scaled over time.

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MII AIM Awards 2026 Categories

Scroll down this page to view and click on each category to see the shortlisted entrants.