Feature
Category Recommender
Score category fit, assess eligibility criteria, and shortlist the strongest entry opportunities for a campaign across award programs.
Category selection is one of the most consequential decisions in the award submission process. Entering the wrong categories means paying entry fees to compete where the campaign has no real chance. Entering too few categories means leaving genuine opportunities on the table. Getting category selection right requires matching a campaign's actual strengths to the specific requirements of each program: a process that takes experience, program knowledge, and time.
The Category Recommender automates that matching process. It assesses the campaign, scores fit against each candidate category's judging criteria, checks eligibility, benchmarks against past winners, and returns a ranked shortlist your team can review and act on.
How it works
The recommender runs through five stages from campaign assessment to final shortlist.
Campaign Assessment
The recommender begins by assessing the campaign against key dimensions: the creative territory, channel mix, campaign objectives, measurable results, and available evidence. This assessment determines which program types and category families are viable starting points.
Category Fit Scoring
Each candidate category is scored against the specific judging criteria published by the award program. Criteria are weighted differently across programs, and the recommender accounts for this rather than applying a generic scoring model. Film categories at Cannes Lions score differently from effectiveness categories at the Effies.
Eligibility Assessment
Category recommendations are filtered by eligibility. Entry dates, market eligibility, campaign recency requirements, and category-specific restrictions are checked before a category is included in the shortlist. Submitting to an ineligible category wastes entry fees and operational time.
Past Winner Benchmarking
Shortlisted categories are benchmarked against past winners in the same program and category. The recommender surfaces how similar the campaign is to recent winning work, giving the team a realistic read on competitiveness before committing to an entry.
Prioritised Shortlist
The output is a ranked shortlist with a fit score, eligibility status, competitive context, and fee information for each recommended category. The team uses this to make the final entry decision rather than starting from a blank spreadsheet.
Used in
Join the waitlist for early access
The Category Recommender is part of the Awardy platform, currently in early access.