Our 2023 Award Categories

Our categories are unique and designed to create opportunities to enter not just your creative work, but team achievements and your business impact too.

We update and review every year to ensure our categories reflect the changes in the industry.

Best Project Award

This award recognises project-based work undertaken by in-house creative teams. This is an opportunity to showcase creative and original ideas.

This category will be judged against three key criteria:

  • Creativity and originality
  • The business impact of the project
  • Challenges overcome in order to meet project objectives

Design for good

This category is inspired by our charity and not-for-profit in-house creative teams.

This category will be judged against two key criteria:

  • The impact of the project on the Charity or Not-For-Profit
  • Additional points awarded for creativity and originality of thought

Best internal rebrand / Brand development

This recognises the in-house creative teams who have played a key role in the successful development, execution and roll-out of their company’s new brand identity.

It will be judged against four key criteria:

  • The performance of the rebrand: How well did it perform against the previous brand identity?
  • What was the business impact?
  • Evidence of any additional business challenges the team had to overcome in order to deliver the rebrand
  • Additional points awarded for creativity and originality of thought

Best example of collaboration with an external supplier

Opportunity to demonstrate how your in-house creative team added value to a project by seeking out and working effectively with an external supplier.

This category will be judged against two key criteria:

  • Must demonstrate a collaborative working relationship
  • Evidence of how the collaboration had a positive impact on the creative project

Best example of internal collaboration

This award recognises partnerships and collaboration with other divisions of a business which is often required by in-house creative teams.

This category will be judged against three key criteria:

  • Must show evidence of the collaboration having a direct business impact
  • Must show evidence of internal PR to help communicate the teams offering
  • Additional points awarded for evidence of the in-house creative team having influence within the business as a result of the collaboration

Impact on the overall business

This award is an opportunity to showcase a project completed by your in-house creative team which has had a significant impact on the overall business.

This category will be judged against three key criteria:

  • Must show evidence of the business impact of the project
  • Must demonstrate effectiveness of campaign including return on investment
  • Evidence of overcoming any internal challenges which exceed the company’s expectations of the in-house creative team’s capabilities

Best in-house creative team of the year

This award recognises the very best in-house creative team.

This category will be judged against 8 key criteria going across outputs, leadership, culture and operations:

  • High quality creative outputs and/or original ideas
  • A clearly articulated and shared vision
  • Evidence of a strong team culture with shared attitudes and values
  • Can demonstrate examples of collaboration and teamwork across the business
  • A commitment to team learning, career progression and development
  • Well-defined resource management and processes
  • Evidence of team’s positive business impact
  • Bonus points will be awarded for evidence of overcoming internal challenges

Judges award

All shortlisted entries will automatically be considered to win the sought-after inside out judges award.

This award has been created to acknowledge the project or in-house team who has impressed the judging panel.

Criteria include a clear demonstration of:

  • Originality
  • Creative Bravery
  • Difference

This year’s Judges award category is sponsored by TBC.

Download an entry form now

What they say about us

“It’s been great learning from peers and other senior leaders in the field. Sharing challenges and learnings with the community has been essential to my own professional development.”

Harshil Varsani
Head of Creative, TotallyMoney

“The whole team were thrilled to have won three awards, as is the rest of the organisation. Particularly the judges award, the comments we had from the judges was amazing.”

Sara Chew
Creative Lead, British Red Cross

“I’ve been a loyal member of the Breakfast Club from the start – I always look forward to the session as there’s new faces and new challenges to dissect each month. I’ve made some fantastic connections and this has led to me improving processes, motivation and creative decisions within my team.”

Laura Heaton
Global Design Director, MediaCom Worldwide

“We were very happy with the event that we partnered with Inside Out Awards on. It felt like a genuine partnership throughout, with good ideas and discussion before the event, great organisation from Sarah in the lead up, and fantastic facilitation from Emma on the day. We were impressed by the quality of attendees, who were all really engaged and provided valuable insights.”

Alex Steele
Lead Consultant, AAR

“Being part of the inside out community is vital in many levels, but simply connecting with like minded folk who all share your passion, your pain and your value on gathering valuable insights and experiences is the reason I came in the first place”

Andy Hunns
Head of Creative Services, Chelsea FC

“We’ve had such amazing feedback from the business about our win, it’s really raised our profile as a design team”

Joshua Read
Associate Designer – UK & European Business Development, Savills

“Breakfast Club – I am your biggest fan! With a bunch of super smart and interesting in-house leaders providing each other with peer to peer support, the conversation and advice is second to none. I have seen the immediate added value the sessions bring to me, and subsequently my team. I am so happy to have discovered this wonderful community.”

Emma Baines
Global Head of Creative, Tony’s Chocolonely

“The Inside Out Awards know their community so well that they enable us to seek out and establish genuine connections with the right kinds of in-house creative leaders. As they are very protective of their community and selective about who they partner with, this has meant that we are able to form more meaningful new relationships based on our preferred position of being a helpful, relevant and trusted partner.”

Robert Berkeley
CEO at EKCS

“Inside Out is special. It’s that most valuable of things: a knowledge store and support group rolled into one. I love being connected to other in-house creative leaders and being able to tap into their collective experience any time I need it. I only wish it had been around when I first became a head!”

Michael Storey
Creative Leader & Consultant

“The Guild community is a creative leader’s secret sauce! It has been truly invaluable for me and I am able to collaborate, share ideas and receive key advice which has helped me in my leadership journey!”

Marilyn Yost
Head of Design, Savills

“IOA understood what we needed from the partnership because they understand their member’s needs in precise detail. Their insight is gold dust because it informed us how to present our offer in the most appealing way. Then the process of meeting the network was expertly managed, value focused and most importantly natural. This has led to high-quality leads which we are now working on becoming new customers.”

Sam Reid
Co-founder at Loops

“The Breakfast Club is a great way to meet talented creatives in small and huge organisations who share their hard earned experiences with a smile. I’ve always learned something new from them.”

Ivan Pols
Chief Creative Officer, what3words