PEOPLE OF THE YEAR

The People of the Year category is about celebrating visionary, creative, and innovative individuals for their work showcased at the Shorty Awards and Shorty Impact Awards.

Nomination is free and open between May 13 to September 4, 2025. You may nominate yourself or a colleague, client, or partner - up to one person per category and a maximum of three categories.

Nominations are now closed. Subscribe to our e-newsletter to receive updates

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CATEGORIES

Brand Marketer
This award honors in-house marketers who excel at shaping and elevating brand identities, creating strong consumer connections, and driving business success through innovative marketing strategies.
Changemaker
This award celebrates leaders who identify critical challenges, advocate for innovative solutions, and drive impactful transformation through their vision, actions, and leadership to create a better world.
Community Builder
This award honors leaders who foster vibrant communities through vision, engagement, collaboration, and cultivating meaningful connections.
Creative
This award honors individuals who excelled in ideating and creating visionary creative executions including copy, visuals, sound, etc.
Creator
This award honors digital content creators whose imaginative talent and artistic expression bring compelling stories, art, and ideas to life, educate, entertain and inspire the audience they serve.
Innovator
This award honors visionary thinkers whose groundbreaking ideas, bold creativity, and willingness to challenge the status quo redefine industries and push the boundaries of what’s possible.
Media Planner
This award recognizes media planning and buying professionals who design and execute effective media strategies that reach and resonate with target audiences to drive meaningful impact.
Non-profit Marketer
This award highlights non-profit marketers who craft impactful campaigns that inspire action and drive positive change, advancing causes with creativity and purpose.
Producer
This award recognizes digital content producers who captivate and engage audiences through innovative storytelling that is both compelling and thought-provoking.
Strategist
This award honors professionals who lead strategic initiatives that guide brands, organizations, or campaigns toward achieving specific, measurable business objectives.

Eligibility

Eligible participants must have played a critical role and credited in the entries of the current calendar year of the two awards programs. For this new category, nominees must be credited in at least three entries/categories in 2025 (the 17th Annual Shorty Awards OR the 10th Annual Shorty Impact Awards) to qualify.

Judging Criteria

  • Credited in the most distinguished work voted by the Real Time Academy, including as winner, gold, silver, or bronze honoree.
  • Played a critical role and demonstrated mastery of the respective craft they were nominated for in the winning work.
  • Proven track record in both objective professional achievements and driving positive impact (this can include extracurricular activities such as offering mentorship, participating in pro bono work, serving on ERGs, giving back to their communities, etc).

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PRIVACY POLICY

THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Campaign

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Awareness Campaign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Campaign by Diverse-Owned Businesses See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Global Campaign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Integrated Campaign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Launch Campaign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Local Campaign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Multi-Platform Campaign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Rebrand Campaign Regional Campaign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Good Campaign

Content and Media

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Blog & Micro-blog See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Voice See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Branded Content See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Branded Series See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Contest or Promotion See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Copywriting See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Email & Newsletter See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Filter/Lens See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Meme, GIF, & Emojis See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Micro-Site See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Single Post or Activation Use of Viral Content See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> User-Generated Content

Design

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Animation See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Art Direction See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Audio & Music See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Identity See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Redesign See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Generative AI See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Graphic Art See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Images See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Website/App

Industry

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Auto See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Beauty See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Business to Business See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Consumer Brand See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Education See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Entertainment See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Financial Services See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Fitness, Health, & Wellness
<br>See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Food & Beverage See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Gaming See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Government & Politics See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Hospitality See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Insurance See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Live Events See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> News & Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Non-Profit See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Pets & Animals See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Pharma & Healthcare See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Real Estate See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Restaurants See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Retail & E-Commerce See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Activism See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Sports See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Technology See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Television See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Travel & Tourism See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Wine, Beer & Spirits

Influencer & Celebrity Partnership

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Instagram Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Multi-Platform Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Other Platform Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> TikTok Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> X Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> YouTube Partnership

Overall Presence

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Facebook Presence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Instagram Presence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> LinkedIn Presence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Multi-Platform Presence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Other Platform Presence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> TikTok Presence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> X Presence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> YouTube Presence

Platforms & Technology

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Artificial Intelligence See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Extended Reality See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Facebook See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Immersive See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Instagram See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Interactive Content See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> LinkedIn See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Other Platform See previous year winners and honorees here.</a>"> TikTok See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> X (formerly Twitter) See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> YouTube

Podcast

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Art & Culture Podcast See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Branded Podcast Business Podcast NEW! See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Health & Wellness Podcast See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Lifestyle & Entertainment Podcast See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> News & Politics Podcast See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Other Podcast Genres See previous winners and honorees here.</a> "> Podcast Mini Series See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Sports Podcast Technology and Education Podcast See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> True Crime & Documentary Podcast

Strategy & Engagement

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Call to Action See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Community Management See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Creative Use of Technology See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> CTV/OTT See previous winners and honorees for Insights and Trends here.</a> <a href=https://shortyawards.com/people-of-the-year/"https://shortyawards.com/category/16th/data-visualization">See previous winners and honorees for Data Visualization here.</a>"> Data & Insights See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Earned Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Event & Experiential See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Gamification See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Humor See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Innovative Media Buying Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Integration with Traditional Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Internal Communications See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> LGBTQ Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Micro-Influencer Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Multicultural Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Music & Dance See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> On a Shoestring See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Organic Promotion See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Paid & Amplification See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Physical and Digital Convergence See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Public Service Announcement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Real Time Response See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> SEO & SEM See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Commerce See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Storytelling

Video

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Comedy Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Documentary Feature Film NEW! See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Featurette or Behind The Scenes Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Instructional Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Live Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Long Form Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Medium-Length Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Music Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Product Feature Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Short Form Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Unboxing Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Vertical Video See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Video Ad See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Video Series

Of The Year

Commercial Creator of the Year Dual-Format Creator of the Year Large Agency of the Year Large Brand of the Year Large Non-Profit of the Year Mid-Sized Agency of the Year News Creator of the Year Site of the Year Small Agency of the Year Studio of the Year