Who will be judging your work? 

All Golden Hammer competition entries are judged by juries of professionally versatile and internationally recognized professionals. They will evaluate, deliberate and determine the winners of Golden Hammer. 

We hold the absence of network politics and geographical versitility in high regard, therefore each year jury members represent both agency networks and independent agencies, and there are more than 15 countries represented. Jury members are nominated by national Art Director Clubs and Advertising Associations. 

Creative jury evaluates the entries in Film, Print, Outdoor, Radio, Design and Brandings, Craft and Social categories.

Communicatons jury evaluates the entries in Media, Promo & Activation, Content and Entertainment, Campaigns and Direct categories.

Digital jury evaluates the entries in the Digital and Mobile category.

PR jury evaluates the entries in the PR category. 

How does the judging work?

Entries are evaluated and awarded in four stages. 

Stage 1 – Who gets shorlisted? 

All judges will be evaluating the entries on the Golden Hammer online voting platform. Each jury evaluates only their respective categories. An Entry is considered shortlisted if more than 50% of respective jury memers vote "YES". 

After the first stage the SHORTLIST is created and announced on the Golden Hammer website. 

All shortlisted entries are awarded with a Golden Hammer diploma. 

Stage 2 – Who gets the Golden & Silver hammers?

During the festival, all the judges fly in form all over the world to Latvia.  They meet to choose the best work, that deserves Golden Hammer awards. In stage 2 all short-listed entries compete for Silver Hammer and Golden Hammer awards in their subcategory. 

Stage 3 – And the winner is...

In stage 3 we find out who gets the Grand Prix. All Golden Hammer winners compete for the Grand Prix in their category.

Stage 4 - Special prizes

For each success in the competition Agency is awarded points, that determines who gets the special prizes – Creativity Case, Communications folder, Access key, PR Frame and Network of the Year.

Special prizes are awarded on the basis of point calculations, and every agency then enters the Golden Hammer competitions is eligible for these awards. 

Creativity Case goes to the agency with most points in categories judged by the Creative Jury. Communications folder goes to the agency with most points in categories judges by the Communications Jury. Access Key goes to the agency with most points collected in Digital category, but the PR Frame to the agency with most points in PR Category. 

The Network of the year is competition between agency networks. When submitting your entries, please be extra careful and do not forget to choose your agency network in your user profile. If you do not see your network in the provided list, please tell us. 

If two agencies receive an identical score when competing for the Network of the year title, an additional point is awarded to the agency with most Golden Hammers. If there still is a tie, one more point is awarded to the agency with most Silver Hammers, and if the score is still identical – one more point goes to the agency with most short-listed works. If all else fails and the two agencies still have an identical score – an additional point is awarded to the agency with most entries in all categories. 

Each award given to the entry is transformed into points to calculate the special awards.