The juror's guide

I. Judging Rules

WHAT WILL YOU BE JUDGING?
The purpose of the ADC Czech Creative Awards is to reward the best work of the year in Czech advertising and design.
GENERAL RULES ON HOW TO JUDGE
Each juror must vote independently, responsibly, and conscientiously. Your vote reflects your personal evaluation of the work, and each juror is fully responsible for their assessment. The invitation to the jury reflects the respect that the Art Directors Club holds for each individual juror as a professional. We sincerely believe all jurors will judge fairly and according to the rules of the competition. Any attempt to manipulate the voting process may result in expulsion from the jury.
Each judge scores every entry in their assigned category within the specified range. To ensure the best quality of judging, please do not leave any entry without a score. All entries are to be judged both by the originality of the creative idea and the quality of execution. The only exception is the Craft and Design categories where only the quality of execution is taken into consideration.
If a jury member suspects that a submitted work is not original, they should email the organizer before the in-person jury session. The email should include relevant details about the similar work. This information will be sent to the Jury President, who will decide if the issue should be discussed during the session.
The Jury President typically does not participate in voting.. However, the President of the jury has the right to decide any ambiguity in the voting process. The President shall have the weight of two votes, if necessary, in the voting.
All votes throughout the judging process are archived for future reference. The votes are not anonymous and may be made public or inspected in order to preserve the proper conduct of the judging procedure.
INVOLVEMENT IN ENTRIES
If the juror or their agency/network has been involved with the entry in any way, they must indicate this in the process of judging by marking each such entry as INVOLVED (by clicking the relevant button), and abstain from any part of the judging process concerning those entries.
Jurors are considered involved if they have been employed (in any way, any type of contract and duration) by the submitting agency and/or production company since July 2023 until today.
In any discussions during the judging process - both official and unofficial - the involved juror must refrain from proactive advocacy for any entry they have been involved with. Involved jurors must automatically leave the room during discussions and evaluations of their related entries.
Only the jury president may invite the involved juror into a discussion to clarify and help resolve any factual disputes about the entry.
If a juror is involved with any entry, tactical votes against rival entries will be subjected to review.
THE JUDGING PROCESS
The judging process consists of three steps: shortlist voting remotely via the internet; final shortlist confirmation and awarding of the award will take place during the physical jury meeting. Prior to the jury meeting, all jurors need to get to know the entries in detail during the shortlisting process, as this will significantly speed up the jury meeting. Further specifications are given in the Evaluation Procedure section of this manual.
SPECIAL AWARDS
The most outstanding entry across all categories of Block A: to Block D: may be awarded the Grand Prix. This award will be given if it receives more than 50 % of the votes of all judges. The jury may award only one Grand Prix during its evaluation, but may also decide not to award a prize if none of the entries deserves it.
The Art Prix is awarded to the best entries across all categories in the E: Craft and F: Design blocks. The same rules apply for this award as for the Grand Prix.
However, only entries for campaigns carried out for commercial entities are eligible for the Grand Prix and Art Prix. Works for non-profit organisations are not eligible for this award.
The jury may also award the Client of the Year Award to a client who has made an exceptional work possible. The same voting rules apply for this award, the jury may award only one, but may also decide not to award a prize.
The Agency of the Evening award at ADC Awards 2025 will be given to the entrant with the highest total score, based on the 2025 Award Statute scoring methodology. This award is given by the organizer of the competition.
REVOCATION
Any juror may suggest a revocation of any result for any specific entry, at the stage of Shortlist or Awards of the judging process. Typically, it will be used to re-evaluate the overall number of granted awards, the number of granted awards in each category, or the proportion of granted awards across categories.
Within the shortlist round, each juror has the right to submit one proposal for a revote within one category.
In order to start the revocation for award, at least 75 % of all jurors have to support the motion.
The president of the jury has the right to give an unlimited number of proposals for revocation and also has the right to give a proposal for revocation of an already revoked one.

II. Judging Procedure

LOGGING IN TO THE JUDGING APPLICATION
We have created a user profile for you, so you can vote in our app www.adcawards.cz. You can access your account directly, without a password, via the link we delivered to you by email.
For the voting process, choose VOTING in the menu bar. You can switch the language in the right corner.
SELECT THE VOTING ROUND
Select the Shortlist voting round. Progress bar on the main page of the voting round shows you an overview of YOUR voting process.
SELECTING THE CATEGORY
Select the category you want to view on the left side menu. You can browse through the categories in any order you wish.
ENTRY DETAIL
All entries within the category are shown in the list (by application number). By clicking on the entry name or the icon of VOTING, you can find all the details including related images and voting buttons. The involved jurors must indicate any such entry as “INVOLVED” by clicking the relevant button.
IMPORTANT: You need to confirm all your votes with the “CONFIRM” button.
Conflicted jurors must mark each such entry as "INVOLVED" by clicking on the appropriate button.
There is a text box for your notes, which you can access anytime in the entry detail or in the main preview of the list. Full-resolution images can be reached by downloading the attachments (click the download icon).

III. Judging Rounds

The judging procedure consists of 3 rounds.

SHORTLIST ONLINE
The shortlist is the first stage, which is evaluated in advance online via the website www.adcawards.cz.
The goal is to choose works that have a chance of being awarded for their quality.
The juror marks each entry on a scale from 1 to 10 (1 being the worst and 10 being the best) by clicking on the “NUMBERS” button and confirming the decision with the “CONFIRM” button. If the Juror is involved in the entry, he will use the “INVOLVED” button.
To be shortlisted, the average of all eligible votes must be higher than 5.
Prior to the in-person session, the jury will get a preview of the current Shortlist voted online.
FINALISATION OF THE SHORTLIST
The finalisation of the shortlist takes place in person during the jury meeting in the form of a presentation of the current ranking of all applications. Through a revocation, any juror may propose the cancellation of any result for a particular entry. Within the shortlist round, each juror has the right to submit one proposal for a revocation of the vote within a category.
AWARDS
The Awards round is the third and final stage of the judging process and takes place in person. Time for discussion of each relevant entry will be provided.
The jury votes by a show of hands on shortlisted entries within a category for bronze, silver, or gold awards. Any award is achieved by receiving more than 50 % of all eligible votes for that specific award level.
The jury can grant more than one of every award, but at the same time does not have to grant any award at all.
If a Juror is involved in the entry, they must abstain from any part of the judging process concerning this entry.
The final scores are entered into the competition system by an ADC representative.

Many thanks for your participation