No. You do not have to be a member of AAF SF Bay Area (or another AAF Organization) to participate in the American Advertising Awards. However, members do receive discounts on entries and admission to the gala. Depending on the number of entries you submit, you may find that it is more valuable to join and receive the member discount.

Yes! You can submit as many entries as you wish into as many categories as you wish.

We will inform everyone in the competition whether any of their entries were named as a winner. We will not announce which specific entries won or what award they will be given until the gala.

If you are not sure of the category to enter, please send your question with information about the entry to MarkLandon@GreaterSF.org. He will be able to help you. If you enter in the wrong category, you won’t be disqualified, we will simply move it to the correct one.

If you are currently a student, or a 2024 graduate, you can enter work created as a student in 2024 the student categories. If you created work for clients in 2024, whether or not you were a student, you must enter those in the professional categories.

What makes the entries eligible for the San Francsico Competition is where the entrant is located, not the client. Therefore, your clients could be from anywhere in the world, as long as the creative concepts were managed or created from your office within the Bay Area.

You can submit entries in any language. We do request that if the entry is not in English that you submit a translation with it. This can be as a separate document or through subtitles, if it is a video.

In the professional competition, the entry must respect all copyrights owned by others, including music, artwork and other items. In the student competition, it is not required that you receive permission to use copyrighted items since the entry was never intended for use in the marketplace.