The UK is acknowledged as one of the World's great centres for TV ad creativity but, until now, has not had a forum for judging and celebrating the very best work, on a regular basis, through the year. The thinkboxes fill this gap. Our aim is to inspire audiences and engage them in discussion and debate about the nature of great TV creative.

As well as the creative team and the director, the thinkboxes also formally recognise the crucial role that the advertiser plays in briefing, recognizing and championing outstanding TV creativity - a role that has been under-rewarded in the past.

The thinkboxes launched in May 2008, with the first award being made for an ad shown during the month of April.

What material is eligible?

These bi-monthly awards celebrate and honour all forms of TV ad creativity from the timeless spot ad on broadcast TV to sponsorship idents, advertiser funded programming, interactivity and other commercial TV formats on platforms such as the internet or mobile phones. If in doubt about the eligibility of your work, please check out the rules for more clarity.

How to enter

These awards are free to enter. If you'd like your TV creative work to be entered for a given two-month period, please make sure you submit it to us by the last Friday of the two-month period in which it appeared (e.g. for an ad aired in Mar-Apr, get it to us by the last Friday in April).

There are six awards throughout the year:

You can find everything you need to know about how to do that here.

The Shortlist

Every two months a maximum of 5 pieces of work will be short-listed by a panel from Campaign, Marketing, Brand Republic and Thinkbox.

The selection of the winner

The short-listed work will then be submitted to The Thinkbox Academy (a group of more than 200 luminaries from the UK advertising and marketing community) who will rank the top 3 ads in order according to which they believe to be the best. There will be one overall winner each month. The winner will be the piece of work which has been ranked in first place by the greatest number of Academy members. Only if there is a tie for first place will the 2nd and then 3rd place votes come into consideration.

In case of any kind of dispute or problem with the voting it will be referred to the joint Academy Presidents, Nick Gill of BBH and Craig Inglis of John Lewis, to resolve. The Presidents' decision is final.

Leon Jaume, Executive Creative Director of WCRS, and Simon Clift, Chief Marketing Officer, Unilever & Group Vice-President, Personal Care, are the Academy's inaugural joint Presidents.

The Winner

The advertiser and creative team responsible for the winning ad will each receive a specially designed Thinkbox, designed and signed by the Italian sculptor Guido Moretti. They will also be celebrated within Marketing and on the Thinkbox website. The individuals involved will also automatically be invited to join the prestigious Thinkbox Academy (and therefore will be involved in judging all subsequent Thinkbox bi-monthly creative awards).