AMERICAN
ADVERTISING
AWARDS
IN CINCINNATI
The American Advertising Awards are a three tiered competition (Local, District, National) that celebrates the creative spirit, and excellence within the art of advertising. With broad spanning categories across every discipline and niche of branding, marketing & advertising, it is one of the industries largest and most representative competitions with over 30,000 entries every year.
By entering your work into the Cincinnati Addy’s (our local tier of the competition), you will first compete against your peers from the Cincinnati region. Gold winners of the Cincinnati Addys will automatically (and for free) compete in the next level: District 5 (Silver winners have the option of paying the entrance fee to continue to the District tier.) Gold winners of the District 5 Addys will continue to the National tier. National winners are considered the best of their category for that year, but winners from all three tiers are considered to exemplify excellence.
PROFESSIONAL
Independent judges from around the world, and industry come together to review every submission we receive. Gold winners move on to the next tier of the competition. Silver winners can elect to pay to have their work forwarded. We are proud to say that work from Cincinnati often performs very well in the district and national level of the competition.
Student Division
There is a Student Division of the competition, sponsored by the AAF and Ad 2 National, giving college students an opportunity for recognition in their craft. The Student Addys are judged by the same independent judging panel as the professional Addys, and will have the opportunity to read feedback from the judges.
If you are a student interested in submitting your work but have further questions, please reach out to Ad Club Cincinnati.
Addys Board Chair
The Cincinnati Addys is currently led by Garret Ollish, a director of Film & Motion working out of Cincinnati, Ohio. Garret joined the Board of Directors for Ad Club Cincinnati in 2022. He was first a vendor, helping produce 2019 (Nasty Nati Addys), 2020 (Save The Queen) and 2021 (Warriors), but now organizes the show on behalf of Ad Club Cincinnati. He is a multi-Silver and Gold Addy winner at the local level, and also serves on the Judging Council for the International Telly Awards.
His goal in leading The Cincinnati Addys is to help champion the exceptional creative and advertising community in Cincinnati on the national stage.
