Inside the judging room: 5 key insights from judging The Drum Content Awards in 2025
This October, a group of content experts from some of the largest, most influential B2B and B2C organisations convened to discuss the biggest and best campaigns of the last 12 months. Our Content Director, Stuart Roberts, was lucky enough to count himself among them.
If you want a peek under the wizard’s robe, here are five of my thoughts around the state of content in 2025.
1. Where have all the words gone?
Open up the ‘editorial and blog entries’ cupboard, and the shelves were pretty bare.
The industry has been pivoting to video for a while now, and it seems like we’ve crossed the tipping point. Just one written entry for this year’s award. Pretty uninspiring. It seems long form just isn’t cool anymore.
However, a zig like this always offers a zag opportunity. Just as print media has become more niche and focused, so too should marketers look at editorial and long form through a different lens. In a sea of digital, can print cut through? Zines? Graphic novels?
2. Own goals
The Drum Award scoring system rewards entries on three metrics – Strategy, Execution, and Results. Often, the entries are focused on the output. Results are either barely mentioned or don’t link to tangible, brand-building outcomes. Sure, you got five million views of your beautifully produced brand video. So… what?
The issue is twofold. First is an addiction to vanity metrics like views or likes as a measure of success. The second is a lack of focused strategy. Your results goals should come at the start of the project, not the end. And while ‘build brand awareness’ is a noble aim, it’s too vague.
The winning entries were those that could point to a desire to move a certain metric by a specific metric within a stated audience group. With that hard metric in place, judging a campaign’s success becomes far easier.
3. Under the influence
A recent IPA study shows the clear long-term impact of creator and influencer marketing for brands. The ‘Content Partnerships’ category, then, was very timely. The category is all about rewarding successful collaborations between brands and content creators, publishers, or media platforms to produce and distribute engaging content. And while some showings were better than others, it’s clear that, over the last year at least, no-one has really nailed it.
Social media has become a creator marketplace. The TV stars of yesterday are today’s YouTubers and TikTokers. And they’re wielding a vast amount of influence for brands.
This is an area that will only grow and grow as brands become more savvy on how to make partnerships work. The danger is they dilute the authenticity that makes these creators special in the first place, by adding more and more guardrails. Creators are cool. Brands aren’t. How do you strike the balance?
4. AI? What AI?
Last year, there were a few entries that tried to glom an AI angle onto their content – failing miserably. This year, not one mention of it in any entry. That means one of two things:
1) Agencies and brands have jumped off the AI train and are focused on craft
2) AI has become embedded into teams’ workflows and people are focused on practical application as opposed to gimmicky creative execution
The latter is more likely. But, as GenAI production becomes more mainstream, I expect to see more interesting uses and applications of the tool next year. Not just in terms of the ads themselves. But in terms of experiences – digital and physical.
5. Nice to see you
Generally speaking, it’s great to sit in a room (albeit a digital one), have a proper conversation and critique live work of all shades of good and not-so. In an industry where heads-down, get-shit-done, is often a default setting, opportunities to step back and chat was welcomed. Especially around the world of content where so much is shifting under our feet right now. Chapeau to all involved.
The Drum Awards Festival is Tuesday 17th – Friday 20th November at The Drum Labs, in Shoreditch. You can grab tickets here.
And, of course, if you want to chat content, 2026 strategy, or any marketing challenge, get in touch with us here at Transmission.