The One Show 2021 Opens Call for Entries with 'Embrace the Moment' Campaign

After providing the creative community with this year’s largest global awards show and definitive international and regional creative rankings, The One Club for Creativity has opened the call for entries for The One Show 2021, supported by an inspiring campaign from Wolff Olins.

Notable changes have been made to help agencies and brands who continue to be affected by the global pandemic, including extended deadlines and new categories and disciplines that reflect the way the industry now works.

Entries can be submitted now and will be accepted later this season, with fees increasing after each deadline period. Early entry deadline for the greatest savings is 31st December 2020, with the regular deadline 12th March 2021. The extended deadline is 19th March 2021, and final deadline 26th March 2021.

“In a year when for-profit shows like Cannes cancelled their awards, The One Club doubled down on its non-profit mission to support the creative community and recognise great work with 2020’s largest global awards program and definitive creative rankings,” said Kevin Swanepoel, CEO. “We’re extremely grateful for this enthusiastic backing from agencies and brands around the world because their participation in The One Show directly funds so many critical programming we produce all year to help the industry.”

'Embrace the Moment' Campaign

The One Show 2021 call for entries is supported by an inspiring 'Embrace the Moment' campaign developed by Wolff Olins. The campaign frames 2020 as an unforgettable year that introduced unprecedented challenges for the creative industry: a persistent pandemic, a global civil rights awakening, contentious political campaigns and a fundamental re-evaluation of everything that came before.  

But some things remain constant: great work should always be recognised, especially when that work was created in the face of great adversity. 

The campaign introduces the computer screen as the flawed hero, one we were reluctantly wedded to earlier this year as a necessary evil at the onset of lockdowns around the world. Over time, the screen became a meaningful bridge to others, and transformed in our minds from a rectangular prison to an inspirational portal.

Using the tagline 'Embrace the Moment', the campaign presents a series of vignettes that mirror our collective 2020 journeys and conflicted relationship with the screen.  These include initially getting sucked into it, finding a new work-from-home balance, discovering screen-based tools and people, and becoming inspired.

"The campaign is imagined as a love letter to the creative community,” said Forest Young, chief creative officer, Wolff Olins. “It’s an optimistic time capsule that embraces the resilience and perseverance made tangible by 2020.”

The agency partnered with renowned Swedish artist Magoz to bring to life a surreal take on this year inspired by the psychedelic vision of 'Yellow Submarine' by The Beatles, who were the first client of Wolff Olins.  

New Categories and Disciplines

The One Show has added new categories and disciplines for 2021 to address new developments in the industry and the world, including:

• Innovation & Transformation - a new Innovation category added to each discipline to recognise the ingenuity required to overcome limitations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic.
• Virtual Events - with experiential categories in several disciplines expanded to accommodate the variety of events taking place in digital environments.
• Music & Sound Craft - for the first year being offered as a separate discipline with its own jury.

Judging will be conducted online, no physical entries will be accepted this year. All entry media must be uploaded into the online entry system.

The One Show 2021 juries will be announced shortly. Online judging will take place March through May 2021, with finalists announced in mid-May.  The One Show 2021 Gold, Silver and Bronze Pencil winners will be announced on 9th - 10th June 2021.

Revenue generated from The One Show entry fees goes back into the industry in the form of programming under the nonprofit organisation’s four pillars: Educations, Inclusion & Diversity, Gender Equality and Professional Development. 

These include the annual Where Are All The Black People diversity conference and career fair, ONE School free portfolio program for Black creatives, Creative Boot Camps for diverse college students, Right the Ratio Summits addressing gender equality, Global Educators Summits, Creative Leaders Retreats, Mentor & Creative providing mentorships at agencies for nearly 200 young creatives, bi-annual Saturday Career Workshops for high school students and more.