Judging & Awards Process

Stevie Awards judging is typically conducted in two phases: preliminary and final.  Preliminary judges are volunteers who apply online.  Their applications are reviewed by Stevie® Awards staff, and if accepted are assigned categories based on their industry, function, and experience.

During preliminary judging, each entry is reviewed and rated by no fewer than five (5) volunteer judges who have been approved as qualified (by Stevie Awards staff) to judge those entries. All entries (except those in a few categories that must be judged offline, such as those for advertising campaigns, annual reports and videos) are viewed and rated at the judges' convenience over the Internet. Rating is done on a scale of 1-10.

All entries that receive an average score of at least 7.0 in the preliminary round of judging, regardless of category, are automatically designated as Finalists, and will ultimately be named a Gold, Silver or Bronze Stevie Award winner, to be determined in final judging.

Members of specially-formed final judging committees perform the final judging, during which their average scores determine Stevie Award placements from among the Finalists. Every category that has at least one Finalist will have at least one Stevie Award winner. 

The veracity of claims made in Finalist entries may be audited.  Any entry found to contain false or misleading information will be disqualified.  Gold Stevie-winning entries are published on our web sites after honorees have the opportunity to redact any confidential or other non-public information from them.