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Presented by Modern Healthcare and Ad Age, the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards recognize marketing, advertising and communications that are driving organizational success, improving patient and community engagement and making measurable impact across the industry.
The program honors strategic, creative and results-driven work from providers, insurers, suppliers, pharmaceutical companies, advocacy organizations and agencies operating in today’s complex healthcare environment.
From brand storytelling and digital innovation to purpose-led initiatives and technology-informed campaigns, the awards celebrate work that demonstrates how marketing can help healthcare organizations build trust, improve access, strengthen engagement and drive organizational growth.
Winners will be notified in October and revealed on ModernHealthcare.com and AdAge.com in November 2026.
Questions? See what judges are looking for, visit our FAQs and check out the important information section. If your question isn't answered, please contact the awards team.
KEY DATES & PRICING
Pricing
$450 per entry
Entries submitted after the final deadline will incur an additional $100 processing fee.
2026 key dates
Entries open: Monday, June 1, 2026
Final deadline: Monday, Aug. 10, 2026, at 5 p.m. PT
Please review all category descriptions and entry requirements carefully before submitting. Entry fees are non-refundable.
WHAT JUDGES ARE LOOKING FOR
The strongest submissions clearly communicate:
- The challenge or opportunity the organization faced
- The strategic insight behind the work
- Why the approach was effective for the intended audience
- Creative and executional excellence
- Measurable impact and results
Judges value clear storytelling, strong strategic thinking and evidence of meaningful outcomes.
Where possible, entrants should include metrics, organizational impact, audience engagement, behavioral outcomes or business results. Information should be considered public and publishable by Modern Healthcare and Ad Age. Information marked as “off the record” will not be considered by judges.
CATEGORIES
Campaign categories
The Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards will recognize gold, silver and bronze winners for each client type in each of the following categories:
Branded Entertainment/Content Campaign of the Year
Recognizes storytelling-driven campaigns across platforms including branded content, podcasts, films, native advertising and other long-form experiences. Winning work demonstrates how compelling storytelling can deepen engagement and strengthen healthcare brand communication beyond a traditional ad buy.
Digital Campaign of the Year
Recognizes innovative digital marketing and communications campaigns across web, mobile, apps, gaming, search, emerging technology and digital platforms. Winning entries should demonstrate strategic use of digital channels to achieve measurable engagement or organizational goals.
Experiential Campaign of the Year NEW
Recognizes live, virtual or hybrid experiences that invite participation from audiences to bring healthcare brands, missions or messages to life in memorable ways. Winning entries should demonstrate how the format complemented the campaign’s messaging and enhanced its impact.
Film/TV/Video Campaign of the Year
Honors broadcast, streaming or digital video campaigns that communicate a compelling message through strong storytelling, strategic clarity and creative execution. Films longer than 60 seconds can be entered, but entrants should consider whether the work better fits into the branded entertainment/content campaign category.
Integrated Campaign of the Year
Recognizes campaigns that connect multiple channels and touchpoints into a cohesive audience experience. Successful entries will demonstrate how the campaign’s multimedia approach strengthened its overall messaging and contributed to meaningful results across platforms.
Print/Out-of-Home Work of the Year
Celebrates impactful print and out-of-home advertising, including billboards and environmental activations, that effectively use placement, creative execution and messaging to maximize audience impact. Campaigns primarily centered around interactive audience experiences should be entered in the experiential campaign category.
Purpose-Led Campaign of the Year
Honors campaigns addressing healthcare inequities, community challenges, patient advocacy, accessibility or broader societal impact. Winning work should demonstrate how strategic communications can contribute to meaningful change.
Entries from all client types—providers/insurers, suppliers/vendors/pharmaceutical companies and advocacy—are encouraged.
Social Media Campaign of the Year
Recognizes social media campaigns that demonstrate strong strategic thinking, audience understanding, platform-native execution and meaningful engagement. Winning entries will demonstrate how social media supported broader audience connection, engagement or campaign impact beyond short-term metrics alone.
Technology-Driven Campaign of the Year NEW
Honors campaigns that use data, AI, analytics, emerging platforms or other technologies to inform the strategy and development of the work. Judges will look for work where technology meaningfully contributed to stronger audience outcomes, innovation or organizational impact.
Tiny But Mighty
Celebrates high-impact work (mighty) created within constraints such as limited budgets, smaller media buys or compact formats (tiny). Judges will look for ingenuity, efficiency and outsized impact relative to scale.
Best in Show
One Best in Show honoree will be selected from the top-scoring campaign category winners.
This award recognizes the entry that best demonstrates exceptional strategic thinking, creative execution and measurable impact.
Agency of the Year
Agency of the Year requires its own dedicated submission and will not be automatically considered based on campaign entries.
This category recognizes one agency that demonstrates exceptional understanding of healthcare audiences, industry complexity and client challenges while delivering impactful marketing and communications work.
The award will not be selected from campaign entries. Agencies must submit directly to the category to be considered.
CLIENT TYPES
Providers/Insurers
Providers include hospitals, health systems, physician groups, clinics, ambulatory surgery centers, specialty care organizations, post-acute care organizations and emergency services providers.
Insurers include insurance carriers, health plans, third-party payers, government plans and integrated delivery networks.
Suppliers/Vendors/Pharmaceutical companies
Suppliers and vendors are defined as organizations serving healthcare providers and payers. These can include, but are not limited to, group purchasing organizations, pharmacy benefit managers, medical device manufacturers and companies that provide information technology, real estate, financial, legal, investment, architecture, construction and design, consulting, recruitment and staffing services. They also include schools and universities.
Pharmaceutical organizations are defined as organizations that develop, produce and market drugs, pharmaceuticals or medical devices licensed for use as medications.
Advocacy
Advocacy organizations includes government agencies, patient advocacy organizations, charitable organizations, healthcare-related associations and mission-driven organizations focused on healthcare issues.
Please note: Work done on behalf of advocacy organizations is eligible for every category, not just purpose-driven campaigns. At the same time, purpose-driven campaigns should not be entered as advocacy organizations unless they are created on behalf of government agencies, healthcare-related associations or other organizations from the “advocacy” list.
Questions about client type classification? Contact the Modern Healthcare awards team at mhawards@modernhealthcare.com.
SPONSORSHIP
Interested in advertising in the Healthcare Marketing Impact Awards? Contact mhawards@modernhealthcare.com to learn more.
FAQs
Technology-Driven Campaign of the Year expands the program’s previous data-focused category to recognize work involving AI, emerging technologies and technology-informed strategy.
Agency of the Year remains a standalone category requiring its own dedicated submission. Agencies will only be considered based on entries submitted directly to the category.
Please note that companies producing products not licensed for use as medications or medical devices are not currently eligible.
All entries must represent legitimate work created for a real client or organization that genuinely ran, launched or was implemented as described. Speculative, fabricated or misleading work may be disqualified.
Eligible work must have debuted or run between Jan. 1, 2025 and July 1, 2026.
The category recognizes work addressing healthcare inequities, community challenges, patient advocacy, accessibility or broader societal impact.
All metrics must be publishable, and information marked “not for public” or “off the record” will not be considered during judging.
• Organization and audience background
• Description of the challenge or opportunity addressed
• Strategy and creative execution details
• Measurable results or outcomes
• Supporting creative assets, videos or links
Detailed requirements are available in the entry kit.
Entries submitted after the final deadline will incur an additional $100 processing fee.
No changes can be made once judging has begun. Requests to remove submitted information during or after judging may result in disqualification.
If you continue experiencing login issues, please contact mhawards@modernhealthcare.com.
IMPORTANT INFO
Eligibility
Entries are open to campaigns representing the following organization types:
• Providers and Insurers
• Suppliers, vendors and pharmaceutical companies
• Advocacy organizations
All entries must identify the client and applicable organization type.
Eligibility period
Eligible work must have been produced or active between Jan. 1, 2025 and July 1, 2026.
Entry information
All submitted information should be publishable by the time winners are announced in November 2026. Information marked “not for public” or “off the record” will not be considered during judging.
Judges reserve the right to move entries into more appropriate categories if applicable. Awards may be withheld in categories where judges determine submissions do not meet award standards.
Terms & conditions
Modern Healthcare and Ad Age reserve the right to withhold or add awards based on the quality of submissions received.