Countdown to the 43rd Annual AXIS Awards; deadline 4pm, Wed 8 February 2023
By Leisa Wall, 2023 Axis Awards convenor.
This is the call for entries for this years’ AXIS awards. If this isn’t your first rodeo, you’ll be aware that this is where the theme for the year is introduced.
Did you know AXIS has been around for 43 years? There have been a lot of themes in that time. Believe me, we checked.
We started talking about them but then got distracted by something else. The work from years past.
It got us thinking that in an industry like ours where so much time and energy is spent looking out for the next new thing,
it is worth taking the time to look back occasionally and reflect on what we’ve accomplished.
The more we dug through the archives, (hard drives, floppy disks, pen drives and all) the more we realized that AXIS has quite the legacy. That’s why we’ve decided this year, AXIS won’t use a theme to show off its creativity. We’re going to celebrate the ideas that have shaped our award show and our industry down here in Aotearoa.
When you look at past winners of AXIS you’ll agree there’s some work that has stood the test of time. Work that more often than not has gone on to win big on the international award circuit. We’re pretty bloody consistent and we should be proud.
Those great ideas are the ones that inspire us. Driven with an equal mix of excitement and intimidation we grab an A3 pad and a black sharpie (or stylus and iPad) and set out to crack our own big idea. One that will be worthy of recognition.
Firstly, by the audience it was created for but also our peers in the advertising industry.
So here it is, this year’s call for entries. Time for you to do a mental stock take of the past 12 months of work and begin to weigh up the ideas that could give you a chance at metallic glory and a place in AXIS history.
To download the Call for Entries document and to enter, please visit the Comms Council website: www.commscouncil.nz/axis
Important Dates for the 2023 AXIS Awards:
Entries Open: Wednesday 16 November 2022
Early Bird Deadline: Wednesday 25 January 2023 at 4 pm
Final Deadline: Wednesday 8 February 2023 at 4 pm
Category Judging Online: Friday 24 February – Thursday 2 March 2023
Category Judging Week: Monday 6 March – Friday 10 March 2023
Executive online judging: Tuesday 14 March – Tuesday 21 March 2023
Executive Judging Session: Thursday 23 March 2023
AXIS Speaks: Thursday 30 March 2023
Awards Show: Thursday 30 March 2023
The 2022 AXIS Awards are proudly sponsored by Google, Meta, NZME, oOh!media, Stuff, The Radio Bureau, and TVNZ. We would like to thank them for their support.

5 Comments
Bring it on!
That feels wrong and was done 3 years ago. Too busy?
If this was the 50th year, it’d make sense to look back. But the 43rd? Nah. You’re creative enough to pick a theme… Come on.
That just sounded like great justification or snazzy post rationale for doing very little. Plus it was only a few years ago the call for entries and theme used past iconic work examples to ‘look back a little’. Maybe we didn’t look back far enough?
…the year that the comment section does not become a dumping ground for grumpy tall poppies to vent their unwelcome opinions? Positivity people PLEASE.