• by Larissa Faw , November 7, 2019

Start-up Ad World Masters (ADWM) is launching a new set of agency awards. Serving as judges: data and algorithms.  

ADWM's platform, which serves as a matchmaker between clients and agencies, monitors over 30 algorithms dedicated to different specializations and all together over 160 data points are tracked for each agency. 

ADWM will analyze the 10,830+ agencies listed in its database against its own internal data and AI algorithm to score and rank agencies.

"We use to say don't judge a book by its cover, but this is what everybody does every day," says Thomas Lavernhe, co-founder, AWM. His intention is to "help make the cover more representative of what's inside the book."

The ADWM platform includes mostly boutique to medium-size agencies, and as such are sometimes overlooked by other award programs, according to the company. 

The challenge in scoring agencies is to overcome bias and consensus and to find ways to meaningfully score agencies, explains Sosnowski. As AI advances, ADWM will continue to evolve its system naturally as it also slowly integrates additional information.

There is no fee for participating agencies and agencies not currently listed in the database can fill out an application form by December 31 at adworldmasters.com. The results will be revealed in January.