• by Joe Mandese , 3 hours ago

To answer the No. 1 question first: Yes, Monday (December 1) is a firm deadline for receiving any submissions on who you think should be one of our agencies of the year.

As for the second-biggest question -- what's the format? -- there is none. We have always left that purposely open-ended, because we figure agencies are the best communicators in the world and know the best way to tell their own stories.

The third -- and perhaps most important -- question is: What's our criteria? We're simply looking for the best stories that demonstrate what an agency -- or an agency executive -- has done over the past 12 months that demonstrates vision, innovation and industry leadership using media to help brand connect with consumers.

Like I said, it's open-ended, because we don't know what we don't know.

It doesn't need to be polished, "final proof," or pitch-deck-ready. Even just a couple of bullet points can do it.

And for what it's worth, if what you've done is so evidently publicly clear, you don't even have to submit anything, because the editors of MediaPost are pretty good at keeping an eye on what agencies have been up to year-in and year-out, and we also rely on our institutional knowledge when making our picks.

But if you know something we don't know, it doesn't hurt to tell us.

Just email anything you have to share to joe@mediapost.com