A reference is still required, but it can be from someone else within a senior position at your company or a previous employer or sponsor.

You could speak to your future employer or a sponsor about endorsing your application. You do not need to be in employment to apply for the awards, but you need to be committed to a career in the Advertising and Communications industry.

Apply now! Contact your current employer about how they can support your application.

To be eligible, the UK must be your primary residence, and you must have spent the majority of your career working within the UK Media, Marketing, Advertising and Communications industry.

We expect to offer in-person and virtual interviews to help make the process accessible to all. 

We welcome applications from all industry sectors so long as your role is within media, marketing, advertising or communications, e.g. you would be eligible if you worked at a bank as Marketing Manager or worked on their paid search strategy but not if you worked in a bank within their HR function.

Each year we make a special award to one or more of the outstanding winners in honour of a long-standing and influential member of WACL, Patricia Mann OBE, who died in 2006. She was truly a trailblazer for women in the industry. She was VP of JWT International & Head of External Affairs, one of the first women non-execs sitting on The Woolwich, British Gas, then Centrica and even Chaired the Parliamentary Debating Group. WACL’s values are inspired by how Patricia led her life – always ready with advice and guidance, no matter how busy, with a great sense of fun. Patricia opened the door for so many of us to follow through, and we look for someone to recognise with this award that embodies some of her spirits and can do for the women that follow what she did for us.

Wendy Braverman was a leading light in the advertising industry for more than 3 decades. A champion of talent, a dedicated supporter of NABS and a long term active WACL member, Wendy sadly passed away in the summer of 2020.

The award is given to someone who the panel believe truly reflects Wendy’s entrepreneurial flair. As the overall awards are targeted at Future Leaders, this could be someone who is showing entrepreneurial initiative and ambition but needs the award to develop their skills further, or it could be someone who is running/starting to run their own small company like Wendy did or someone wanting to lead an initiative that would create change for other future women leaders.