40 Under 40 2025: Open for nominations

Campaign Asia-Pacific is pleased to announce the official call for entries for the 13th edition of 40 Under 40. Previous editions of the eagerly awaited annual list have provided fantastic insights into the changing and dynamic nature of talent in the marketing and communications industry for more than a decade now.

40 Under 40 is particularly relevant when recent headlines from the marketing and advertising business indicate a tough time for talent. Geopolitical uncertainty, the growing prevalence of AI, and the ever-present need to do more with less have resulted in an industry where the brightest talent must wear many hats and encompass a far wider range of roles and responsibilities compared to their predecessors at the start of the decade.

In its 13th year, Campaign’s 40 Under 40 seeks to uncover and highlight those who have navigated these challenges, created new paradigms for the industry, and are poised to lead it in the decades to come.

What we are looking for

Simply put—the industry’s finest and brightest minds. People across disciplines who have proven themselves adept at thriving in a much-changed industry and who can back their claims with a solid undisputable list of accomplishments. As always, 40 Under 40 is open to marketers, creatives, communicators, strategists and managers.

We are also looking for people with a genuine passion for the business and wish to be part of the movement that makes it a more diverse, welcoming workplace.

Successful candidates will have been able to demonstrate results across these criteria not just over the past 12 months, but for the bulk of their professional careers, adept at being able to lead, perform, and inspire.

If this sounds like you, please send in a nomination. If it sounds like someone you know, you can nominate up to two people from your regional agency, network, or company.

Key dates and deadlines:

Early bird entry: Monday, June 9 2025  

Standard entry:  Thursday, June 26 2025  

Final entry:  Tuesday, July 15 2025

Winners announcement: Tuesday, September 16 2025

On all deadline dates, entries will be accepted until 6 pm SG/HK (GMT+8).

Eligibility criteria:

• The nominee must be based in Asia Pacific.

• The nominee must work in advertising or marketing, or be part of an industry that is directly related to these verticals: for instance, a media company, a technology firm, a startup or an event company.
   
• The nominee must be aged 39 or under through Tuesday, 15 July 2025 (inclusive). This translates to a birth date of 16 July 1985, or later.

Important notes

You may nominate up to two people from your company or agency per market that your company operates in. To be clear, this means that if you are with a company that has multiple brands/agencies, you can nominate up to two people per brand/agency per market.

While we will consider candidates who have appeared in 40 Under 40 before, or in other Campaign Asia-Pacific listings, such as Women to Watch and the Asia-Pacific Power List, we do ask that candidates wait until 2026 if they have already been featured in any of these lists within the last 12 months. If, however, the candidate will no longer meet the age requirements in a year’s time, we will consider the nomination this year. 

The process:

Nominations will be submitted using the nomination form linked below.

The entry fees are HK$3,700 for early bird; and HK$4,200 for standard entry, and HK$4,400 for final entry.

All entries include a one-year membership to Campaign Asia-Pacific assigned to the nominee, the nominator or any other individual. You can find more details about the benefits of membership here and direct any questions about membership here.

Judging:

The judges will be announced shortly. The judging process will consist of two rounds. In the first, round, judges shall evaluate and score all entries independently via our secure online platform. In the final round, the jury, including Campaign Asia-Pacific’s senior editorial team will confirm the final winners.

The jury's decision on the winners will be final, and no correspondence will be entered regarding the results. Judges reserve the right to raise queries regarding the information provided and penalise any entry if there is evidence of inaccurate and misleading claims, which will lead to entry disqualification. Once again, the entry fee is non-refundable. Details on the jury will be announced soon. 

Nomination details

The nomination form will ask you to provide: 

• Basic details about yourself (entrant) and the nominee.
   
• The nominee's backstory: (250-300 words max)
   
• The five criteria about the nominee. (300 words max each)
   
• Upload nominee’s brief CV in PDF format. 
   
• Two recent high-resolution photo of the nominee (at least 1200x800 pixels at 72 dpi).
   
• Endorser’s contact details. All entries must be endorsed. The system will generate an endorsement email to be sent to the endorser. 
   
• Payment of the entry fee, which is HK$3,700 for each candidate during the early-bird period (through June 9 2025), HK$4,200 for the standard deadline period (from June 10 through to June 26 2025) and HK$4,400 for final entries (from June 27 2025 through to July 15 2025).
   
• Address and contact details for the person who will receive the Campaign Asia-Pacific membership.

Entries are to be submitted online via our entry platform; you can enter via the ‘ENTER NOW’ button at 40 Under 40 website. We highly recommend preparing your answers in advance before filling out the form. You may also save your work as a draft on the nomination form before confirming your submission. Following completion of the nomination, our membership manager will follow up with you to arrange the Campaign Asia-Pacific membership.

What makes a good entry? 

• The entry will demonstrate why the person nominated is clearly indispensable to the company they work for. We will understand specifically what they have done to make them a crucial player in their team and/or the wider business. Metrics and business results that can be provided as evidence are important here. 
   
• The entry will make it clear that the candidate goes above and beyond the demands of their job description, both in terms of their own company's business and in the wider sense of helping to take the industry forward in a positive way. We will take into consideration a candidate's background and the effort and perseverance required to reach their goals. 

• The entry will show us that the nominee is an inspiring person to work with, however this manifests itself. We should get the strong feeling that we'd want to work with these people if we could.

• Testimonials from colleagues, and especially from third parties, from all stages of the nominee's career, will be looked upon favourably. We appreciate entries that are well-written and concise, with clearly laid-out information and specific, concrete examples of achievements by the nominee.

Confidential information

Please remember to flag confidential information in your nomination by putting it into [square brackets]. We ask that you only flag the specific information that must be kept confidential, rather than the whole entry or large parts of it, since we will rely on this information to compile a writeup for anyone who makes the cut. 

A note on conduct

Campaign Asia-Pacific reserves the right to disqualify or withdraw an entry, award, or recognition at its absolute discretion and without refund if an entry provides false/misleading information or in cases of substantiated misconduct or reputational damage.

Good luck! 

Still got questions? Do check Campaign's 40 Under 40 website or write to the team: [email protected] and we’ll help as soon as we can.