Entry rules.

01Eligibility

The nominee must be 29 years old or younger on 31 August 2026.

The nominee must currently work within India's agency and marketing communications ecosystem, and must be professionally active at the time of submission.

Submitted work or professional contribution should primarily be from the previous 24 months.

The nominee's contribution must be verifiable through a manager, senior colleague, client or professional reference.

02Organisation scope

Eligible organisations are creative agencies, digital and integrated agencies, media agencies, PR and communications agencies, social and content agencies, performance and growth agencies, design and branding studios, experiential agencies, and production companies and studios.

This edition is agency-focused. Brand-side marketing roles are not part of the Class of 2026 cohort.

03Dates

Nominations close Nov 15, 2026.

Eligibility review begins Nov 16, 2026, editorial review runs to Nov 20, 2026, and independent industry review to Nov 24, 2026.

Contribution verification runs to Nov 27, 2026. Final selection is made by Nov 29, 2026 and selected individuals are contacted from Dec 1, 2026.

The Class of 2026 is revealed at The Next 50 Recognition Evening on 3 December 2026.

04Fees and GST

Entry is ₹9,999 + GST per nominated individual. An earlier-entry rate of ₹7,777 + GST applies until 30 September. The rate charged is the one in force when payment is completed.

GST is added at checkout at the prevailing rate, so a single entry is charged as ₹9,176.86. A GST invoice is issued to the billing details supplied at the payment step.

An agency multi-entry submission is a prepaid block of entries at the same per-entry rate as a single entry: five for ₹38,885 + GST or ten for ₹77,770 + GST at the rate open today. It is not a bulk discount, and it is deliberately not called a pack for that reason. What it provides is one billing contact and one GST invoice covering every entry on it.

Each pack carries a code. Entries submitted with that code draw down its credits until they are used up. The code is not transferable outside the organisation it was invoiced to.

Payment completes an entry and guarantees evaluation against the published framework. It does not affect scoring and does not guarantee selection.

05Refunds

Fees are non-refundable once an eligible submission has been completed.

Duplicate payments and confirmed technical errors are refunded in full to the original payment method.

An entry that fails an eligibility check before evaluation begins is refunded in full. This does not apply where the entry became ineligible through information given incorrectly at entry.

Unused credits are refundable within 14 days of purchase, provided no entry has been submitted against the pack. After that, and once nominations close, unused credits lapse.

06Consent

Where an agency, manager or colleague nominates someone, the nominator confirms that the nominee knows they are being entered and agrees to take part if selected.

A nominee may withdraw at any point before the class is published by writing to hello@adtribe.world from the email address on the entry.

07Work ownership and permissions

Entrants must only submit material they have permission to share.

Submitting work does not transfer ownership. Ad Tribe reserves the right to reproduce submitted material for the purpose of evaluation, and, where an entrant is selected, for editorial coverage of the Class of 2026.

Where supported, material intended for evaluation only should be clearly marked confidential at the point of submission. Confidential material is not reproduced publicly.

08Verification

Ad Tribe may contact the listed professional reference, the nominee's agency, or a named client to verify stated contribution and work credits.

Reference contact details are used for verification only. They are never published and are not used for marketing.

An entry may be set aside at any stage if a stated contribution cannot be verified.

09Conflict of interest

Any reviewer with a current employment, commercial or immediate family relationship to an entrant recuses themselves from that entry.

Reviewers do not see their own agency's entries.

Ad Tribe editorial staff who have worked with an entrant within the previous 24 months recuse themselves from that entry.

10Sponsor independence

Commercial partners, sponsors and advertisers have no role in scoring, verification or final selection.

There is no paid shortlist, no sponsored selection and no commercial upgrade attached to selection.

Nothing in the recognition package for the selected 50 is available for purchase.

11Selection

The Next 50 is one national class. There is no internal ranking, no category winners and no fixed quota by discipline, city or agency.

There is no public voting. Follower counts, seniority, agency size and award counts carry no automatic advantage.

Final selection rests with Ad Tribe, taking account of scores, independent review, verification and the overall strength of the cohort.

12Privacy

Private email addresses, phone numbers, dates of birth, reference details and employment-status information are held confidentially and are not published.

No CVs, no availability status and no recruiter contact routes appear on any published profile.

Published profiles carry the individual's name, role, agency, discipline and the submitted work, together with agency and collaborator credits.

13Agency credit

Where submitted work was created while the nominee was employed by a particular agency, Ad Tribe retains appropriate credit to that agency and to the relevant collaborators, irrespective of subsequent employment changes.

A selected individual's current role may be updated on their profile. The credit attached to the submitted work does not change.

14Disqualification

An entry containing false, materially misleading or unverifiable information is disqualified.

Claiming another person's contribution as the nominee's own is grounds for disqualification, and for removal from the class if discovered after publication.

Attempting to influence a reviewer is grounds for disqualification.