The 2026 Rally® Awards™ recognize the very best in Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding.
Now in its seventh year, the Rally Awards celebrates the practitioners, teams, agencies and technology partners whose work is setting new standards for our profession. This year’s winners didn’t just deliver impressive results. They challenged conventions, advanced our craft and inspired all of us to think bigger about what’s possible in Recruitment Marketing.
From employer brand launches and content marketing programs to careers sites, candidate experience innovations and recruitment technology, the winning entries demonstrate the creativity, strategy and impact driving our profession forward.
🎥 Missed the live event? Watch the 2026 Rally Awards Ceremony Replay →
Earning a Rally Award is no small achievement. The competition is peer-reviewed and judged against rigorous criteria including strategy, quality, innovation and results. Thank you to our distinguished panel of judges whose expertise and thoughtful evaluation helped identify this year’s winners.
Thank you to the Recruitment Marketing and employer brand leaders who judged the 2026 Rally Awards.
Now, let’s meet the winners of the 2026 Rally Awards! 👏
Meet the 2026 Rally Awards Winners
The best Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding work of the year.
Best Employer Brand Video
- First Place: VEG ER for Pets — “The VEG Beat”
- Second Place: Sony Music Entertainment — Lewis Calem, Mike Farrell, Jeff Soto — “What’s it like working at Sony Music”
- Third Place: Highmark Health — Jeannine Volchko, Jeremy Dean, Mike Cope, Amy Feldman — “Remarkable Together: The Wexford Moms Story”
Best Use of Employee Generated Content
- First Place: Ford Motor Company — “Ford Intern Social Ambassador Program”
Best Talent Newsletter
- First Place: Credicorp — “CREAting Credicorp: A premium talent newsletter that builds long-term executive relationships”
- Second Place: ADT — “The Power of Organic Reach: Storytelling that turns clicks into quality applicants”
Best Use of Organic Social Media in Recruitment Marketing
- First Place: UBS — “At UBS, you’re in the driver’s seat of your career.”
- Second Place: Ford Motor Company — “New Hire Spotlight Series”
- Third Place: IQVIA — “Perfectly Imperfect: How IQVIA Transformed Engagement With Real, Relatable Social”
Best Use of Paid Social Media in Recruitment Marketing
- First Place: Ford Motor Company — “Ford Places and Spaces Video Series”
- Second Place: UBS — “Curiosity powers. AI enables.”
Best Use of Video in Recruitment Marketing
- First Place: Ford Motor Company — “Ford Places and Spaces Video Series”
- Second Place (tie): Westpac — Elizabeth Clerke — “Find your tech happy place”
- Second Place (tie): Picnic Technologies — “Back to School”
Best Recruitment Marketing Campaign (Small Team)
- First Place: VCA Animal Hospitals — Ally Brown — “Your Power Has a Purpose”
- Second Place (tie): Westpac — Elizabeth Clerke — “Find your tech happy place”
- Second Place (tie): Galt — Lisa A. Doyle — “The Untapped Workforce — Putting Ability to Work!”
Best Recruitment Marketing Campaign (Large Team)
- First Place: UBS — “Curiosity Powers. AI Enables.”
- Second Place: Travel + Leisure Co. — “Turning Proximity Into Pipeline: How Travel + Leisure Co. Activated a Sports Partnership to Drive Talent Acquisition”
- Third Place: Sage plc — “Atlanta is ‘Ready To Win’ with Sage”
Best Content Marketing Program
- First Place (tie): Credicorp — “To The Next Level: A micromentorship content program designed for how Gen Z actually learns”
- First Place (tie): Credicorp — “Genias STEM: A content marketing program designed to expand the female technology talent pipeline”
- Second Place: UBS — “Curiosity powers. AI enables.”
- Third Place: Ford Motor Company — “Ford Places and Spaces Video Series”
Best Employer Brand Launch
- First Place: VEG ER for Pets — “Turning #lifeatVEG into a Shared Language”
- Second Place: Bright Horizons — “You’re the difference: The secret sauce behind Bright Horizons’ employer brand”
- Third Place: Credicorp — “Credicorp Early Talent Strategy: Launching Credicorp’s early-career employer brand as a growth platform for future leaders”
Best Careers Blog
- First Place: BASIS International Schools — “Stories That Move Around the World”
Best Use of Recruitment Marketing Technology
- First Place: Bon Secours Mercy Health — “Building an internal Recruitment Marketing engine at scale”
Best Careers Site
- First Place: National Grid — Lucinda Thomas, Bryan Adams, Jennifer Douet, Jim Taylor, Grace Kenyon — “Superpowered candidate experience”
- Second Place: Sony Music Entertainment — Lewis Calem, Mike Farrell, Jeff Soto — “Sony Music Careers Website”
Best Launch of Recruitment Marketing Strategy
- First Place: Gerber Collision and Glass — Lauren Olauson, Veronica Downey, Hannah Busekrus — “Great Teams Don’t Happen by Accident: Architects of the Revenue-Driven Recruitment Blitz”
- Second Place: VEG ER for Pets — “From EVP to Ecosystem: Scaling #lifeatVEG”
Best Agency Partner
- Winner: Stories Incorporated
Best Technology Partner
- Winner: Happydance
Meet the winners of the 2026 Rally Awards, leading the way in Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding.
Distinguished Awards
Some of the most meaningful honors presented each year recognize individual practitioners whose work is elevating our profession. These awards celebrate both emerging leaders and established experts who are helping define the future of Recruitment Marketing and employer branding.
2026 Recruitment Marketing Rising Star
- Winner: Brittany Washington
2026 Recruitment Marketer of the Year
- Winner: Sam Wood
Two distinguished honors were given to Britt Washington, 2026 Recruitment Marketing Rising Star, and Sam Wood, 2026 Recruitment Marketer of the Year.
2026 Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding Trends
Looking across this year’s winning work, several clear themes emerged.
Content became the strategy. Many of the strongest entries weren’t one-time campaigns, but ongoing content programs built around employee stories, mentorship, education, and career growth.
Employer branding became more employee-driven. The most successful launches were grounded in employee research, participation, and authentic cultural behaviors already happening inside the organization.
Storytelling continued to outperform promotion. Across categories, organizations relied less on corporate messaging and more on real people to bring their culture, purpose, and opportunities to life.
Candidate experience became a competitive advantage. Winning careers sites, technology partners, and recruitment marketing teams focused on reducing friction and creating better experiences from discovery through application.
Measurement matured. More teams connected awareness, engagement, applications, and hiring outcomes to demonstrate clear business impact.
Small teams delivered big results. Many of this year’s winners were solo practitioners or lean teams that combined creativity, focus, and strong strategy to achieve outsized success.
Together, these trends show a profession becoming more strategic, more measurable, and more closely connected to the employee experience.
Watch the Live Ceremony Replay
Relive the excitement as we recognize the practitioners, teams, agencies and technology partners shaping the future of Recruitment Marketing and Employer Branding.
Thank you to every practitioner, team, agency and technology partner who participated in this year’s Rally Awards. Your creativity, innovation and dedication continue to move our profession forward.
We’ll be sharing more insights from this year’s winning entries on the Rally Recruitment Marketing blog throughout the year. To learn more about the Rally Awards and how to enter the 2027 competition, visit RallyAwards.com.
