Customer Advocacy Practice Awards

In a field that’s always evolving, the CAP Awards are here for one thing: to spotlight the trailblazers, big thinkers, and go-getters who are raising the bar in customer marketing and advocacy.

Emphasizing strategy and results above all else, the CAP Awards level the playing field.

Forget the glitz, the big budgets, or flashy tech. What matters is smart strategy, creative thinking, and results that speak for themselves. Whether you're a solo superstar or part of a crew, the CAP Awards are your chance to stand out.

No hidden agendas. No shoe-ins. No limitations. Just authentic recognition for those who are passionate about putting customers at the heart of eveything they do.

download application overview

Advocate Engagement Campaign

We’re looking for the most exciting, as well as the most impactful, point-in-time advocacy campaigns that have successfully combined great ingenuity, a memorable customer experience and measurable business and customer impact. If you’ve tapped into the power of a well-executed campaign to drive customer advocacy, this is an award for you.

Community-Integrated Advocacy (NEW!)

These programs don’t just operate adjacent to community—they are embedded in it. This award recognizes organizations that have successfully woven advocacy strategy into the fabric of their broader online or in-person customer community and celebrates programs that meet advocates where they already interact with the brand and fellow customers and invites them into deeper partnership.

Customer Programs Brand

An exceptional advocacy brand is built on a deep understanding of the target audience, a clearly defined value proposition, foundational program values that guide day-to-day execution, an intentional program personality, strong value propositions across programs and easy navigation for prospective members. This award honors a standout customer engagement brand—one that unifies and elevates multiple customer programs under a cohesive, compelling identity.

DNA-Powered Program (NEW!)

This award celebrates a standout advocacy program—purpose-built for a specific audience—that exemplifies what it means to discover, nurture and activate customer advocates with intention and impact. From executive councils and customer award programs to user groups, reference programs and everything in between, this award honors the strategy, creativity and execution behind a single, well-defined program.

Exceptional Advocacy Portfolio

There is no one-size-fits-all approach to building relevant customer nurture and engagement that leads to advocacy. This award recognizes a holistic advocacy portfolio that exhibits the evolution of the customer advocacy practice and the teams that support it and demonstrates exceptional brand, portfolio, and alignment excellence.

Lifecycle Advocacy

This customer advocacy programming encapsulates the idea that “advocacy is a practice, not a platform,” leaning into the fact that advocacy happens everywhere, not just the spaces we create for self-admitted customer advocates.

The Advocacy Mindset

This professional embodies the advocacy mindset by developing, executing or championing advocacy strategies that lead with customer value first and have an outsized impact on organizational growth. They have an innate ability to nurture customer relationships while also harnessing the power of relationship to lead to business growth.

Advocate of the Year

This award is designed to shine the spotlight where it truly belongs—on your customer!

This award recognizes a rockstar advocate who partners with your organization and advocacy team to drive value for both your organization and themselves. They exhibit the ideal customer any vendor would be lucky to have.

our 2025 judges

Christina Garnett

Chief Customer & Communications Officer

Neuemotion

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Mark Huber

VP, Marketing

Userevidence

derek andersen

Co-Founder

bevy

Brittany Rolfe Hillard

SVP, Customer Experience, Education & Scaled Customer Success

WalkMe

Amy Bills

VP & Principal Analyst

Forrester

Christine Gillies

Chief Product & Marketing Officer

Backline Safety

Bo Bandy

Chief Marketing Officer

Alchemer

Nick Bennett

Founder

NB Marketing

frequently asked questions

How are the CAP Awards different?

In a world where industry awards have become about as credible as a high school popularity contest by catering to big logos, large spenders, chummy favorites or disgruntled customers, the CAP Awards are the first 100% advocacy-focused awards and are refreshingly focused on outcomes with objectivity. The CAP Awards seek to elevate practitioners who are doing excellent work in the field of customer advocacy, regardless of how big their budget is, how active they are on the speaker circuit or how much money they are spending on snazzy customer engagement technology. These awards celebrate anyone doing the most innovative work in the field of customer advocacy, without all the politics. We aim to put a spotlight on the quiet excellence being done every day in the field of advocacy.

How will you ensure judging remains fair?

All our judges have been chosen based on their passion and experience in the field of customer advocacy and their active contributions in the advocacy community. All judges are aligned to our mission of an authentic awards program, where winners are selected based on outcomes and innovation. Judges are coached on our program values and we encourage judges to recuse themselves from certain categories if they will not be able to remain impartial or have an extraordinary relationship with any final applicant.

How are winners determined?

We want to pull back any curtain on the mysteries of how award recipients are chosen. No secrets here. From the initial applicants, the Captivate Collective team will complete an initial round of judging based on three criteria: 1) outcomes achieved, 2) the quality of the materials presented and 3) a category-specific criteria. Our qualified judges will then score the top finalists (those who scored a 4 or greater in initial judging) in each category to determine category winners.

Can I nominate a colleague, peer or someone on my team?

Yes, for our individual awards (The Advocacy Mindset & Advocate of the Year), we’d love to hear about your teammates or peers who are doing amazing work in the space. However, you must be able to include supporting data and commentary to ensure you submit a complete application.

Can I apply to multiple categories?

Definitely. If you or your program qualify for multiple categories, don't hold yourself back!

Applications open July 14

No hidden agendas.

No shoe-ins.

No limitations.