How staff picks work
What the Staff Pick badge means and how entries get chosen.
Staff picks are the curated layer of the library — the entries we think show the craft at its best. An approved pick gets a Staff Pick badge and appears on the dedicated staff picks page.
How an entry becomes a staff pick
Picks are curated by hand. Our team reviews published work and approves the entries that make the cut — there's no self-nominate action and no automatic flagging. You don't apply; you just publish strong work and keep your entry complete.
When our team picks one of your entries, you'll hear about it — a direct message from the FOOH team lands in your inbox and we email you too. On your work list an approved entry carries the Staff Pick badge. Until then there's nothing to do on your end.
What helps your chances
There's no trick, but the picks tend to share a few traits:
- Strong, believable integration — the effect sits naturally in the real footage.
- Clean entry details: real brand name, correct work types, a proper title, credits.
- Good image quality — compression artifacts and watermarks hurt.
Staff picks also factor into FOOH Awards visibility, so a complete, well-presented entry pays off twice.
What a pick does for your ranking
A staff pick isn't only a badge. It's one of the signals behind your position in the talent directory — alongside FOOH Awards results and challenge placements, it's the part of the ranking our team grants rather than something you accumulate, and it's the fastest way to move up that isn't in your own hands.
Two things worth knowing:
- It's a real lift, not a jackpot. A pick counts for less than a FOOH Award, because plenty of creators hold one — and collecting several has a ceiling, so a pile of picks won't put you above a creator with a deeper body of work and recognition to go with it.
- It only counts while the work is showcased. The lift travels with the picked entry, so if that work is later hidden or removed from the library the lift goes with it.
If a pick is what you're after, the answer is the same as the section above: publish strong, complete, well-presented work. There's nothing to apply for and no way to ask for one.