Give people in our industry the chance to showcase their popularity and you don’t have to ask them twice. Open for less than three days, B&T’s 30 under 30 people’s choice award, brought to you by The Newspaper Works, has attracted more than 12,000 votes across the nearly 200-strong entrants.

Vote now, here, for you or a colleague in the People’s Choice Awards.

With this much raw data to hand, we’ve released our inner statistician geeky side and sliced and diced the data for your analytical pleasure. We’re all about turning big data into actionable insights here at B&T after all.

The top five entrants at this present moment are:

1. Maree Frakes – Your Majesty Co. Digital
2. Jana Karatasas – Unilever Marketing/PR
3. Kate Pagett – NewsLifeMedia Digital
4. Michael Gunadi – UM Specialist
5. Giverny Reid – Crown Group Advertising/Design

Unsurprisingly, people working in marketing and public relations were the most popular/able to promote themselves more effectively, managing a whopping average of 105.9 votes per bright-eyed entrant.

Breathing down their necks with a spreadsheet and a media plan in their grasp, the media agency kids are looking like they won’t be denied with 104.5 votes per entrant.

The digital peeps with their SEO tricks and hacking hijinks levered themselves into second spot with 98.4 votes per entrant.

The bleeding-edge unclassifiable specialist category entrants, have probably employed everything from a Raspberry Pi to reactive paint to manage an average of 97.0 votes per entrant.

People in the advertising and design category have so far managed an average of 95.5 votes per entrant, ensuring their ironic beards and Cara Delevigne eyebrows were right on message.

Media entrants, while they wield great power, will have to start to come to terms with the fact that journos (and by default all of those around them) are just not that popular managing a relatively meagre 85.5 votes per entrant. Perhaps they will argue they’re just modest or too busy.

Voting for the people’s choice award will close on May 21.

At this stage, B&T would like to take some time to clarify a few rumours that have surfaced about the People’s Choice Awards. The Award has no bearing on the actual final 30 winners. It’s a popularity contest and something to make us all giggle.

There will, however, be a trophy and gift bag on the evening for the final overall most popular entrant along side the other 30 winners; assuming that the most popular entrant doesn’t take out a place in the top 30 via the more rigorous voting process.

Also new this year will be an overall Grand Prix prize winner, The Newspapers Influential By Nature Grand Prix, chosen from the judges and B&T staff showcasing the single most impressive overachiever aged under 30.

And everybody’s invited to the big night on 28th May 2015. Get your tickets NOW.