MediaCom beat last year’s winner Goodstuff Communications, Manning Gottlieb OMD, OMD UK, PHD and the7stars at the 2018 Media Week Awards, the most prestigious awards in UK commercial media.
The judges recognised MediaCom for its strong business performance, including winning an expanded brief from Sky in a £300m media review, its partnership work and its investment in mental health initiatives for staff.
The Guardian triumphed over last year’s victor Channel 4, Digital Cinema Media, ITV, Primesight and Twitter.
The judges picked The Guardian for its partnership work, its willingness to tackle fraud in the digital media supply chain, its cost-saving move from Berliner to tabloid size to underpin its investment in sustainable, quality journalism, and its decision to collaborate with rivals on The Ozone Project.
ITV won the Grand Prix and picked up three other gold awards for Project 84’s CALM, the Campaign Against Living Miserably’s work to highlight male suicide, which involved putting 84 statues on top of ITV’s London headquarters.
Hearst UK won Media Brand of the Year, beating Channel 4, Digital Cinema Media, ITV2’s Love Island, Ocean Outdoor and Twitter UK.
Mike Cooper, the global chief executive of PHD, was named Media Leader of the Year, a new award in association with The Lighthouse Company, during a year when his agency won the global HSBC media account, began work on the expanded Sainsbury's-Argos business and pioneered "rhythms" planning.
Manning Gottlieb OMD was the most awarded media agency with three golds. They included two prizes for "Hell-Spot Media", a radio campaign for Virgin Trains that micro-targeted car drivers by location in traffic jams, which picked up Best Media Innovation and Best Use of Audio in association with Radio Centre.
ITV was the most awarded media owner with three golds, plus the Grand Prix, ahead of Channel 4, also with three golds.
An audience of 1,000 people from brands, agencies, media owners, tech companies and trade bodies gathered for the black tie dinner at the Grosvenor House on London’s Park Lane.
Pippa Glucklich, the chief executive of Denstu Aegis Network’s Amplifi, and Naren Patel, the chief executive of Primesight, were co-chairs of judges.
Glucklich said: "The standard of work we witnessed across all categories was exceptional.
"At a time when it’s so easy to be distracted by new bells and whistles, these awards are a great reminder and celebration of what fundamentally makes for great media thinking and delivery.
Patel said: "We had the opportunity to visit many agencies and media owners in the Team of the Year awards and we saw that we are growing and developing some amazing award-winning talent in every corner of this industry.
"Great people make our business what it is. The appetite for working harder to address the likes of the gender pay gap and making our workplaces more diverse and inclusive is crystal clear. We owe it to everyone to match this appetite with action."
Wavemaker won Best Agency Partner, a special award sponsored by Reach Solutions, which recognised the agency that worked best as a partner with media owners to develop great partnerships.
The media owners who judged the category picked Wavemaker because of the quality of its briefs to suit client objectives and "ability to deliver value to clients above and beyond what they could have got had they gone direct to the media owner".
Goodstuff Communications, Havas, MediaCom, Manning Gottlieb OMD and OMD UK were also shortlisted for Best Agency Partner.
The full list of winners:
Grand Prix
CALM "Project 84" by ITV, Harry’s and Adam & Eve/DDB
Sales team of the year
The Guardian
Agency of the year
MediaCom
Media brand of the year
Hearst UK
Media leader of the year
Mike Cooper, global chief executive of PHD
Rising star (media owner)
Ben Jeffries, influencer
Rising star (media agency)
Tom Kirkham, digital connections associate director, OMD UK
Long-term media strategy
GOLD: Three "Living Life To The Full, Without Consequences" by Mindshare
SILVER: Age UK "No One Should Have No One" by Manning Gottlieb OMD
BRONZE: Superdrug "Superdrug and Love Island" by ITV and Mindshare
Media innovation
GOLD: Virgin Trains "Hell-Spot Media" by Manning Gottlieb OMD
SILVER: Specsavers "More Important Than..." by Manning Gottlieb OMD, Grand Visual, Talon, Channel 4, ITV and Sky
BRONZE: Snickers "The Hunger Spotter" by Spotify
Media creativity
GOLD: O2 "Oops" by Havas Group Media and VCCP
SILVER: RNIB "Sight loss break" by Channel 4
BRONZE: Volkswagen Group "Rammed with Confidence" by PHD
Best use of content
GOLD: Age UK "Old People's Home For Four-Year Olds at Christmas"
SILVER: Crowne Plaza "Crowne Plaza: 'Downtime' - A Comedic Series of Mockumentaries" by Mindshare
BRONZE: Suzuki "The Suzuki Ignis: Category maker; stereotype breaker" by the7stars
Best use of audio
GOLD: Virgin Trains "Hell-Spot Media" by Manning Gottlieb OMD
SILVER: Yorkshire Tea "Yorkshire Tea Speciality Brews - a dynamic audio campaign of pure poetry" by Goodstuff
BRONZE: Snickers "The Hunger Spotter" by Spotify
Best use of data for audience-buying
GOLD: Snickers "The Hunger Spotter" by Spotify
SILVER: Argos "80 Days of Argos" by Mindshare
BRONZE: NHS Blood & Transplant "Blood Donor Sign-ups" by Carat
Research insight
GOLD: Start4Life "Start4Life Breastfeeding Friend" by Wavemaker
SILVER: "FBi" by Wavemaker
BRONZE: "Fuel the funnel" by Immediate Media, Dennis Publishing, Bauer Media and Haymarket Media Group
Research (trade body)
GOLD: "Profit Ability: How making the case for advertising made the case for TV" by Thinkbox
SILVER: "PAMCo: A once in a generation chance to turbo charge the Published Media Sector" by Pamco
BRONZE: "The Value of Quality" by Newsworks
Research (econometrics)
GOLD: Calpol "Using Econometrics to predict the future" by UM
SILVER: Tesco "Food love stories" by MediaCom
BRONZE: Just Eat "Makinga brave investment an easy choice for Just Eat" by M/SIX
Owner & agency large collaboration
GOLD: Paypal "Turkey Dash Media Collaboration" by Channel 4 and Havas Group Media
SILVER: Specsavers "More Important Than..." by Manning Gottlieb OMD, Grand Visual, Talon, Channel 4, ITV and Sky
BRONZE: The Movember Foundation "Giving Movember its mojo back" by Bountiful Cow, News UK, Sky Media and The Value Xchange
Owner & agency small collaboration
GOLD: CALM "Project 84" by ITV, Harry’s and Adam & Eve/DDB
SILVER: Age UK "Old People's Home For Four-Year Olds at Christmas" by Channel 4
BRONZE: Columbia Records "The Foo Fighter Arms – Rock ‘n’ roll ain’t gonna die" by the7stars
Agency - Media idea (over £1m)
GOLD: Argos "80 Days of Argos" by Mindshare
SILVER: O2 "Oops" by Havas Group Media and VCCP
BRONZE: Nike "Nothing Beats A Londoner" by Mindshare
Agency - Media idea ((£250,000-£1m)
GOLD: Channel 4 "Channel 4 Handmaid's Tale" by OMD UK
SILVER: Volvo "Volvo: V40 Prime Now Test Drives" by Mindshare
BRONZE: Virgin Trains "Hell-Spot Media" by Manning Gottlieb OMD
Agency - Media idea (under £250,000)
GOLD: "Project 84" by ITV
SILVER: Manning Gottlieb OMD "The Telegraph, Specsavers & MGOMD" by Telegraph Media Group
BRONZE: Beefeater Pink (Pernod Ricard) "Turning London Underground 'Beefeater Pink' with strawberry-scented posters" by Exterion Media (in partnership with Havas Media and Posterscope)
Agency - Media idea (launch)
GOLD: Starbucks "Pumpkin Spice Latte" by Manning Gottlieb OMD
SILVER: Suzuki "The Suzuki Ignis: Category maker; stereotype breaker" by the7stars
BRONZE: Columbia Records "The Foo Fighter Arms – Rock ‘n’ roll ain’t gonna die" by the7stars
International campaign
GOLD: Toyota "We choose hybrid" by M/SIX
SILVER: Eurosport "Beating the odds to deliver a digital-first Winter Olympics" by MullenLowe MediaHub
BRONZE: Levi’s "Levi's Music Project" by OMD UK
Media owner - Media idea (over £1m)
GOLD: Lloyds Bank #GetTheInsideOut with Lloyds by Channel 4
SILVER: Smirnoff "Global & Smirnoff's Equalising Music Initiative" by Global
BRONZE: Walkers "Win Live with Walkers and ITV" by ITV
Media owner – media idea (£250,000-£1m)
GOLD: Greene King "Summer of sound" by Global
SILVER: Age UK "Old People's Home For Four-Year Olds at Christmas" by Manning Gottlieb OMD
BRONZE: Max Factor "Putting a spotlight on the leading ladies of cinema" by Zenith and Digital Cinema Media
Media owner – media idea (under £250,000)
GOLD: CALM "Project 84" by ITV, Harry’s and Adam & Eve/DDB
SILVER: Manning Gottlieb OMD "The Telegraph, Specsavers & MGOMD" by Telegraph Media Group
BRONZE: Beefeater Pink (Pernod Ricard) "Turning London Underground 'Beefeater Pink' with strawberry-scented posters" by Exterion Media (in partnership with Havas Media and Posterscope)
Media owner – media idea (launch)
GOLD: CALM "Project 84" by ITV, Harry’s and Adam & Eve/DDB
SILVER: Bose "QC352 launch" by Facebook
BRONZE: Halifax "Metro’s Money" by Metro
-- Omar Oakes Global technology editor Campaign 020 8267 4330 @OmarOakes <http://twitter.com/OmarOakes>
