The Newsworks Awards 2022 winners revealed

The new-look awards recognises the best advertising in news brands

John Ayling & Associates has taken home the Grand Prix Campaign of the Year award at The Newsworks Awards 2022.

Mediacom UK, Starcom, Hearts & Science and Wavemaker UK were among the winners at the new-look awards, which took place at NoMad Hotel in London’s Covent Garden and celebrated creativity, innovation and purpose-led campaigns.

John Ayling & Associates, which also received the award for best social impact/sustainability campaign, was rewarded for its groundbreaking work for the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). Together with Metro newspaper it created the first braille cover for a nationally distributed newspaper.

“With so many strong entries, it was particularly tricky to choose the winners,” Helen Jeremiah, Boots vice-president, marketing director and chair of the judges, said. “John Ayling & Associates’ braille cover wrap for RNIB is a brilliant demonstration of news brands’ power for inclusion, innovation and the amplification of issues that matter to readers. They are worthy winners of the Grand Prix.”

Elsewhere, Mediacom UK and Tesco won advertiser of the year for a series of outstanding news brand campaigns, while Starcom won both best display campaign and best tactical ad for "Go grab the Butterkist".

Best content partnership went to Hearts & Science for Ocado, the7stars’ campaign for TSB’s Fraud Refund Guarantee was awarded best contextual campaign, while Wavemaker UK won most effective campaign for its work with William Hill.

Meanwhile, in a new award for 2022, Spark Foundry’s Olivia Kelly was named rising agency star of the year.

The awards were repositioned this year to reflect the changing landscape of news brand advertising, specifically rewarding creativity, people and purpose-led ads, alongside partnership and effectiveness, as well as tactical and contextual work.

The judging panel included Campaign UK editor-in-chief Gideon Spanier, Marks & Spencer marketing director Anna Braithwaite, Zenith chief executive Natalie Cummins, Unilever senior global media manager Emma Whitford, Bountiful Cow chief executive Adam Foley, and The Barber Shop founder Dino Myers-Lamptey.

“We reimagined our annual awards this year to celebrate outstanding, dynamic advertising in news brands,” said Jo Allan, CEO at Newsworks.

“The winners offer a glimpse of some of the fantastic and creatively thought-out ad campaigns that resonate with news brand readers. Congratulations to all those whose work has been recognised this year.”