Starcom New Zealand claimed the best in show award at last night’s CAANZ Media Awards for its work on the New Zealand Army’s recruitment campaign.
The media agency took the top honour at the Communication Agencies Association of New Zealand Media Awards for its work on the account over the past five years, also picking up the best long term strategic campaign award for the business.
OMD was named as media agency of the year in recognition of its financial success while negotiating its way through its merger with Media Direction, the media department of Colenso BBDO, and Clemenger Media. It was also credited with growing revenue, despite suffering the international alignment of the Dell account, which was handed to MPG after a regional decision.
OMD had further success as its director of OMD Digital Chris Riley was handed the excellence award for his work as a proponent of digital media since returning from the UK four years ago.
The media brand of the year award went to Fairfax Media for a second year in a row. It took the award again due to its revenue growth in the past year, and its readership and engagement results across newspapers, magazines and online.
The final round of judging resulted in 10 gold and 14 silvers being awarded. Other gold winners included TVNZ for best media owner sales proposal of the year for Toyota. Best mixed media campaign went to ZenithOptimedia for its work for Lion Nathan. Best smart media idea was split between DraftFCB Media and Mediaedge:cia. Best use of research and consumer insight went to DraftFCB Media for Bond & Bond work, while OMD was again a recipient for best use of television for an Air New Zealand campaign.
