The 2019 B&T Awards, presented by DisplayWise, has experienced another highly successful and exceptionally entertaining year.

The sell-out event saw over 750 people flock to The Venue in Alexandria to raise a glass (or five) and honour the best of the best across Australia’s advertising, marketing and media sector.

The Chaser’s Craig Reucassel and Chris Taylor kept the night flowing and laughs coming as the MCs of the event with their legendary humour and witty gags.

The excitement was palpable, the drinks were flowing, the tunes were pumping (thanks to Primerchord Production Music for supplying this year’s walk-up music) and the winners, well, safe to say they were pretty chuffed with their shiny new trophies.

B&T would like to extend a huge congratulations to all the winners and finalists of this year’s B&T Awards presented by DisplayWise, and big ups to our awesome judges and stupendous sponsors. A special congrats to The Monkeys for nabbing Agency of the Decade.

As always, thanks to our sponsors who help make this event so incredible: DisplayWise, All Size Miracles, Adrenalin, AMSRO, Free 2 Travel, Swift Media, Upland Adestra, Tonic Health Media and Primerchord Production Music.

We won’t keep you reading any longer. Without further ado, here are your winners for the B&T Awards 2019. We’ve also included some of the judges’ comments so you can have a sneak peak into why the winners were selected.

BEST AD CAMPAIGN

Judges’ comments: “Brilliantly clever and complete in its execution.”

BEST DIGITAL CAMPAIGN

Judges’ comments: Very relatable. A super approach with real vloggers achieving great cut through. Enjoyed the multi-pronged approach with the 7 scenarios identified. In a declining category and one that is reactive you shifted the dial with this campaign and put Hydralyte on the shopping list.”

BEST DIGITAL SERVICES

Reload Media

Judges’ comments: “Reload plays where the rubber hits the road and there’s nowhere to hide from hard numbers.”

BEST MEDIA CAMPAIGN

Judges’ comments: “Excellent results, solid media insight and really nice tangential way to solve a problem.”

BEST OUT-OF-HOME CAMPAIGN

Judges’ comments: “Simple but effective creative. Excellent demonstration of how cross-functional collaboration between agency and client can help bring a campaign to life.”

BEST PR CAMPAIGN

Judges’ comments: “Drawing on Australia’s fascination with true crime, this campaign for the Heart Foundation was a real killer.”

BEST PROGRAMMATIC TRADING TEAM

Acquire – Custom Programmatic

Judges’ comments: “Not for the first time, Kiwis are showing Australians how it’s done.”

BEST RADIO/Audio CAMPAIGN

Judges’ comments: “Funny insight into ‘New Zealand is doing ‘Australia’ better than Australia.”

BEST TV CAMPAIGN

Judges’ comments: “A great example of winning hearts over minds. As a customer of a service like a bank, they see you through multiple life transitions, the good and the bad. These ads show the genuine emotion of such life impacts in a really emotive and engaging way.”

best use of AR/vr

Judges’ comments: “Embracing immersive technologies with indigenous culture blends well.”

BEST USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA

Judges’ comments: “Well thought out strategy, a great tactic to use. Very inclusive and gets the community involved as well so people can take part in the challenge.”

BEST USE OF SPONSORSHIP

Judges’ comments: “This was astonishing. The perfect event for mass reach, with incredible production values and execution. A well written entry – a standout.”

CONTENT MARKETING STRATEGY OF THE YEAR

Judges’ comments: “Very creative idea with strong results.”

DATA-DRIVEN MARKETING

Judges’ comments: “Excellent results and corresponding significant increased store traffic and revenue increase, based on insights gleaned from the analytics. Data informed and shaped the prizes offered to render them more appealing in advance of execution. Data used across multiple platforms or interaction with customers, including apps, in store ads etc. Exceeded the initial goals.”

MARKETING TEAM OF THE YEAR 

ALDI Australia

Judges’ comments: “Love the impact this team has had on the retail industry across Australia, and cannot believe it is only 16 people – wow – what a difference they have made.”

marketing team of the year (highly commended)

TAFE NSW

Judges’ comments: “Insight into the issues faced by the brand, strategy, coordination of partners including advertising, media and PR partners and successful outcomes: Professional and considered submission hitting all judging criteria to a high level.”

MARKETING TECHNOLOGY COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Sinorbis

Judges’ comments: “Very strong submission, highly impactful for Australia’s marketing industry.”

MEDIA BRAND OF THE YEAR

Broadsheet

Judges’ comments: “Broadsheet is one of those rare things in the Australian media landscape: a good news story.”

MEDIA SALES TEAM OF THE YEAR

Bauer Media

Judges’ comments: “It’s not an easy category these days, so these are great results.”

B&T award for bravery

Judges’ comments: “Westpac were told not to make this ad, we’re glad they did.”

executive leader of the year

Aimee Buchanan – OMD Australia

Judges’ comments: “Impressive in every way possible, Aimee is redefining what a modern executive is.”

marketer of the year

Jenny Melhuish – Westpac Group

Judges’ comments: “In Jenny, Westpac has a marketer who understands the need to think strategically before embarking on tactical execution. It’s rare to find a brand manager who can “juggle” multiple brands and link the huge expectations of the senior Westpac executive with the marketing teams she manages”.

PEOPLE & CULTURE AWARD – UNDER 100 EMPLOYEES

VERSA

Judges’ comments: “Brilliant outcome on the 4 day work week – doing something innovative and different and paying dividends for employees and shareholders!”

PEOPLE & CULTURE AWARD – OVER 100 EMPLOYEES

Initiative Australia

Judges’ comments: “Amazing work around mental health and training on things like recruitment.”

STATE AGENCY OF THE YEAR – QUEENSLAND/OTHER STATES AND TERRITORIES/NEW ZEALAND

The Brand Agency

Judges’ comments: “Great to see an impressive body of work. Some excellent creative, particularly the Hungry Puffs work. Obvious commitment and investment into workplace culture – nice one.”

STATE AGENCY OF THE YEAR – NSW

BMF

Judges’ comments: “You demonstrated an obvious focus on people and culture. Great to see you focus on this! Loved hearing from your staff with all different levels of tenure. Culture scorecard is a brilliant idea! It was very clear what makes you different. I also appreciated the level of commercial success you were able to share. Well done on an exceptional entry in a very talented and competitive category!”

state agency of the year – NSW (highly commended)

The Works

Judges’ comments: “WorksWell and WorksPerks are genius! This was an excellent demonstration of your focus on employee wellbeing and happiness. Your USB submissions were excellent and lifted my mood! I’d like to come along to one of your all agency yoga sessions, please! You excelled in the agency culture area with a perfect score from me. Well done – an overall outstanding entry.”

STATE AGENCY OF THE YEAR – VICTORIA

CHE Proximity

Judges’ comments: “Innovation is clearly a priority and it shows in the teams you have built internally. Clearly you’ve understood creativity for some time.”

STATE AGENCY OF THE YEAR – VICTORIA (highly commended)

Cummins&Partners

Judges’ comments: “I think your agency has a great pool of talent, culture, leadership and support networks. It’s the full picture.”

DIRECT RESPONSE/PERFORMANCE AGENCY OF THE YEAR

CHE Proximity

Judges’ comments: “Thorough ideas grounded in strategy, innovation and great creative implementations.”

PRODUCTION COMPANY OF THE YEAR

Good Oil

Judges’ comments: “Great diversity of work and I loved the story telling style, emotion and humour. Quite striking. Came across as different from many of the other submissions. I liked their diversity and the work they do with the indigenous. Well presented.”

PR AGENCY OF THE YEAR

Aruga PR

Judges’ comments: “Great commercial results… a smaller agency with big results in the past 12 months.
Clearly a great culture and feeling in the business. Inspiring leadership style shining through.”

INDEPENDENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR

Apparent

Judges’ comments: “Excellent demonstration of commercial success and how the agency has broadened beyond just a CX agency. Aperol Spritz case study was strong.”

INDEPENDENT AGENCY OF THE YEAR (highly commended)

Special Group

Judges’ comments: “A stellar year. Uber work is outstanding as is the diversity of offering and cultural initiatives.”

BRANDING, DESIGN & CX AGENCY OF THE YEAR

Apparent

Judges’ comments: “Continuing to drive momentum achieved in 2018. Training, investing in team.
Strong CX business base… broadening offer now expanding into media. New clients wins, great commercial results. Outstanding credentials.”

MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR

OMD Australia

Judges’ comments: “An outstanding year for OMD. Cultural achievements particularly impressive.”

RESEARCH AGENCY OF THE YEAR

Fiftyfive5

Judges’ comments: “An excellent entry. Huge commercial success over nine years, with measurable impact and momentum. Hard to look past! Strong case studies, including industry-wide + strategic brand positioning. A strong leader in market.”

EMERGING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

Thinkerbell

Judges’ comments: “Great to see some very impactful case studies. Well done! Also incredibly impressed with your commercials so early on. Excellent creativity and I love the idea of “Measured Magic”. This entry was a joy to judge!”

EXPERIENTIAL/PROMOTIONAL AGENCY OF THE YEAR

Because Creative Experiences

Judges’ comments: “I loved your honesty, it really gave a great glimpse into your culture. Great selection of examples to demonstrate the breadth of work and service.”

ADVERTISING AGENCY OF THE YEAR

BMF

Judges’ comments: “Great strategy representation that grounds each case study and agency thinking. Strategically very thoughtful and centred around client strategy.”

ADVERTISING AGENCY OF THE YEAR (highly commended)

Special Group

Judges’ comments: “Very impressive momentum within the industry. Great case studies that break through traditional thinking.”

B&T AGENCY OF THE YEAR

BMF

Judges’ comments: “It’s been a long time between drinks for BMF since taking out our agency of the decade in 2009, but they’re back to their very best in 2019.”

B&T Agency of the decade

The Monkeys

Judges’ comments: “Three Drunk Monkeys have a more grown-up name and their CEO even has a more grown-up job these days, however, that same irreverent and challenging attitude means they have been the agency to follow above all others these past 10 years.”

Congratulations to all of our winners! Another thanks to this years’ sponsors – cheers legends!