CAMPAIGN AWARDS
Best Consumer PR Campaign
Supermassive, '36 Months'
The 36 Months campaign was a cultural lightning bolt that turned private parental fear into a national mandate and global precedent.
In a world where childhood has been hijacked by algorithms, comparison culture and addictive platforms, Supermassive took a simple but profound idea and built a movement: give kids more time to grow and to develop their own identity before the internet forms it for them.
Launching in May 2024, Supermassive united politicians, paediatricians, psychologists, educators, celebrities, tech ethicists, parents and, critically, young people themselves under one urgent call to action: raise the minimum social media age to 16.
The result was unmissable coverage, a national petition with more than 138,000 signatures, bipartisan political buy-in and overwhelming public backing.
And then, the impossible happened. Legislation was actually passed. Australia became the first country in the world to raise the age of social media usage by three years. The Prime Minister personally thanked the founders. The UN took notice. And with just days until the ban is finally enforced, other nations are preparing to follow suit.
The 36 Months campaign has proven to be a case study in how modern PR can rewrite entire systems and change the world.
Best Creator-Led Campaign
Herd MSL, 'Pour It, Mix it, Hack It', Nescafé
Despite Australia’s reputation as a nation of coffee snobs, Gen Z isn’t entering coffee culture through lattes in cafés. They’re coming in through sweet, iced coffee mixes that are more of a lifestyle statement than a morning ritual.
Nescafé, in partnership with Herd MSL, wanted to tap into this trend by launching a new iced coffee ritual.
‘Pour It, Mix It, Hack It’ was a campaign designed to be hacked by creators across every touchpoint. Heartbreak High star Ayesha Madon fronted a creator mix spanning coffee experts, lifestyle voices and niche talent.
These creators spawned a “movement” by sharing their own iced coffee hacks across TikTok and Instagram.
The campaign was turbocharged by earned media, paid assets, retailer comms, and even the Hack-Café, a Bondi pop-up (where else) where fans could taste the recipes IRL.
The campaign received 9 million social views with more than 10 per cent engagement rates.
It helped Nescafé double sales in its Coffee Concentrates category, driving 57 per cent incremental growth and, importantly, 44 per cent of shoppers were Gen Z and Millennials.
Best CTV and VIDEO Campaign
Droga5, 'The Comments Section', Meat & Livestock Australia
Nothing brings Aussies together like shrimp (ahem) on the barbie. Or in this case, lamb. Accenture Song’s Droga5 ANZ took the chance with this year’s summer Lamb Ad to remind Aussies of what really matters.
Directed by The Sweetshop, the film used real Australian comments about divisive topics sourced from Instagram, TikTok, Reddit, Facebook, YouTube and more. It even featured someone pretending to be Raygun, the now infamous Aussie Breakdancing hopeful at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Holding up a mirror to the nation itself, the result was a mix of bizarre opinions and absurd one-liners. With seemingly unimportant things dividing the nation, Sam Kekovich appears clutching tongs and manning a barbecue to remind Australians that when we “get out of the comments and into the cutlets,” we’re a kinder, more united country.
The campaign faced a tough challenge: In 2024, lamb’s retail price soared, becoming Australia’s most expensive meat. Faced with a cost-of-living crisis, justifying its premium was critical.
The film even ended with a bit of comment baiting: “I hope people post nice comments about this ad”. This encouraged engagement, which pushed the ad up in the algorithm, in turn reaching a wider audience. Droga5 didn’t stop there—it flipped traditional media and turned the comments it received on the ad into out of home executions and a bespoke 15-second TVC, driving people from traditional media to social and YouTube.
It became the most-viewed Australian ad by Australians on YouTube–with 21 million views—and boosted lamb sales by 7.7 per cent, the biggest spike in the long-running Lamb Ad’s history.
While the comments section can be a toxic place, this Lamb Ad is a reminder that we’re always at our best when we’re united.
Best Digital Campaign
Special & Hatched, 'Mum-nipulate the algorithm', Kitchen Warehouse
Special and Hatched’s scheming for Kitchen Warehouse proved a masterstoke this Mother’s Day for mums and Kitchen Warehouse alike.
In the six weeks leading up to Mother’s Day, Kitchen Warehouse ran ads across digital display, social, out of home and print catalogues, with a cheeky promise: If mums clicked, scanned or tapped the gifts they wanted, their kids would be served hyper-specific ads encouraging them to buy the exact thing their mums wanted for Mother’s Day.
Special and Hatched even gave mums a suite of unbranded cute animal videos to share on their family group chats. And the whole time mums knew the videos had hidden cookies that corresponded with a Kitchen Warehouse gift they wanted.
The campaign drove exceptional commercial results and cultural impact—all on a fraction of the production and media spend of competitors in the same period.
Special and Hatched certainly ‘Mum-nipulated’ Mother’s Day for Kitchen Warehouse, with sales increasing by a staggering amount. Traffic to the retailer’s website grew by similarly astronomic numbers.
But most importantly, the nation’s mothers didn’t end up with crap only fit for re-gifting.
Best Direct Response Campaign
Howatson+Company, 'Appeal Appeal', UNICEF
How can you turn a partnership with Cricket Australia into a fundraising powerhouse? By leveraging the most important moment in any cricket match—the appeal.
In 2025, UNICEF and Cricket Australia formed a long-term partnership to combat gender inequality. By raising funds, they would help millions of girls still denied access to education, healthcare, nutrition and protection from violence—as well as the right to play sport.
During the biggest women’s cricket match in history—The 2024-5 Ashes at the MCG—every time the fielders appealed for a wicket, the stadium lit up with donation prompts and QR codes so fans could contribute instantly.
Using a ripple media approach, more than 60 appeals were extended nationwide through live broadcast integrations, digital billboards, radio and social, giving extra impetus to the campaign in real time.
The ‘Appeal Appeal’ became UNICEF Australia’s most successful sports-partnership fundraiser to date. During one match, it reached 6.8 million people, drove a nine-times increase in one-off donations and revenue more than doubled.
But most importantly, critical funds were generated to help provide basic and fundamental rights for girls around the world. Howzat for a direct response.
Best Integrated Ad Campaign
Today the Brave, 'Redhead Redemption', Wendy's
Wendy’s could have launched quietly in Australia. Instead, Today the Brave lit the fuse and detonated a brand moment the country couldn’t ignore.
With almost no brand presence in the market, the agency knew Wendy’s needed a culturally charged entry point that would get Australians talking.
The breakthrough came from leaning into a uniquely local truth: redheads have long been the subject of teasing and throwaway labels, yet Wendy’s, which was founded by a proud redhead, reframed those same nicknames as a badge of honour.
That insight became ‘Redhead Redemption’, a fully integrated campaign that transformed “ranga” and “carrot top” from insults into something to be proud of.
Redheads were invited to claim a free burger meal as an act of celebration, and non-redheads could still participate if they were willing to temporarily “join the tribe” and go red.
What followed was a coordinated mix of paid media, creator amplification, in-store and earned storytelling that pushed the idea out into the world.
Social media fuelled anticipation, influencers turned the activation into a movement and broadcast media seized on it as a feel-good national talking point.
On the ground, queues wrapped around the Gold Coast’s Cavill Avenue as thousands of Australians took part, some proudly natural redheads, many hilarious improvised versions.
The impact was undeniable, with the campaign generating 434.6 million earned impressions, 452 media stories, a 7.6 per cent uplift in foot traffic and sales 45 per cent above forecast.
Redhead Redemption announced Wendy’s as a challenger with something to say, instantly inserting the brand into Australian culture with charm, wit and a memorable stance on the most Aussie way possible.
Best Media Campaign, sponsored by convenience advertising
TBWA\Melbourne, 'Welcome to Melbourne', Specsavers
‘Welcome To Melbourne’ was one of the most talked-about and lauded campaigns of the year, and for good reason.
The optician’s famous ‘Should’ve Gone to Specsavers’ tagline has been in-market for more than 17 years, highlighting visual mistakes that would be clearly obvious to people with good vision.
In 2024, Specsavers launched a new global AV campaign set at an airport, leaving travellers puzzled by seemingly landing in an airport far, far away.
Baggage carousels and airport exit signs don’t usually draw news media attention or get shared across social media. But TBWA\Melbourne’s brilliance would change that.
Passengers landing in Sydney were welcomed to Melbourne, those in Melbourne welcomed to Sydney (a fate worse than death for most Melburnians), arrivals in Brisbane were met with Darwin signs and so on.
Out of home billboards at every major airport would mirror the execution, and the idea was extended into digital placements targeting Uber rides, too.
While punters might have been perplexed momentarily by the signs, the results it generated for Specsavers are clear for all to see.
The campaign powered brand salience by garnering more than 25 pieces of earned media, reaching 97.2 million people. Social media engagement reached 9.1 million people, with over 100,000 likes and 10,000 shares. Specsavers’ consideration was the highest it had ever been.
Best Out of Home Campaign
Special, 'Coopers Forever Original '1 of 1', Coopers Brewery
There’s no doubt that Aussies love a beer. In this very special ad, Special urged them not to take that love for granted, highlighting the passion and creativity that powers indie breweries like Coopers.
To prove Coopers’ commitment to crafting good, original beer, the campaign brought to life hundreds of certified one-of-one original artworks, each crafted and signed by artists to be displayed as unique outdoor media placements.
No repeats, no copies, just one-of-one originals. Artworks were hewn from scrap metal. Sheep were arranged in a paddock and viewed from above. Ice, pastels, plasticine, you name it, everything became a material for creativity.
More than just a beer ad, it was a living embodiment of the brand’s ‘Forever Original’ platform.
Special’s campaign is a reminder that ‘Forever Original’ isn’t just a tagline, it’s an undying commitment that the family-owned brewer will always do its own thing.
The campaign increased brand attribution across areas of fun, young and exciting—where Coopers historically had a competitive disadvantage. Younger drinkers aged 18-34 resonated with the ad, and measures for desire, distinctiveness, and purchase intent improved significantly. Cheers to that.
Best Pro-Bono Campaign
Carat and TAG, 'A Happier 10th Birthday ' Raise The Age NSW
In New South Wales, when a child blows out 10 candles on a birthday cake, the world should be opening up to them. For some, however, it slams shut. That’s because in NSW, the age of criminal responsibility is just 10 years old. As soon as they hit double digits, a child can be arrested, charged, strip-searched, hauled before a court and locked in a prison cell.
Carat and TAG’s campaign starts with something everyone can understand—the utter innocence of a child’s birthday. But the campaign takes a terrifying turn, demonstrating what turning 10 really means for children in NSW: the age when the law decides they are old enough for prison. Prison is not the gift children should be receiving when they hit that milestone of double digits.
With a budget of zero dollars the campaign for Raise The Age NSW set out to do more than just create awareness, the agencies wanted to start a conversation in a political environment that had at best avoided the evidence for decades.
The impact was unquestionable, with awareness in NSW spiking 45 per cent, and the understanding of the issue doubled. That’s despite the NSW Government refusing to run the ad on public transport, labelling it “too political”—an unintentional endorsement of just how close the ad was getting to the bone.
Best Regional Media Campaign, sponsored by Boomtown
Keep Left, 'How Ya Travellin'?', Healthy Heads Trucks & Sheds
It isn’t easy being a truckie—long hours, on your own, doing a job that demands your constant attention. Those pressures and long hours can take a toll on your mental health. In fact, workers in the transport sector are some of the most vulnerable in the country.
To combat this pervasive and pernicious problem, not-for-profit foundation Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds tasked Keep Left with delivering preventative support to truckies across regional Australia.
The solution was How Ya Travellin’? a unified campaign fronted by comedian and licensed truckie Shane Jacobson that delivered wellbeing tips, lived experience and expert advice to truckies via a regional-first strategy launched during National Road Safety Week.
At the core of this strategy were geo-targeted radio hijacked ad breaks on isolated highways. More than 100 regional radio stations were involved in the campaign, with 36 billboards and 124 service station posters, too. An eight-episode podcast series extended the campaign while digital, social and PR activity pointed drivers back to the audio.
The results were impressive, to say the least. It reached more than 12 million Australians and achieved upwards of 7,000 podcast downloads in five months. It also shifted the perception of Healthy Heads in Trucks & Sheds significantly from being a corporate charity to one for everyone.
Most importantly, however, hundreds of drivers sent messages to Jacobson thanking him for recognising their struggles.
Best Retail Media Campaign
Hatched & Cartology, 'Give Back With Your Backside: A Retail Media Success Story', Who Gives A Crap
The crowded retail media marketplace isn’t necessarily easy territory for creativity, which is exactly why the ‘Give Back With Your Backside’ campaign stood out.
Hatched and Cartology took Who Gives A Crap, a brand already famous for cheeky humour and social good, and used retail media not simply as a last-mile conversion lever, but as a brand-building growth engine.
Despite huge awareness, Who Gives A Crap was starting to plateau. Consideration had stalled, shoppers were trading down, and the perception that the product was “expensive” had begun to erode momentum.
So instead of playing the price game, the team did the opposite. They doubled down on the brand’s playful, purpose-led DNA and went after premium audiences who cared about design, sustainability and quality.
Using Cartology’s CREST segmentation and retailer data, Who Gives A Crap precisely targeted high-value locations and audiences, expanding beyond eco-conscious early adopters to reach “Refined” and “Premium” cohorts who were open to paying more for a product that aligned with their values.
The results were transformational. Who Gives A Crap saw a 12 per cent lift in toilet paper sales, a 13 per cent jump in new customer acquisition, and a 44 per cent surge in online sales. Brand consideration climbed eight per cent.
In just 14 weeks, Hatched and Cartology turned a slowing growth curve into a category-defining retail success story.
Best Social Media Campaign
Special, 'Made for Down Under', BONDS
There are few things more comforting and Aussie than a pair of Bonds undies. Most Aussies know it, with the average Australian household owning 12 Bonds items.
This year, Bonds set its sights on crossing the Pacific to crack America in a market saturated with legacy underwear rivals and flashy disruptors.
The ambition was to position Bonds as a youthful, progressive alternative for 18 to 35-year-olds.
To catch attention, Bonds decided to tap into two things that Americans love talking about when it comes to Australia: our deadly nature, and an Irwin who knows how to wrangle it.
A laid-back Robert Iriwn fronted an ad that positioned his half-naked hulking body, wearing nothing but a pair of Bonds, surrounded by crocs, snakes and a spider. But also some more unassuming Aussie icons, including a Hills Hoist-an intentional nod and wink to those watching back home.
The campaign caught the eye, to say the least.
In the first 24 hours, it generated 9 billion earned media impressions, became the #2 trending topic on TikTok in the first weekend, smashed all the media benchmarks and established awareness at 2 per cent. This achieved Bond’s year-one goal after only three months.
Few adverts generate such a spark. Fewer still manage to lean into cultural archetypes for a foreign audience without provoking rage with the home nation.
Best Sponsorship Campaign
Mindshare, 'Hoop Dreams', Ford
Faced with fierce competition from new EV entrants and Toyota’s Olympic sponsorship dominance, Ford needed a disruptive strategy to stay top-of-mind with Australian families.
With a smaller media budget, Ford couldn’t compete on spend – but it could compete on heart.
Flipping the traditional automotive playbook, Ford partnered with Basketball Australia to create the grassroots-focused ‘Hoop Dreams’ campaign.
Research found that more than half of pre-teens were playing weekend sports in 2024, making community courts a vital space for connection and brand relevance. Ford tapped into that cultural power to create a campaign lasting far beyond the TVC.
Designed to enhance accessibility and empower kids to “have a go,” Ford re-engineered its Ranger into a mobile basketball hoop, bringing the game to driveways, remote regions and ESPN’s Ballin’24. A custom Snapchat filter, social content and a documentary featuring star players amplified reach and engagement.
The results were game-changing. The Ford Ranger outsold its nearest competition, with a leaner approach to investment.
More than just an automotive ad, ‘Hoop Dreams’ proved that authentic community engagement can work in tandem with commercial impact, brand affinity and media success.
Best Tech And AI Campaign
Leo Australia, 'Suncorp Haven', Suncorp
Leo Australia undertook a fearless challenge with Suncorp to flip the industry script, using proprietary risk data to help Aussies lower the risks to their homes, rather than protect the insurer’s interests.
The effects of climate change continue to make Australia more susceptible to extreme weather. So, over the last five years, Suncorp Insurance has shifted its strategy from recovery to resilience. That shift is based on the insight that if people make their homes stronger in the face of extreme weather, it reduces claims, displacement and trauma. Protecting both the Australian way of life and the insurance industry itself.
‘Suncorp Haven’ is the next chapter in the resilience journey. It is a data-led digital platform, combining multiple pieces of cutting-edge tech and huge datasets in a novel and unique way. The platform uses this information to give everyone one of Australia’s 11 million homes a unique risk assessment. It tells homeowners exactly what they need to do to make their home more resilient to the specific threat it faces.
It marks the first time an insurer has used proprietary risk data to help people reduce the risk of their homes, rather than protect the insurer’s interests. And, importantly, Haven is a product as much as a marketing campaign.
It’s early days but Suncorp is already seeing impressive results, continuing the success of its ‘Resilience’ brand platform. More than 130,000 consumers visited the Haven website in the first two months of the campaign. It raked in more than 2 million in earned reach across national news outlets, on the back of 139 articles being published.
Best TV Campaign
Saatchi & Saatchi, 'In A Pickle', Toyota
The Toyota HiLux is synonymous with reliability. But Aussie drivers have started to pay more attention to other capabilities like towing power and off-road prowess, which are heavily advertised by other brands that can’t best the Luxies’ unshakable reliability.
Combined with a challenging market, Toyota needed a campaign that would talk to the model’s core strengths and show that when the going really got tough, there was no replacement for a HiLux.
In the campaign, which debuted during the 2024 Toyota AFL Grand Final, a HiLux came to save the day when other, lesser vehicles couldn’t manage it. Set to the classic Duelling Banjos theme, the TV campaign even ended with the HiLux casually ripping out the old tree stump that got the first truck stuck to begin with—reminding all that you don’t send a ute to do a HiLux job.
The results matched the exceptional performance of Toyota’s legendary truck, boosting sales impressively against a declining category and delivering a significant ROI. Top-of-mind awareness, consideration and desirability metrics all grew too. In fact, it became one of Toyota’s strongest-performing ads ever. Proof that you don’t send any old agency to do a Saatchis job.
Siren Award for Best Radio/Audio Campaign sponsored by CRA
Special, 'Export Ultra Cold Call Back Service', DB Breweries
New Zealanders take summer seriously. Barbecues, bach trips, long days in the sun and that irreplaceable moment of cracking open a perfectly chilled beer. But there’s a shared national tragedy lurking behind that ritual, leaving a beer in the freezer for too long.
It’s the kind of small failure that feels enormous in the moment. The beer’s ruined, the anticipation of an ice-cold brew evaporates, and summer loses just a little bit of its magic.
Instead of launching another stock standard beer ad that romanticises beaches and mateship, Special tackled the problem head-on with a solution.
Enter Vanilla Ice.
Kiwis could text a service when they put a beer into the freezer. Thirty-four minutes later, at the exact scientific point of “perfect cold,” their phone would ring. And not with a generic alarm, but with a personalised call from Vanilla Ice himself, reminding them to rescue their beer before it froze.
With zero paid media, the idea spread everywhere. It drove 234,000 interactions, reached half of all Kiwis and generated $2.8 million in earned media. Even more impressive, it moved the market. December sales jumped 43 per cent year-on-year, and brand association skyrocketed. Stop, collaborate and listen, indeed.
