Top Brands Celebrated At Real Media Awards

Vintage Cellars, ALDI, Dan Murphy’s and Coles took home top honours at the international Real Media Awards, for marketing campaign excellence.

Formerly known as the Australasian Catalogue Awards, the 28^th Real Media Awards were held on Friday 30^th August in Melbourne, celebrating excellence in letterbox marketing, publishing, direct mail, point of sale, marketing efficacy and more across Australia and New Zealand.

The diversity of brands awarded demonstrated marketers and companies of all sizes are delivering excellence across campaign strategy, insights and creativity to drive brand equity and sales results.

The power of retail marketing remains as competitive as ever with Vintage Cellars being crowned Brand of the Year, taking the title over the fierce competition with Finalists including David Jones supported by Medium Rare Content Agency, Myer supported by Clemenger BBDO, Beacon Lighting and Nutrimetics supported by their in-house teams.

Coles/Vintage Cellars GM marketing – liquor Yolanda Uys said it was an honour to be recognised as Australia and New Zealand’s Brand of the Year.

“We are beyond thrilled to be crowned Brand of the Year. We pride ourselves in being Australia’s leading fine wine specialist and it’s brilliant to be celebrated on an international stage for it.

“A huge congratulations to the whole team at Vintage Cellars and a big thank you to Gourmet Traveller WINE for your campaign and design support, we could not have received this award without you,” she furthered.

Coles took home the Retailer of the Year award for their outstanding campaigns, beating out other major retailer competition including last year’s winner ALDI, as well as finalists Woolworths, Big W and Dan Murphy’s.

“We are delighted to be crowned Retailer of the Year. From our Coles Supermarket catalogue to Coles Magazine and the Coles Local publication, we are consistently working to offer our consumers a curated, relevant and engaging experience through our publications.”

“A huge congratulations to the whole team at Coles including Salmat and IVE this would not have been possible without you, a big thank you to Big Red, Medium Rare Content Agency, Keep Left and NBHD Creative for all of your campaign and design support,” commented Coles head of marketing operations John Leaman.

Coles had a successful night, in addition to Retailer of the Year they won the Supermarket category for their ‘A Fresh Look at Christmas’ publication by NBHD Creative as well as the Point of Sale / In Store Display retail award for their ‘Free Flights Plane’ campaign.

ALDI Supermarkets took the Judges Choice award with over 60 judges, across Melbourne, Sydney and Auckland selecting the ALDI’s ‘Christmas: The More the Merrier ’18’ publication as the best of the year.

“It is an absolute credit to ALDI winning Judges Choice for 2019. This award really recognises ALDI’s work creating strong catalogue campaigns that continue to deliver and genuinely engage their customers. ALDI and the team at BMS bring the X factor to catalogue campaigning and this recognition highlights that,” commented BMF, ALDI’s national Agency, production director Julie Sorrell.

It wasn’t all Supermarkets, Dan Murphy’s was recognised as Media Brand Advertiser of the Year, a Real Media Awards first, for demonstrating their strength in Custom publications working in partnership with Hardie Grant Media.

“We’re honoured to be crowned the Real Media Collective’s first ever Media Brand Advertiser of the Year winner. Our custom publishing plays a central role in our marketing strategy, so it’s brilliant to be awarded this from our industry peers,” said Dan Murphy’s marketing manager discovery Sarah Tencer.

The Real Media Collective CEO Kellie Northwood congratulated all Entrants, Finalists and Winners.

“The Real Media Collective is an example of the industry coming together, brands, agencies, retailers, printers, publishers and distributors celebrating the work they create in partnership to drive efficacy across the impressive and results-driven media channels we represent. The Real Media Awards are a testament to this success and a great reflection of our Collective philosophy,” commented Northwood.

The Major Real Media Awards Winners and Finalists:

Agency of the Year (Sponsored by Shopfully)

Winner Medium Rare Content Agency

Finalists BMF, Plump + Spry, AJF GrowthOps, Clemenger BBDO

Best Emerging Designer (Sponsored by

Winners Sheridan Edsall of Target Creative Studio

Finalists Sophie Hall of PFG Australia, Nikki Maras of Big W, Dana Al Habel of BMF, Maria Angelica Flores of GP Advertising

Best Emerging Talent (Sponsored by Ovato Limited)

Winner Brigitte Davies of BMF

Finalists Kevin Mui of BMF, Zane Hilder of BMF, and Jacqui Erskine of J Walter Thompson, Yousif Hurmiz Zia of Ovato Limited

Judge’s Choice (Sponsored by Ball&Doggett)

Winner ALDI Supermarkets – ‘Christmas: The More the Merrier ’18’ produced by BMF

Finalists Repco – ‘It Starts with the Parts’ produced by Cummins & Partner, Bauer Media Group – ‘No GST – No Gender Selective Tax’ produced by Bauer Media Group, Vintage Cellars – ‘Cellar Press – The Rules of Attraction’ produced by Gourmet Traveller, David Jones – ‘JONES’ produced by Medium Rare Content

Brand of the Year (Sponsored by Ovato Limited)

Winner Vintage Cellars – Gourmet Traveller WINE

Finalists David Jones – Medium Rare Content Agency, Myer – Clemenger BBDO, Beacon Lighting – Beacon Lighting In-House Team, Nutrimetics – Nutrimetics In-House Team

Retailer of the Year (Sponsored by Norske Skog)

Winner Coles – Big Red, Medium Rare Content Agency, Keep Left and NBHD Creative

Finalists ALDI – BMF, Dan Murphy’s – Hardie Grant Media, Big W – Big W In-House Team, Woolworths – M&C Saatchi, Suddenly (News Corp Australia Content Agency) and Wellcom Worldwide

Media Brand of the Year (Sponsored by IVE Group)

Winner Dan Murphy’s – Hardie Grant Media

Finalists Coles – Big Red, Medium Rare Content Agency, Keep Left and NBHD Creative, Vintage Cellars – Gourmet Traveller WINE, David Jones – Medium Rare Content Agency, Strathcona Baptist Girls Grammar – Stella Dean Creative