Entries have officially opened for the 2025 NGEN Award, giving emerging media talent the chance to tackle a real brief from a real charity—and potentially turn it into a real campaign seen across Australia.
Now in its 15th year, The NGEN Award is a unique category of the MFA Awards for media professionals with less than five years’ experience. It’s a launchpad for our industry’s up-and-coming talent to make a genuine impact, flex their strategic and creative muscles, and gain career-defining experience.
This year’s brief comes from Share the Dignity, a charity dedicated to helping women, girls and people who menstruate who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness, domestic violence or poverty.
Shortlisted teams will be invited to NGEN Award Day on 27 August—a live pitch session where they’ll present their ideas to a judging panel comprised of MFA Board directors and senior industry leaders. The experience offers invaluable feedback in presenting and thinking on your feet—a must for any future leader in media.
A free Strategy and NGEN Award Kick-Off Webinar is being held on Thursday June 12, at 10am AEST, to help entrants decode the brief, uncover insights and build a solid strategic response. The webinar will be available to view on the MFA website for those who can’t attend.
Previous NGEN Award winning entries have gone on to become actual campaigns, such as 2022 winners Ben Breden and Olivia Coxon from Initiative, who transformed their idea into a national fundraising campaign for youth mental health charity batyr, supported by 19 media partners and $1.3 million in donated media.
“The NGEN Award offers emerging media talents a rare opportunity to respond to a real brief and gain exposure to senior industry leaders,” said Melanie Aslanidis, head of NGEN. “It’s about building strategic capability, sharpening presentation skills and accelerating career growth – all while contributing to a meaningful change for a worthy cause.”
To be eligible, entrants must be registered NGEN members with less than five years’ experience.
Key NGEN Award dates:
- June 11: NGEN Award Entries Open
- June 12: Strategy and NGEN Award Kick-Off Webinar, 10am AEST
- July 23: Entries Close
- August 26: Shortlisted teams notified by phone that they’ve made it through to the Live Round
- August 27: NGEN Award Day – live presentations to judges
- September 18: Winners announced at the MFA Awards gala event, Randwick Racecourse, Sydney
The 2025 MFA Awards sponsors are:
- Grand Prix: Seven Platinum: Meta, Outdoor Media Association, SBS
- Gold: Ad Standards, News Corp Australia, OzTAM, Pinterest, YouTube
- Silver: Foxtel Media, Nielsen
