media Award Categories

This category welcomes entries from media owners and agencies, rewarding the best original content created for a brand.

The branded content should align with the brand values and strategy, clearly addressing marketing objectives and challenges. Judges will evaluate the content creation and creative execution, with additional credit given to compelling storytelling across media channels, as well as strong customer experience as evidenced by consumer engagement metrics.

Content examples can include but are not limited to: videos, articles or publications, podcasts, radio shows, TV shows, music, video games and event content directly made for the brand.

This category recognises campaigns that have centred their strategy around a holiday, festival, or celebration to deliver exceptional results for their clients. Entries should demonstrate a strong understanding and use of audience insights- including habits, traditions, activities, and preferences, associated with the occasion and specific to the target market.

Judges will be looking for campaigns that showcase creativity, clever timing, and thoughtful planning in the lead-up to or/and around the event and how it led to the campaign’s success.

Examples include, but are not limited to: Christmas, New Year, Chinese New Year, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Ramadan, Eid, Diwali, Hanukkah, Thanksgiving, Pride Month, Halloween, Independence Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, International Women’s Day, Anzac Day, Earth Day, Carnival, and local or regional celebrations such as Songkran, Día de los Muertos, or Holi.

This category is reserved for campaigns that demonstrate how it led with a purposeful cause- addressing a social, ethical, economic, cultural, political and/or environmental issue. Eligible entries may include but are not limited to: CSR focused efforts or marketing for brands, charities, not-for profits, health enterprises, sustainability causes, social movements or inclusion and diversity initiatives.

Winning campaigns will clearly demonstrate a positive and measurable impact or meaningful shifts in cultural and social perceptions, supported by tangible results and evidence of influence. Judges will also consider how effectively the campaign has raised awareness of an organisation’s values or initiatives in alignment with the cause at its core.

This category celebrates campaigns that demonstrate a clear and cohesive narrative across all elements of their campaign, showcasing a compelling use of messaging that aligns with the brand, how it pushes creative boundaries, and, in some cases, introduces new ways of communicating. Campaigns may use any form of media, from single-platform executions to integrated, multi-channel strategies.

Winning entries should highlight strong consumer insight, a well-defined strategic approach, and precise execution that built genuine connection with the target audience. Judges will be looking for evidence of how the communications strategy delivered tangible results and successfully met or exceeded the brand’s objectives.

This category recognises campaigns successfully boosted by the distribution, amplification, and presentation of content. The content does not need to be original or newly created content and can be in any format e.g. video, print, OOH, native advertising etc.

Campaigns will be specifically judged on their content strategy, which will include assessing the identification of target audiences and appropriate media channels, how effectively the placement of content was planned and implemented to engage with consumers and how it successfully tapped into the media owner eco-system.

We encourage entries from both agencies and media owners.

Examples include distributing and amplifying user generated content, social media content, third-party generated content, brand-specific content, such as videos, articles, podcasts, radio shows, video games and live event content.

This category recognises the campaign that best demonstrates successful and measurable consumer engagement. Entrants should highlight how creativity, insight, and channel strategy combined to capture audience participation and interaction with either wide-scale, or niche consumer groups.

The jury will be looking for audience related results and clear evidence of how the campaign successfully connected with its target audience, including metrics such as 'time spent with brand', 'number of interactions with the brand', 'number of downloads', 'number of comments', ‘number of shares’, or other relevant indicators of active participation.

This category recognises physical, virtual and hybrid experiences that deliver an effective event or experiential campaign for consumers. The case should be clear on its results and be focused on the event / experience itself. The jury will expect to see how the brand has developed its interaction with the consumer, created a number of key touchpoints and brought to life the brand’s values and identity. The winner will be able to demonstrate the tangible benefits for the brand ideally including business results as well as impressive campaign metrics.

Examples can include but are not limited to; pop-ups, brand activations, live performances, product sampling, immersive installations, festivals, community events, stunts, guerrilla marketing, projections, ambient media, digital simulations and virtual events

The winner of this category will demonstrate the most successful multi-channel campaign and must have combined two or more platforms offline and online, such as: mobile, OOH, social media, TV, cinema, digital, radio, print or other.

Entries should detail a clear strategic thread connecting all touchpoints and showcase how the chosen platforms integrated to create a cohesive and engaging brand activation. Judges will be looking for a well-defined rationale behind platform selection and evidence that each format contributed distinct value to achieving outstanding results against the campaign’s objectives.

Please note: Campaigns may be purely digital, purely traditional, or a hybrid of both — but must demonstrate a truly multi-channel approach and clear integration across all touchpoints.

This category is reserved for campaigns created for local brands- those specific to a community, country, or region within APAC. Entries should demonstrate how the campaign was carefully tailored to resonate with a local audience, incorporating cultural understanding and nuance to drive meaningful engagement.

Judges will be looking for strong strategic and creative execution supported by relevant media choices, and for measurable results such as improved brand perception, increased local engagement, and uplift in sales or market share.

This category is open to campaigns which have strategically tapped into the world of music, to deliver or surpass client objectives

This could be campaigns that have curated musical experiences, are focused on, or incorporated the use of a licensed, or original pieces of music, as well as collaborations with music acts/artists or organisations such as, but not limited to, music publishers, licensors or distributors, record labels and music streaming platforms.

Judges will be looking for an authentic connection between the music and the brand, and how music has been leveraged to communicate and resonate with consumers, while generating awareness, product or service uplift and key amplification to current and potential customers.

This award recognises campaigns built on strong strategic partnerships between two or more parties, including but not exclusively an agency, media owner, brand or ad technology owner.

The partnership could be a sustained long-term partnership, or a one-off collaboration, but should have been integral to the success of the campaign. Entries should demonstrate shared vision, mutual value and seamless execution in how the partnership was formed and delivered. Judges will pay special attention to rewarding innovation in the implementation of the partnership.

This category is open to campaigns that have tactically responded to the cultural, environmental, economic, social, political, health or community landscape in a creative and resourceful way. Judges will look for brands who have developed their campaign strategy - short and long term - in reaction to the changes within the environments and adapted their media and marketing strategies to deliver the best possible results.

Winning entries should be able to demonstrate how and why the brand has responded to the topic in focus. Judges will be looking for clear insight and an authentic brand connection to the issue at hand.

Examples include, but are not limited to, campaigns responding to topics such as: inclusion & diversity, extreme weather conditions, environmental issues, conflict or war, political elections or policies, consumer trends, viral movements, cultural shifts, news stories, crisis, public affairs and healthcare issues from pandemics to viral infections.

The winner in this category will demonstrate the best use of data and reflect the achievement of effectively reaching consumers where the successful campaign has been notably enhanced or even made possible through learning gained from econometrics and insights. Campaigns can be from social media to e-commerce as long as they have data at their heart.

Judges will be looking at how data has been used to inform the campaigns and apply pivot strategies to adapt and evolve the overall delivery of the work when needed during the execution. The winning entry should demonstrate the best use of all data insights, which has ultimately improved results, as evidenced by metrics including purchase intent, attention, brand consideration, increases in the average order value, a reduction in online CPA or increase in ROI. Pre- and post-campaign statistics will be another useful benchmark for judges.

Example could include but are not limited to: Music based activations analysing and utilising listening data to present an engagement campaign personalised to specific users, or a pharma/health-based campaign using consumer data to locate key audience figures to partner with to promote a health cause.

This category is open to any marketing initiative where gaming has been the focal point of the campaign’s strategy and successfully used the medium to increase results for the client’s brand. This could include utilising both gaming and esports communities, partnerships with organisations in this space or games publishers. This could also include gamification campaigns created by brands to reach a specific audiences.

Judges will be looking at how the brand has engaged with the esports or games/gaming organisations and generated key resonation with its products or services to the right audience, and with the innovation of the partnership activation.

Examples could include but are not limited to: The use of: esports teams, companies, events and tournaments. Gaming/streaming platforms. Gamification initiatives and apps. Virtual realities or experiences, wearable tech, the metaverse and all other emerging platforms. Single or multi-player video games, arcade, console, mobile and other offline/online gaming experiences.

This category is open to campaigns that have successfully engaged with their customers utilising real-time information. The strategy may be planned, or be more spontaneous/reactionary, so long as the entry showcases how the brand created relevant messaging and reacted with audiences in real-time by responding to current data, trends, news or events.

Judges will be looking for how the time-sensitive content, amplified interaction with their audiences, drove brand awareness, increased conversion, and enhanced the brand’s image.

The range of real-time work judges will consider but is not limited to: marketing automation such as triggered emails, response to timely news, trends or events, engaging with customers on social media, personalised digital content based on interactions, live event promotion, Live-streaming or location-based deals through emails or apps. Platforms could include Twitter, Snap, WeChat, OOH, Tik Tok, digital displays, or Facebook for example.

This category will reward the campaign that has best leveraged a strategic partnership between the brand and talent(s) as a key element, or the entirety of its activation.

The talent may be a celebrity, sports star, industry figure, social media influencer, brand ambassador, community leader or other notable character (real or fictional) who has effectively connected with audiences and directly tapped into their own following to benefit the brand.

The activation may be part of a planned campaign using the talent or used more spontaneously in real-time marketing, but judges will look for authenticity between talent and brand.

This category has been created to celebrate media campaigns, which have used sport as a vital component of their strategies to drive results, resonate with consumers and communicate the client’s key messaging. This could include working or partnering with sports- teams, organisations, communities, and associations within any sport, amateur to professional around the globe, or an activation at a sports event – local, regional, or global – which allows key touchpoints for the client’s target audiences and is part of an overall media strategy.

Judges will be looking at the results the association with sport has achieved, how it met and surpassed the client’s objectives and used sport as a key communicational tool.

Examples could include but are not limited to:

• Innovative sponsorship activations at sporting events like the AFC Asian Cup, ICC Cricket World Cup, Rugby World Cup, Australian Open, Indian Premier League (IPL), or Olympics.
• Partnerships with sports venues such as Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), Eden Park, Singapore Sports Hub, Saitama Super Arena, or Dubai International Stadium.
• Campaigns incorporating work with sports teams, clubs or organisations- such as the IOC, F1, FIFA, APL, All Blacks, Mumbai Indians, Sydney Swans, Chennai Super Kings, Japan Football Association, or the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI).

This category has been curated to celebrate ground-breaking creativity within the media industry. Entries should demonstrate how their campaigns have been propelled to new heights, whether that be through innovative ideas, clever use of existing media channels, as well as the creation of new communication methods, or a game changing strategy.

Judges will be looking out for cut-through or pioneering campaigns, that skilfully navigate but also transcend the media landscape.

Please note whilst results will play a role in the judging of this award, the jury will be focused on the creative idea, concept or innovation.

This category focuses on the measurable return on investment (ROI) delivered for the client. Results will play a significant role in the evaluation of campaigns and should demonstrate compelling evidence of direct impact on business performance, particularly in areas such as sales growth, brand awareness, and market share. Positive uplift against core business objectives, rather than campaign-specific metrics alone, will be highly regarded.

Judges will take into account the scale, ambition and complexity of the holistic campaign as well as the challenges faced, when evaluating performance.

This category is open to all campaigns, whether consumer-focused or B2B.

This category will allow a two-year eligibility period, with campaigns that ran between 1 October 2022 and 30 November 2024 eligible for entry.