The Media Agency of the Year category was another hotly contested award, and one which produced a high standard of scores and entries and considerable debate. Judges said that the winner, Goodstuff Communications, had ‘a fantastic year across all fronts’, spanning work, growth, its people and innovation, resulting in impactful creative and impressive results.
The agency’s focus in 2021 was on ‘media for the greater good’ leading Goodstuff to prioritise its time and financial resources on things that were going to have the greatest impact on its work and its people. Its growing focus on data, digital and technology helped deliver this thinking. It also launched Greenstuff, making huge strides with regards to its CSR strategy, and bolstered the agency’s mental health support.
It also embraced specialist agency partners to bolster its capabilities, partnering with Silverbullet, a data consultancy, to provide its team with access to scientists and ad tech consultants and has since collaborated more closely with digital specialists for larger clients.
北京赛车pk10s included ‘The Positivity Project’ for Method, a collaboration with Stylist to authentically empower readers, and Caitlin’s Hour, a radio show and driver safety campaign aimed at teen drivers for the AA Charitable Trust.
Goodstuff achieved significant organic growth across 2021, generated from an increased focus on the breadth and services it offers clients, particularly through its enhanced data, digital and technology offering. It also improved its new business conversion rate. On the people front, it forged a partnership with disruptive recruitment specialist, Blue Zebra and is working with them to better understand candidate experience.
Silver: MediaCom
MediaCom’s achievements across 2021 include increased client satisfaction scores and taking major steps towards an even more diverse and inclusive culture; 86% of its people feel they can bring their authentic selves to work and 91% believe the agency is committed to creating an inclusive culture.
北京赛车pk10 highlights across the year include developing the launch strategy for Sky Glass TV, making it the most successful new tech launch of the year and delivering an innovative voice-activated media first for Berocca, maintaining its position as the number one vitamin brand. MediaCom also launched its 250-strong Google practice, a centre of excellence for all MediaCom UK Google specialists. A UK-wide team, led from Manchester, offers clients a one-stop shop to help navigate the Google ecosystem.
Bronze: Zenith UK
In 2021, Zenith retained five out of six incumbent pitches and reported its highest ever client satisfaction scores. It also launched a new product, ‘Right Reach’, to help clients combat long-term reach decline and mitigate hyper inflation. It focused on diversity, hiring more than 50 new entry-level talents from diverse backgrounds. Zenith was one of only a handful of agencies to meet all the IPA’s diversity targets.
Shortlisted:
MediaHub UK
MediaHub grew revenue significantly in 2021 and won a succession of pitches against bigger competitors, increasing its headcount accordingly and investing in a diverse team. Its clients include Farfetch, Twitch, New Balance, Pinterest, Formula-E, Slack, Headspace, Fuji, the NHS, Western Union, AkzoNobel, and Little Moons.
OMD UK
In the last 12 months, OMD UK says it has been operating at the top of its game and puts its continued success down to its collective belief in making every day better than the last, and in seizing every opportunity for evolution and improvement. In 2021, it embraced a spirit of constant reinvention, pushing itself to address new client challenges and finding innovative solutions that often didn’t exist just a year ago.
Initiative
The agency revamped its planning process through Velocity Planning, resulting in smarter and faster ways of working and welcomed clients such as Bupa and NatWest Group, alongside expanding its relationships with existing clients Amazon and Deliveroo. Through its Directors’ Advisory Team, it put decisions about its people in their hands, enabling staff to thrive during challenging times.
Wavemaker UK
In 2021, Wavemaker developed industry-leading products, created market-leading solutions for clients and built a growth culture from the ground up, encouraging its people to challenge themselves. It embedded diversity, equity and inclusion into the way the agency hires and grows talent, and extended this to the way it plans media for its clients.
Havas Media Group
In 2021, the agency demonstrated its expertise across media, content, data science and engineering and propelled actionable change across diversity and sustainability, taking the lead with responsible advertising and impactful thought leadership. It also continued to invest in a diverse workforce, all of which resulted in Havas delivering solid revenues, producing its best-ever client survey and its best performing new business period in history.
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