Henry Innis has won the coveted Leadership Award at Mediaweek‘s 2024 Next of the Best Awards. Robert Irwin, Celia Garforth, Brittany Banfield, and SCA’s Jimmy and Nath were also among the winners, announced at an awards ceremony held at the Ivy Ballroom in Sydney.
The awards night, hosted by KIISFM’s Mitch Churi, celebrated the advertising, media, and marketing industry’s leaders of today and tomorrow.
Innis, the co-founder and global chief executive at Mutinex, took to the stage to accept the Leadership Award, saying: “I just want to thank everybody in this industry, my team, who are the most fucking intelligent, amazing people to work with ever, and the entire industry, including clients, agencies, publishers, and all of you guys who have gotten behind us.
“You’ve made my dream come true, and I hope we can change the world of marketing effectiveness together.”
I’m A Celebrity… Get Me Out of Here host Robert Irwin celebrated his first win as co-host of the 10 reality TV show, taking home the trophy for On-Screen Content – Talent.
SCA bagged the most awards of the evening with three gongs, including Jimmy and Nath winning the Audio Talent category, Leon Sjogren taking home Audio Producer, and Brittany Banfield, the marketing director at LiSTNR, taking out the Marketing – Media Company category.
Atomic 212º also had an impressive haul, with general manager of media technology Tom Sheppard winning the Data and Research category, and national managing director, Rory Heffernan, being crowned the winner of New Business Growth.
The Change Maker Award went to Tiff Ng, founder and chief storyteller at The Social Story.
Special Australia’s head of strategy, Celia Garforth won in the Creative Agencies category, while the Media Agency winners included OMD’s Nicholas Chin, and Today the Brave’s Jacqui Capel representing indie media agencies.
The Culture Award went to Emily Cook, general manager of dentsu Queensland.
The Think News Brands Award for the Best Use of News Publishing went to Nathan Livingston, Brittany Daniel and the News Corp team for the Samsung Z Series campaign.
Trent Thomas, Mediaweek publisher and managing director, said: “The Next of the Best Awards is a special event for Mediaweek because it recognises and supports the amazing work done by the people who will be driving the media industry forward both now and into the future.
“These winners were recognised by the most prestigious judges in media, and their accomplishments couldn’t deserve to be more celebrated. We are very proud to provide a platform to do that.”
Brittney Rigby, Mediaweek editor, added: “Good people deserve to be recognised, and I’m very excited to recognise this crop of the industry’s Next of the Best. A big congratulations to our winners and finalists, and thank you to our incredible panel of judges, who put so much time and effort into the difficult job of picking just one winner for each category.”
Mediaweek’s Next of the Best Awards was supported by platinum sponsors News Corp, Think News Brands, and Blis, while the award show’s gold sponsors included Vevo, NBCUniversal, Meltwater, Pinterest, The Brag, TrinityP3, and Sound Story.
The full list of Mediaweek‘s Next of the Best winners (bolded):
Leadership
Henry Innis, Mutinex
Toby Aldred, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and The Neighbourhood
Kate Blakeley, ARN
Erin Hudson, PHD
James Lambert, GroupM
Joshua Lee, Zenith
Jaimes Leggett, Today the Brave
John McNerney, Yahoo
Brad Palmer, JCDecaux
Davor Vilusic, carsales
Ad Tech
Andie Potter, PHD
Janette Higginson, Index Exchange
Surbhi Mishra, oOh!media
Taylor Svarc, OMD
James Vongdara, Paramount
Audio Talent
Jimmy and Nath, SCA
George Sargent, SCA
Leigh Livingstone, Popcorn Podcast
Nicola Dale and Di Edwards, Over the back fence – with Di and Nicola
Sean Brown, SCA
Audio Producer
Leon Sjogren, SCA
Jenna Benson, ARN
Luca Gonano, Nine Radio
Lindsey Green, SCA
Ashleigh Smith, SCA
Changemaker
Tiff Ng, The Social Story
Ellie Angel-Mobbs, SCA
Poppy Reid, The Brag Media
Emma Watkins, Emma Memma Films
Sarah Young, oOh!media
Creative Agencies
Celia Garforth, Special Australia
Toby Aldred, Saatchi & Saatchi Australia and The Neighbourhood
Psembi Kinstan, DDB Group Melbourne
Jaimes Leggett, Today the Brave
Jade Manning and Vince Osmond, Today the Brave
Culture Award
Emily Cook, Dentsu
Andrew Harris, UM
Enrico Resuta, News Corp Australia
Jessica Winch, essenceMediacom
Data and Research
Tom Sheppard, Atomic 212
Stefania Accardo, News Corp Australia
John Cochrane, VMO
Tara Coverdale, oOh!media
Dan Krigstein, News Corp Australia
Digital Video – Talent
Esme Louise James
Dr Matt Agnew
Karla Paniagua Coutinho
Anthony Farah
Justin Hill
Marketing – Brands
Harry McGregor, Asahi
Rosie Fay, Lion
Antonia Icaza, Advisible
Jessie Petterd, iSelect
Natascha Rey-Barry, NBCUniversal
Marketing – Media
Brittany Banfield, SCA
Marcus Billingham-Yuen, News Corp Australia
Rosalinde Czysnok, News Corp Australia
Claudine Hall and Joyce Li, Are Media
Holly Moody, Val Morgan
Media Agency – All Agencies
Nicholas Chin, OMD
Justin Arlt, Wavemaker
Sarah Heitkamp, Zenith
Cameron Law, dentsu
Sophie Price, essenceMediacom
Media Agency – Independent
Jacqui Capel, Today the Brave
Rory Heffernan, Atomic 212
Euan Macdonald, Half Dome
Jonathan Mandel, Bolster Group
Annie Marendaz, The Media Store
New Business Growth – Agency
Rory Heffernan, Atomic 212
Emilia Ball, Dentsu
James Lambert, GroupM
Adam Steward, Hatched
Celia Wallace, Today the Brave
On Screen Content – Talent
Robert Irwin, Paramount
Michael Genovese, Nine
Ursula Heger, Paramount
Hannah Sinclair, Nine
Georgie Tunny, Paramount
On Screen Content – Producer
Keeshia Pettit, Life Uncut
Rachael Brand, Paramount
Ashley Carter, Nine
Chris Perry, Fremantle/ Eureka
Caro Wallace, Paramount
PR
Brittany Stack, Seven
Tess Fisher, Paramount
Jonelle Lawrence, Clear Hayes
Hayley O’Connell, Paramount
Julie Wright, Anchor & Co
Publishing
Scott Purcell, Man of Many
Sohan Judge, Val Morgan Digital
Laura Masia, Pedestrian Group
Erina Starkey, News Corp Australia
Salesperson
Tim O’Connor, Vevo
Marissa Duque, Paramount
Christopher Fifer, Seven
Lisa Marie Lavocah, Mamamia
Sophie Monaco, Paramount
Social Media Specialists
Kieran Simpson, Paramount / Roving Enterprises
Jenna Benson, ARN
Patrick Effeney, Nine
Georgina Harris, Endemol Shine
Joshua Summers, Warner Bros
Best Use of News Publishing
Samsung Z Series phone – Nathan Livingston and Brittany Daniel, News Corp Australia
True North – Lucia Ordenes Sanchez, News Corp Australia
The AFR, About Time Watch Fair (ATWF) 2023 – Nine Publishing
High Flyer – Amanda Upton, Nine