OmniGov, Manning Gottlieb OMD’s specialist media-buying unit for the UK Government, has won Agency Team of the Year at the Campaign Media Awards 2020.
OmniGov, which has been at the forefront of the government’s messaging to combat coronavirus since March, impressed the judges with its progressive and innovative approach in 2019 when Boris Johnson was preparing Britain to “get ready for Brexit”.
The agency team created new roles in effectiveness and implementational planning, and built a database using past and present government campaign data to create media-channel-level outcome benchmarks across category and campaign type.
It also set up a supply-side platform solution with “end-to-end” transparency for digital media-buying, which has resulted in a larger proportion of money ending up with publishers and supporting the news industry.
“It was a really strong entry with impressive innovation across multiple areas, and significant commercial return,” the judges said.
Manning Gottlieb OMD also won an award for Best Creative Idea for their work on Sony Pictures Jumanji: The Next Level.
Goodstuff Communications took the Grand Prix for “Talk to TalkSport”, a campaign for the Samaritans to combat male suicide, which also won in the Public Sector and Charities category (announced yesterday).
With 94% of men with mental health problems finding helplines useful, but only 1% choosing to call one, the Samaritans wanted to encourage more men to seek help.
The TalkSport collaboration involved presenters talking to leading sporting figures about their personal struggles in a way that could encourage other vulnerable men to speak out.
“It was an amazing execution, going the extra mile by training presenters”, the judges said, in awarding the Grand Prix to Goodstuff for the second year in a row at these awards.
Several other agencies performed strongly, including MediaCom, which picked up five prizes, and Zenith, which collected four.
To see a full list of winners and watch the awards ceremony, visit the Campaign Media Awards website. You can also read case studies about the winning entries on the Campaign website.
The Campaign Media Awards recognise innovation, creativity and strategy in media for work launched in 2019. The judging took place in March, before the coronavirus lockdown, and the results were announced yesterday and today in a virtual ceremony because of the continued need for social distancing.
Rob Pierre, the chair of judges, who is founder and chief executive of digital agency Jellyfish, said this year’s awards assumed greater importance in the light of the Covid-19 crisis.
“It’s undoubtedly been a really tough time for all businesses amid this somewhat chaotic time but I think it’s important to stop, to reflect and to celebrate,” Pierre told the audience at the virtual ceremony.