• The Media i Awards, recognising media sales excellence, were announced last night at an awards ceremony in Sydney
The APN Outdoor sales team
This year more than 1,760 agency professionals voted across three categories:Voted by peers, the Media i Awards acknowledge the important role media sales representatives play in the continual pursuit of media advertising excellence.
Introduced in 2011, the Media i Awards are the only awards dedicated to recognising the contribution of media owners.
• National Sales Team of the Year;
• Sales Team of the Year by Market (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia & South Australia); and
• Sales Person of the Year by Category by Market (NSW, Victoria, Queensland, Western Australia & South Australia)
The awards were held in a packed Ivy Ballroom with 600 thirsty media sales executives and media agency executives from all around Australia cheering on every time one of their colleagues or their companies cracked a mention.
Charles Parry-Okeden, CEO Media i, spoke at the ceremony of the importance of collaboration between media agencies and media partners.
“These awards not only recognise the professionalism and excellence of sales individuals and teams, but the success they achieved for clients in collaboration with media agencies.
“We are extremely proud of tonight’s event. The response from our finalists has been overwhelming reinforcing the significance of this initiative to sales teams and individuals across the country. We would like to congratulate all of tonight’s winners on their fantastic achievement,” added Chris Winterburn,managing director Media i.
Run by Media i, the awards are sponsored by the Media Federation of Australia (MFA), and supported by category sponsors; Carat, Initiative, IPG Mediabrands, Match, MEC, Posterscope, PHD, Starcom, TMS, UM, Vizeum.
This year’s awards were hotly contested with APN Outdoor the most awarded media company on the night receiving six awards followed by Mi9 with five awards, MCN and Bauer with four each.
APN Outdoor was presented with the National Sales Team of the Year award by MFA CEO Sophie Madden and Peter Horgan, chairman of the Media Federation of Australia and CEO of OMD.
It should be noted that there was a significant change this year to the National Sales Team of the Year award. Finalists and the ultimate winner were determined by the collective sales efforts from each sales team in their operating market rather than it being awarded to one of the state-based sales team winners as per previous years.
The awards highlight of the night was the posthumous award given to Peter Murphy from Pacific Magazines who passed away only recently. The award was accepted by his daughter Faith, who also works for Pacific Magazines, and CEO Peter Zavecz.
Sales Representative of the Year Magazines
WA Vikki Stacy Bauer
SA (The Late) Peter Murphy Pacific Magazines
QLD Sarah Crosdale Bauer
VIC Bethany Hickman Bauer
NSW Melanie Giordano Bauer
Sales Representative of the Year Newspapers
WA Liz Molyneux Fairfax Media
SA Deb Milne News Corp Australia
QLD Tara Duncan News Community Media
VIC Hamish McPhee News Corp Australia
NSW Laura Mason Fairfax Media
Sales Representative of the Year Outdoor/Cinema
WA Phil Dada APN Outdoor
SA Thea Petros APN Outdoor
QLD Louise Nicholls JCDecaux
VIC Brad Montgomery JCDecaux
NSW Debbie Webb APN Outdoor
Sales Representative of the Year Radio
WA Clare Porter Southern Cross Austereo
SA Libby Collison Nova Entertainment
QLD Linda Smith Australian Radio Network
VIC Ben McMillan Nova Entertainment
NSW Rhys Mugdan Australian Radio Network
Sales Representative of the Year Television
WA Laura Condon MCN
SA Linda Anastasiou MCN
QLD Annabel McErlean SBS
VIC Gina Walters MCN
NSW Hayley Treasure Nine
Sales Representative of the Year Digital
WA Gemma White Mi9
SA Troy Sokol Mi9
QLD Jessica Ward Mi9
VIC Michael Sparsi Exponential
NSW Tina Andrew Mi9
2015 Teams Winners List
WA APN Outdoor
SA MCN/TEN
QLD Mi9
VIC APN Outdoor
NSW Nova Entertainment
2015 National Sales Team of the Year
National APN Outdoor