The Media Federation of Australia (MFA) has launched the 2022 MFA Awards, calling on the media industry to submit their best work demonstrating effectiveness, long-term business growth and media agencies’ industry purpose of ‘We Are The Changers’.
This year’s MFA Awards will be celebrated with a black tie gala dinner at Royal Randwick Racecourse in Sydney on 13 October 2022.
The Seven Network has signed on as the Grand Prix Sponsor, marking the 13th consecutive year of sponsoring the category, and comedian Claire Hooper is returning as the host of the awards.
In keeping with the MFA’s newly introduced industry purpose ‘We Are The Changers’, the awards include three new categories this year:
The Marketing Transformation category will recognise media agencies’ work in helping clients transform their marketing practices – and deliver growth – in an ever-evolving landscape, including through martech, commerce and content.
The ESG Award, inviting agencies to demonstrate how media-led ideas or initiatives positively influenced the environment and/or society through sustainability, governance, diversity, equity, or inclusion.
Client Leadership, recognising excellence from client-side teams collaborating with their media agency partners to produce outstanding relationships and a strong, consistent body of work. This category is open to marketers directly or agencies on behalf of their clients.
For the first time, this year entrants will be required to complete a confidential questionnaire for the creation of an MFA Awards Database, providing an industry resource to inform media effectiveness best practice through the MFA’s analysis and reports. The Awards Database is a long-term initiative designed to add value to marketers and agencies for many years to come.
MFA Awards chair Joe Lunn, chief technology and transformation officer at Mindshare Australia, said: “Our industry exists to influence change: for our clients, for society, our agencies and our people. The MFA Awards are THE opportunity for media agencies to demonstrate how our unified purpose of ‘We Are The Changers’ has been brought to life at the highest level.
“It’s about elevating our work across the entire industry and demonstrating the role that media agencies play in generating long-term business growth for our clients, and I’m especially thrilled to be supporting this purpose through the introduction of the MFA Awards Database,” he added.
MFA CEO Sophie Madden said: “The MFA Awards is one of the industry’s most credible awards programs thanks to the rigorous judging process, which includes independent auditing, blind voting and proof of media contribution, with diverse clients from the whole spectrum of our industry: marketers, media agencies, media owners and tech companies.
“We’re excited to be restoring the MFA Awards to their rightful place on our industry’s celebratory calendar, and we look forward to coming together in person in October – for the first time since 2019,” she added.
The MFA Awards, which have been recognising and rewarding media agencies for their impact as The Changers for the past 20+ years, are split into three pillars: Outcomes, Execution and People & Community.
The NGEN Award, designed to develop the skills and recognise the talent of young media executives with less than five years’ experience, is calling on NGENers to respond to a brief for UnLtd charity partner Batyr.
The MFA Awards are open for entry until 13 July, and 15 July for the NGEN Award. Tickets to the awards gala dinner are available on the MFA website.
The 2022 MFA Awards sponsors are:
Grand Prix Sponsor: Seven Network
Platinum Sponsors: News Corp Australia, Nine, Outdoor Media Association, Quantcast, SBS Media
Gold Sponsors: Ad Standards, Foxtel Media, Google, OzTam, SCA, Tik Tok, Paramount, Snap Inc
Silver Sponsors: Clarety, IAB Australia, Lion, Nielsen, Yahoo!