Sydney’s Employees Only Bar swapped media plans for cocktail shakers last week as seven agency teams went head-to-head in the annual Blis Golden Shaker – with OMD ultimately walking away with the 2025 crown.
The inter-agency mixology contest, now in its tenth year, drew a packed house of industry peers eager to see which team could mix, shake and garnish their way to bragging rights.
For the first time, seven teams stepped up to compete: PHD, Metropolis, Thump, Spark Foundry, EssenceMediacom and two teams from OMD.
With each group bringing their own flair to the bartop, the evening was equal parts friendly rivalry and serious creativity.
Elias Psarologos, regional director ANZ at Blis, said the 2025 edition was the most inventive yet. “It’s great to see every year we do the Golden Shaker somehow top the previous years for creativity, competition and enthusiasm.
“The teams this year really took it up a notch with their cocktails, creating some amazing drinks to make it a tough decision for our judges to elect a winner. I’m already looking forward to what 2026 has in store and to see if OMD can defend their crown,” he said.
The team from OMD
Winning touches
Among the standout entries was the winning cocktail, which came complete with handwritten notes tucked into fortune cookies perched on each glass.
For Zac Messih, head of marketing APAC at Blis, that level of polish shows how far the competition has come.
“Being able to grow this competition out each year is such a joy. We’ve now hit a record of seven teams competing due to an unprecedented number of teams submitting to compete this year.
“Being able to sit on the judging panel again this year, I can confidently say as the competition grows, so does the quality. This year’s winner inserted handwritten, personalised notes into fortune cookies sitting atop their cocktail, which was unbelievable attention to detail and presentation,” he said.
Launched in 2015, the Golden Shaker has become a staple networking event for media and marketing professionals – part competition, part industry social.
For Blis, it’s also a chance to bring agencies together in a less conventional setting, a natural extension for a company that positions itself as offering “radically different” approaches to data and advertising.