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Initiative take home Media Agency of the Year while Thinkerbell win Creative at the Mumbrella Awards 2021

The 2021 Mumbrella Awards saw big wins for Initiative and Thinkerbell in a free-to-attend ceremony held live online this afternoon.

Hosted by TV and radio personality Merrick Watts, over 30 awards were awarded to the best talent in Australia and New Zealand’s marketing, advertising, media, production, PR and communications industries.

Thinkerbell won the coveted Creative Agency of the Year and also took home Full Service Agency of the Year and PR Agency of the Year with the team also scoring a highly commended nod for Independent Agency of the Year.

In addition, IPG Mediabrands agency Initiative won its first Mumbrella Media Agency of the Year Award.

Special Group also managed to score well in the Mumbrella Awards. In addition to winning Independent Agency of the Year, Special Australia’s work on the ‘Meddle in the New Zealand Election’ campaign received two awards (Social Idea of the Year and Mumbrella Award for Insight).

It also earned a nod for its work for Uber Eats in Best of Real-Time Marketing, and a highly commended for Creative Agency of the Year.

Following the win for Media Agency of the Year, Initiative Australia CEO Melissa Fein called it “a highlight after a very tough year. This is a phenomenal moment after a few hard years of work – (the team) are brilliant individuals and we love working with each other each day.”

Jim Ingram, founder of Thinkerbell, referred to the team’s win of Creative Agency of the Year as “a huge honour. We’re still a new agency, four years into the industry. It’s not easy, it’s a tough slog, high pressure, but this is a shock to win and we couldn’t be happier. I can’t tell you what this will do for the morale of the team.”

See the full list of winners below.

  • Social Idea of the Year

Winner: Meddle in the New Zealand Election – Special with Sweetshop and Poem for Every Kiwi Vote Counts

  • Mumbrella Award for Bravery

Winner: Senior Constable Laurie Fox – MCCANN + HERO for Victoria Police

HC: Absolut. Pride Relay – Initiative with Pedestrian Group + The Bravery + Clemenger BBDO for Absolut

  • Mumbrella Award for Culture

Winner: BMF

HC: Ogilvy Australia

  • Mumbrella Award for Insight

Winner: Meddle in the New Zealand Election – Special with Sweetshop and Poem for Every Kiwi Vote Counts

HC: Senior Constable Laurie Fox – MCANN + HERO for Victoria Police

  • Mumbrella Award for Innovation

Winner: Slow Down Songs – Brother & Co for Australian Road Safety Foundation

HC: Senior Constable Laurie Fox – MCCANN + HERO for Victoria Police

  • Mumbrella Award for Data – Driven Marketing

Winner: Using Historical Purchase Trends to Predict & Influence Consumer Purchasing Behaviour – Murmur for Western Sydney Wanderers

  • Mumbrella Award for Collaboration

Winner: Live From Aus – Digitas with UM, Reprise, opr Agency, M&C Saatchi, Channel Ten, Prodigious, BE Productions, Centr, Sounds Australia, The Wiggles, Currumbin Wildlife Sanctuary, Citizens of the Great Barrier Reef, Mona, Questacon, Unico Zelo, Lark Distillery, Elements of Byron, ONA Coffee, Bay of Fires Lodge, d’Arenburg, Exceptional Kangaroo Island, Sydney Opera House, Three Blue Ducks, The Kangaroo Sanctuary for Tourism Australia

  • Mumbrella Award for Sustainable Practices

Winner: Peppermint Magazine

HC: Fuller Brand Communication

  • Marketing Team of the Year

Winner: Tourism New Zealand

HC: NRMA Insurance, part of IAG

  • Sales Team of the Year

Winner: Pedestrian Group

HC: Snap Australia

  • Marketing Technology Company of the Year

Winner: Veridooh

HC: TrafficGuard

  • Content Marketing Strategy of the Year

Winner: Sloways – CHE Proximity with Revolver, Heckler, Rumble Studios, Thinkerbell, Mindshare for Insurance Australia Group (IAG) – NRMA Insurance

HC: PLAYNZ – TBWA Sydney for Tourism New Zealand

  • Best Use of User Experience

Winner: Find your Career Crush – Torrens University Australia with SomeOne, VCCP & Lash Creative

  • Best Use of Real-Time Marketing

Winner: Tonight I’ll Be Eating for Love – Special Australia with Mediacom and R/GA for Uber Eats

  • Under-30 Achiever of the Year

Winner: Jaimee Lupton, Co-founder, MONDAY Haircare

HC: Chris Murphy, Senior Account Director, The Hallway

HC: Matt Travers, Director, Sunny Digital

  • Industry Leader of the Year

Winner: Chris Freel, CEO, UnLtd

HC: Ben Lilley, Founder, HERO

  • Production Company of the Year.

Winner: Revolver

  • Best Use of Experiential Marketing

Winner: Left Unfinished – TABOO with Unbnd for Transport Accident Commission (TAC)

HC: The Undoing – Thinkerbell for Streamotion/Binge

  • Pro Bono Campaign of the Year

Winner: No Home Address – Ogilvy Sydney for Whitelion

HC: When will she be right? – The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive for UN Women Australia

  • TV Ad of the Year

Winner: Make Lamb, Not Walls – The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive for Meat & Livestock Australia

  • Media Campaign of the Year

Winner: Borat grabs Australia by the Balls – Rufus powered by Initiative with Rizer, The Comms Department, Hype Republic, Event 11, Ben Howling, The Artem Collective, Andy Green Images for Amazon Prime Video

HC: Pitvertising – Clemenger BBDO Sydney for Rexona

  • Ad Campaign of the Year

Winner: Make Lamb, Not Walls – The Monkeys, part of Accenture Interactive for Meat & Livestock Australia

HC: Proudly Ordinary – 72andSunny for Lion / Tooheys Extra Dry

  • Media Brand of the Year

Winner: Urban List

  • Full Service Agency of the Year

Winner: Thinkerbell

  • PR Agency of the Year

Winner: Thinkerbell

HC: Eleven

  • Specialist Agency of the Year

Winner: Digitas

HC: Jack Nimble

  • Emerging Agency of the Year

Winner: Akcelo

  • Promo or Experiential Agency of the Year

Winner: Traffik

  • Independent Agency of the Year

Winner: Special Australia

HC: Thinkerbell

  • Media Agency of the Year

Winner: Initiative

HC: OMD Australia

  • Creative Agency of the Year

Winner: Thinkerbell

HC: Special Australia

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