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