06 Mar 2024 | The Media Leader Staff

Adwanted Media Research Awards 2024: Global takes Grand Prix

Global picking up its Grand Prix (Credit: Hannah Taylor, The Lens Box)

Global’s research project, “Powering Up: Using 3rd and 1st Party Data to Optimise Global’s Planning Framework”, has won the Grand Prix at the 2024 Adwanted Media Research Awards.

Hosted by Adwanted Connected, the awards recognise the organisations and people driving innovation and development in UK media research. The ceremony took place in London on Wednesday afternoon.

This year, the awards had 17 categories, with Global taking home another gong for “Powering Up” in Best Use of 1^st Party or 3^rd Party Data, as well as Best Custom Media Research Project – Media Owner for its LBC work.

In addition, Thinkbox landed three trophies — two for its “BVOD Almighty” project and one for Media Owner/Trade Body of the Year.

Other winners include Wavemaker, Vodafone, Ipsos, Channel 4, MTM, Digital Cinema Media, the7stars, Differentology and Tapestry Research.

There were six highly commended submissions among the shortlisted entrants.

The judging was chaired by Belinda Beeftink, research director at the IPA.

Beeftink was joined by Denise Turner, CEO at Route; Julia Ayling, head of research and insights at Mindshare; Laura Rowe, managing partner and head of decision science at OMD UK; Jo Rigby, head of growth and marketing at Mediahub UK; Steve Murfet, head of insight at Sky; Parveen Bdesha, independent consultant and former director of insight and audience measurement at News UK; Danny Russell from Russell Consulting; Donna Burns, head of insight at Radiocentre; Sarah Gale, director of research and insight at Global; and Omar Oakes, editor-in-chief of The Media Leader.

See the full list of winners below along with our judges’ comments.

Best Custom Media Research Project (Trade Body)

WINNER: Thinkbox, Acacia Avenue, PwC, EssenceMediacom, Gain Theory, Wavemaker, Mindshare, ITV, Channel 4 and Sky — “BVOD Almighty”

“This was a really great example of collaboration using several different partners in their solutions — no mean feat. There was clear evidence of impact and positive results,” said Beeftink.

Shortlisted: Radiocentre and Differentology — “Generation Audio: Why Commercial Audio is Growing and How advertisers can Benefit”
Shortlisted: Thinkbox — “Cracking Creativity”

Best Custom Media Research Project (Media Owner)

WINNER: Global — “Sharing Global’s Best Kept Secret. Launching a Modern Media Phenomenon Using an Insight-Led Approach”

Judges commented that the “very well-written” submission told the story of how Global “transformed the commercial appeal” of the 50-year-old LBC brand through a multifaceted programme of research approaches and explained why agencies should add LBC to their media plans.

Shortlisted: Reach and CultureStudio — “Britain: A Society of Communities”
Shortlisted: ViewersLogic and ITV — “The Hidden Value of Peak”

Best Custom Media Research Project (Agency)

WINNER: Wavemaker — “Eco-Effectiveness: Breaking the Trade-Off”

Murfet said: “This is an innovative solution that puts a key issue at the heart of plans. It demonstrates that plans can win on emissions and outcomes, whilst the client is given transparency and options.”

Shortlisted: Dentsu and Vodafone — “Vodafone Pathways”
Shortlisted: On Device Research and Wavemaker — “Unmasking Ageism: Exploring the Impact of Age Bias in Social Media Advertising”

Best Custom Media Research Project: Supporting Diversity in Media and Advertising

WINNER: Vodafone and CreativeX — “Vodafone, Representation Measurement”

Gale said: “The ‘Representation Measurement’ project uses a truly innovative AI approach to evaluate advertising creative and provide a robust understanding of diversity across this creative. The judges were particularly impressed with the impact of results on creative strategy moving forwards.”

Shortlisted: Channel 4, Clear Channel, Backlight and The Good Side — “Black Owned Businesses: The UK’s Untapped Business Potential”
Shortlisted: OMD UK — “The Real Britain Series”

Best Media Research Tracking or Syndicated Project

WINNER: Ipsos — “Ipsos Iris for UKOM”

Russell remarked: “Trust, transparency and objectivity in the measurement of consumption across PCs, tablets and smartphones, across a wide array of audiences, is vital. The judges were impressed with the innovative solutions deployed to enhance the Ipsos Iris solution, as well as getting the team (which spans over 60 people including data scientists, engineers, analysts, domain knowledge experts and commercial) to work so collaboratively.”

Highly commended: Mindshare — “Reality Check: Consumer Behaviour in a Multi-Crisis World”
Shortlisted: Colourtext and ITV — “Sponsorship 3D”

Best Use of 1st Party or 3rd Party Data

Sponsored by Dynata

WINNER: Global — “Powering Up: Using 3rd and 1st Party Data to Optimise Global’s Planning Framework”

“This was a great solution to a business challenge,” Beeftink observed. “The solution allowed non-research salespeople to quickly upskill, allowing them to sell across both outdoor and audio, and also made the most of existing data sets without reinventing the wheel.”

Shortlisted: Mail Metro Media — “dmg::ID”
Shortlisted: Mindshare — “Unifying Datasets with Geo”

Best International Media Research Project

WINNER: AMPD Research and RealityMine — “TikTok Unraveled: Perceptions vs Reality”

“TikTok’s popularity is clearly felt across the world, but perhaps not well understood when comparing different markets, and the judges were excited by the challenge set. The judges particularly liked that this entry’s results featured a combination of expert and consumer views about the platform,” Oakes said.

Highly commended: Google, MTM and The Behavioural Architects — “Why We Watch”
Shortlisted: Tapestry Research and Spotify — “Sound Decisions”

Pulse of the Nation

Sponsored by Toluna

WINNER: Channel 4 and Craft — “Beyond Z: The Truth about British Youth”

Rigby said: “The media industry is unbeaten in mythologising and mispresenting the newest generation. Thank goodness for Channel 4 for being consistently brilliant at telling us the truth.”

Shortlisted: Mindshare — “Accidentally Sustainable”

The Adrian Edwards Award for Best Use of Datasets

In partnership with Barb

WINNER: Thinkbox and PwC — “BVOD Almighty”

Turner said: “Wrangling multiple datasets into order is not easy at all and definitely not for the faint-hearted. The results from this particular wrangling delivered very practical tactics for BVOD planning to maximise and ultimately prove effectiveness. Moreover, it was an impressive feat of collaboration from the industry that should not be underestimated.”

Shortlisted: EssenceMediacom — “Ikea ‘Trust Recipe’ — Evaluating the Drivers of Trust and Measuring the Impact of Paid, Owned and Earned Media”
Shortlisted: Global — “Leveraging the Power of Industry Datasets to Drive Planning at Global”

Best Representation of Data

WINNER: Vodafone, Percept and Dentsu — “Vodafone Media Wizard”

Bdesha commented: “The pulling together of disparate sources of data, breaking down data silos across the organisation and giving different functional stakeholders across the organisation a single version of the truth is impressive in terms of its scale and ambition. The tool created not only connects relevant datasets but is easy to navigate and has clear outputs. It has been adopted across the global organisation due to its ease of use and access to real-time data and, as a result, has helped to embed culture change across the business.”

Highly commended: Mail Metro Media — “dmg::ID – Trends”
Shortlisted: Colourtext and Reach — “Reimagining Creative Effectiveness: The Reach Invention Databank”

Research Effectiveness Award — Budgets over £50,000

WINNER: MTM and Channel 4 — “Demonstrating the Value of First Party Data in Advertising”

“This highly collaborative project not only produced excellent research results but had several other demonstrable benefits — stimulated new conversations between the 4Sales team and advertisers, increased the number of (and revenues from) BRANDM4TCH campaigns and improved cost-effectiveness,” said Russell.

Highly commended: Hearts & Science — “Fit for Purpose: Peloton’s Measurement Mindset”

Research Effectiveness Award — Budgets under £50,000

WINNER: Digital Cinema Media — “Centre of Attention”

Rowe remarked: “’Centre of Attention’ is a great use of research investment. It demonstrates that DCM are listening to brands and agencies and gives them common currency with which to justify their place on media plans.”

Shortlisted: JCDecaux — “Maximising Mail Measurability”

Media Agency of the Year

Sponsored by Kantar Media

WINNER: the7stars

“The7stars’ insight team have had a cracking year, growing the team, innovating and creating new capabilities, carrying out an eye-watering number of projects and increasing revenue for the agency,” Turner said. “There were a number of notable projects that gained wider industry recognition. The judges were particularly impressed by the clear sense of team and the celebration of the success of individual team members.”

Highly commended: OMD UK
Shortlisted: Wavemaker

Media Owner/Trade Body of the Year

Sponsored by On Device Research

WINNER: Thinkbox

Rowe commented: “The dedication from Thinkbox to deepening and evolving understanding of TV as the landscape continues to evolves is really impressive. Whether people are new to the industry or seasoned professionals, Thinkbox have relevant and fresh insight that can build knowledge.”

Shortlisted: Global
Shortlisted: Google EMEA Market Insights Team

Research Agency of the Year

WINNER: Differentology

“This agency exhibits a real ‘can do’ attitude. They are focused on delivering commercial success for their clients and go the extra mile for clients, be they large or small. They are excellent storytellers who go beyond the results to deliver real insights and informed opinion, which is something their clients clearly value,” Bdesha said.

“They are also championing better representation, both within their own company — they have closed the gender pay gap, have equal gender representation and have introduced positive policies on menopause and personalised religious holidays — and within the wider industry. Key projects in the last 12 months have focused on driving better understanding and better representation of those who are neurodiverse or have disabilities.”

Shortlisted: Ipsos
Shortlisted: MTM

Rising Star

Sponsored by UKOM

WINNER: Matthew Austin, Tapestry Research

Burns said: “Not only has Matt increased the quality and usability of the data, but it is also estimated that he has saved six hours of work per project. Across 12 months’ worth of projects, that is 900 hours — nearly half a year of work time saved.”