The Campaign Global Agency of the Year Awards awarded OMD in several categories for 2022.
The Media Agency category awarded OMD New Zealand silver and OMD UK bronze in recognition of their incredible achievements throughout the year.
Media Planning Leader was also awarded to MG OMD’s Emma Withington, Managing Partner, Head of Planning, earning this title for a second consecutive year.
Earning this title for a second consecutive year, Emma Withington is a celebrated industry media planning leader. In early 2022, teams within Manning Gottlieb OMD UK were suffering post-pandemic fatigue, and as the agency admits, had “lost their connection to each other after years spent on Teams calls,” Withington reenergised them by creating a “super-planning engine” to power up the agency’s output.
Made up of 25 experts in core skills of planning, strategy, creativity, insight and effectiveness, the Media Craft team aims to deliver a holistic blend of skills, “to inspire, ignite and create industry leading media solutions for our clients that positively impact their business,” Withington says.
According to the Omnicom-owned media shop, this multidiscipline team has been instrumental to MG OMD’s new business success this year, as well as a number of campaigns that have delivered both client success and industry recognition.
Over the past year, Withington led the planning on multiple pitch wins totalling over £200m in billings for some of the UK’s most loved brands, including defending The John Lewis Partnership, and winning the combined Virgin Media and O2 account, for which Withington’s MG OMD team launched the new joint venture with a multi-touchpoint plan that was replanned no less than five times before finally landing in the market. The campaign saw an 8.2point increase in Net Promoter Score for the telco giants.
For Specsavers’ “Should’ve 2.0” Withington’s team deployed even more creative executions of mishap media, where posters were pasted at the wrong angle and where the team convinced ITV and C4 to announce each other’s shows live on air as an intentional mix up. This was underpinned by cross-channel planning and delivered a 13% uplift in sight tests, the agency says.
In addition to this, Withington has created and led a programme of learning, stretching across the core craft of planning skills, application of data and insight via the OMG platform, Omni, connection to the media industry through a weekly forum for media owners, and through themed planning weeks covering topics such as the cost-of-living crisis.
Judges praised Withington’s “confident creative channel planning,” highlighting her “dedication to the craft of media planning” and applauding her “energy and tenacity.”
To read the full list of winners, click here: Campaign Global Agency of the Year Awards 2022: winners revealed (campaignlive.co.uk)
