Mediaweek's Next of The Best Awards in pictures: Winners, Mitch Churi, and a performance from Renee Saunts

Mediaweek celebrated the advertising, media, and marketing industry’s Next of the Best last Thursday, at an awards ceremony held at Sydney's Ivy Ballroom.

The doors swung open to welcome 300 attendees dressed to the nines and representing companies including Paramount, Mutinex, Atomic 212, OMD, The Brag Media, Seven, Dentsu, and many more. The evening kicked off with an Acknowledgement of Country from Tim Bishop.

Mediaweek managing director and publisher Trent Thomas welcomed guests before passing the mic over to KIISFM's Mitch Churi, who was the evening's emcee for the second year running.

Tim Bishop

Trent Thomas

Mitch Churi

Churi cheekily bickered with his rivals Jimmy and Nath from SCA, who won in the Audio Talent category. The radio network also won with Leon Sjogren in the Audio Producer category and Brittany Banfield for Marketing – Media.

Robert Irwin, host of I'm A Celebrity... Get Me Out of Here, sent in a video thanking the judges for awarding him as the winner of the On-Screen Talent category. 

"This is just really meaningful, big thank you to channel 10 for giving me the opportunity to step out and to try something new hosting I'm A Celebrity Get Me Out of Here been the most incredible journey. Wish I could be there with you all but a big congratulations to everyone."

Dentsu QLD, including MD Chris Ernst (second from left), and NOTB winner Emily Cook (far right)

PHD's Andie Potter won the Ad Tech category, Tom Sheppard from Atomic 212° took the win for Data and Research, while the Creative Agencies award went to head of strategy at Special Austalia, Celia Garforth.

Harry McGregor from Asahi was recognised by industry leaders in the Marketing - Brands category, Nicholas Chin from OMD won the Media Agencies - All Agencies, and Today The Brave's Jacqui Capel took out Media Agencies - Independent.

The PR Specialist award went to Seven Network's national publicity manager Brittany Stack, while Social Media Specialist went to Kieran Simpson, head of digital at The Project on Paramount. The Publishing award went to Scott Purcell, co-founder of Man of Many, while the award for New Business Growth - Agencies went to Atomic 212's Rory Heffernan.

Brittany Stack

Jimmy and Nath

Keeshia Pettit with Mitch Churi

Tim O'Connor

Emily Cook

Rory Heffernan

The Think News Brands Award for the Best Use of News Publishing went to Nathan Livingston, Brittany Daniel and the News Corp team for the Samsung Z Series campaign.

The evening was rounded out with four new awards: Salesperson, won by Tim O'Connor from Vevo, Culture won by Emily Cook from dentsu Queensland, and Changemaker Tiff Ng at The Social Story.

The penultimate award of the night was for Leadership, which went to Mutinex co-founder Henry Innis.

Next of The Best Awards 2024 winners

Renee Saunts

Henry Innis

In his acceptance speech, Innis said: "I just want to thank everybody in this industry, my team, who are the most fucking intelligent, amazing people to work with ever, and the entire industry, including clients, agencies, publishers, and all of you guys who have gotten behind us.

"You’ve made my dream come true, and I hope we can change the world of marketing effectiveness together."

Following the formalities was a performance by drag artist Renee Saunts (aka News Corp sales manager Enrico Resuta), before guests took to the dance floor. 

Read more: Mediaweek Next of the Best winners revealed: Henry Innis, Robert Irwin, Celia Garforth, and more

Renee Saunts

The Paramount team

OMD, including co-CEO Sian Whitnall (second from left) and NOTB winner Nicholas Chin (middle)

Mutinex

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Top image: Mediaweek Next of The Best Awards 2024 winners