Entries open for 2025 NGEN Award

Entries have opened for the 2025 NGEN Award.

The NGEN Award, now in its 15th year, is a unique category of the MFA Awards for media professionals with less than five years of experience.

It's launchpad for the industry’s up-and-coming talent to make a genuine impact, flex their strategic and creative muscles, and gain career-defining experience and gives emerging media talent the chance to tackle a real brief from a real charity and potentially turn it into a real campaign seen across Australia.

This year’s brief comes from Share the Dignity, a charity dedicated to helping women, girls and people who menstruate who are experiencing or are at risk of homelessness, domestic violence or poverty.

Shortlisted teams will be invited to NGEN Award Day on 27 August – a live pitch session where they’ll present their ideas to a judging panel comprised of MFA Board directors and senior industry leaders. The experience offers invaluable feedback in presenting and thinking on your feet – a must for any future leader in media.

A free strategy and NGEN Award Kick-Off Webinar is being held on Thursday 12 June, at 10am AEST, on the MFA website to help entrants decode the brief, uncover insights and build a solid strategic response.

Previous NGEN Award winning entries have gone on to become actual campaigns, such as 2022 winners Ben Breden and Olivia Coxon from Initiative, who transformed their idea into a national fundraising campaign for youth mental health charity batyr, supported by 19 media partners and $1.3 million in donated media.

Melanie Aslanidis, Head of NGEN, said: “The NGEN Award offers emerging media talent a rare opportunity to respond to a real brief and gain exposure to senior industry leaders. It’s about building strategic capability, sharpening presentation skills and accelerating career growth – all while contributing to a meaningful change for a worthy cause.”

To be eligible, entrants must be registered NGEN members with less than five years’ experience.

Key NGEN Award dates:

• Today, 11 June: NGEN Award Entries Open
• 12 June: Strategy & NGEN Award Kick-Off Webinar, 10am AEST
• 23 July: Entries Close
• 26 August: Shortlisted teams notified by phone that they’ve made it through to the Live Round
• 27 August: NGEN Award Day – live presentations to judges
• 18 September: Winners announced at the MFA Awards gala event, Randwick Racecourse, Sydney

The 2025 MFA Awards sponsors are:

Grand Prix: Seven
Platinum: Meta, Outdoor Media Association, SBS
Gold: Ad Standards, News Corp Australia, OzTAM, Pinterest, YouTube
Silver: Foxtel Media, Nielsen

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