KWP+Partners claims hotly contested Campaign Brief WA 2025 Challenger Agency of the Year title

The Challenger Agency of the Year judging this year was the most competitive of any category. What became clear is that there are many strong alternatives to the larger more established agencies in the WA market. This year the Challenger Agency of the Year award goes to KWP+Partners. The agency edged out very strong and impressive submissions from Berlin and Hypnosis. In total 11 agencies submitted for this prestigious award.

In 2024 KWP+Partners didn’t just challenge Western Australia, they challenged South Australia and the Northern Territory too. Because when kwpx bought &Partners, they didn’t just buy the business, they bought into the culture, the creative and the challenger approach.

KWP+Partners exported their ideas and their energy, “Freofying” kwpx’s Darwin and Adelaide offices. They provided the creative guidance the interstate creative teams needed to be their best.

They set new directions for many of their biggest accounts and helped them win some pretty juicy new ones. They inspired the national agency’s emerging business model (divesting from media agency ownership and investing in all things creative).

They didn’t become kwpx; kwpx became KWP+Partners.

The agency’s Adelaide Strategists have conducted top-to-bottom brand reviews for Chicken Treat, Ashley & Martin, RSPCA WA, Uniting WA and WA Police Union and The Kids Research Institute Australia, kick-starting fresh new creative campaigns in the process.

This year, their Fremantle office has helped develop and oversee new long-term creative platforms for their interstate offices: For Adelaide The Hospital Research Foundation Group, Diabetes Australia, Flinders University, Guide Dogs Australia and for Darwin Tourism Northern Territory. With more in the pipeline.

kwpx sold their media offering to Atomic 212 late last year and recently Atomic 212 won the international independent media agency of the year award. That means KWP+Partners have Atomic 212 media expertise sitting, in person, in the Fremantle office.

So far, their media team has reviewed and planned campaigns for RSPCA WA, Uniting WA, WA Police Union and The Kids Research Institute Australia.

The business model at KWP+Partners has never been about growth in staff numbers, but in 2024 the agency has added a few very impressive names.

Georgie Frampton joined as Executive Director after nearly a decade at Rare. Frampton leads the WA office as well as taking a national role driving culture. The highly regarded Zosia Kilpatrick joined as Senior Creative. Carol-Ann Cronin joined as Producer/Project Manager and has become Frampton’s support on all things client-facing. And Jamie Shurdington joined as Media Manager.

Creatively KWP+Partners has enjoyed an outstanding year. They picked up 4 Bronze awards at the 2024 PADC Awards for their beautifully crafted Jack Stillman campaign, Bestads recognition for their outdoor and print campaigns for Uniting WA and an absolute bucketload of glory for their hard-hitting WA Police Union “Cop Enough” campaign.

So far “Cop Enough” has picked up an international LIA Bronze award, a New York Festivals Finalist. The PADC Best of Show – plus 2 Gold and a Silver. WA Police Union client Reney Omar won the PADC ‘Mettle Skull’ and KWP+Partners’ Dav Tabeshfar won the PADC Copywriter of the Year.

To cap it all off, WA Police Union “Cop Enough” has won 3 Best of Year awards at these Campaign Brief WA Awards and was also a strong finalist for the Campaign Brief WA Advertiser of the Year award.

There were two outstanding runner-up agencies:

Berlin
Hypnosis

Finalists were:

AdSocial
Assembly + Co
Bloom Digital
Coffey & Tea
Juicebox
Word of Mouth