Bear Meets Eagle On Fire crowned Agency of the Year at AWARD; DDB named Agency Network of the Year; Motion Sickness + FINCH win The Grand Award for NZHF; View all the pics of the big night!

August 14 2025, 9:00 pm | BY Ricki Green | No Comments

The winners of the 46th annual AWARD Awards have just been announced tonight, the finale of This Way Up, AWARD’s annual creative festival in Sydney. A total of 36 Gold pencils were awarded across 19 different campaigns, with a further 87 Silver and 177 Bronze pencils awarded. Special Awards were also awarded across 16 categories.

Bear Meets Eagle On Fire was crowned Individual Agency of the Year with eight Gold Pencils across four campaigns including three for Telstra ‘Better on a Better Network’, three for Telstra ‘Silent Films’ and two for Telstra ‘Wherever We Go’. BMEOF also won a staggering 12 Silver Pencils and 18 Bronze Pencils.

DDB was crowned Agency Network of the Year, taking home nine Gold Pencils across five campaigns including DDB Group Aotearoa with a total of six Gold Pencils; four for Goodman Fielder New Zealand ‘Certified Toasters’ and two for Samsung Electronics New Zealand ‘The Worst Children’s Library’. The agency also won 5 Silver Pencils and 2 Bronze Pencils. DDB Group Australia scored three Gold Pencils for Volkswagen ‘RooBadge’, Solid Lines ‘The Forbidden Flagmoji’ and Made By Dyslexia ‘The University of Dyslexic Thinking’. DDB Australia also won 4 Silver Pencils and 5 Bronze Pencils.

The Grand Award was awarded to Motion Sickness and FINCH for NZHF ‘Make New Zealand The Best Place In The World To Have Herpes’, which also collected four Gold Pencils.

Other agency winners on the night included Motion Sickness NZ with 4 Gold Pencils, 3 Silver Pencils and 3 Bronze Pencils; Special Australia with 2 Gold Pencils, 9 Silver Pencils and 11 Bronze Pencils; VML Australia with 2 Gold Pencils, 3 Silver Pencils and 9 Bronze Pencils; It’s Friday with 2 Gold Pencils, 1 Silver Pencil and 3 Bronze Pencils; Clemenger BBDO with 8 Silver Pencils and 14 Bronze Pencils; BMF with 3 Silver Pencils and 10 Bronze Pencils; TBWA\Australia with 4 Silver Pencils and 7 Bronze Pencils; Ogilvy Australia with 4 Silver Pencils and 4 Bronze Pencils; Droga5 ANZ with 3 Silver Pencils and 7 Bronze Pencils; Howatson+Company with 2 Silver Pencils and 4 Bronze Pencils; and TBWA\NZ with 1 Silver Pencil and 3 Bronze Pencils.

Other winners from tonight included Wolf BKK with two Gold Pencils; and Supermassive, TBWA\ Media Arts Lab Australia and Sonar Music with one Gold Pencil apiece.

The Best B2B Campaign, sponsored by LinkedIn, was awarded to Supermassive & FINCH for 36 Months.

FINCH took out the Production Company of the Year title, having been credited on the most awarded entries across the show. Closely followed by Revolver , which took home four Gold Pencils, plus 7 Silver Pencils and 2 Bronze Pencils.

Says Nils Leonard, Founder, Uncommon London and this year’s Jury President: “Sometimes the best work does exactly what it shouldn’t. This work isn’t trying to fit into algorithms; it slices through them, using brash and childlike patter to make an important and grown-up point. The best work does more than answer a brief but becomes a reference point for a time; this stuff has that energy. Irreverent. Unignorable. Important”.

Says AWARD Chair Mandie van der Merwe, CCO, Saatchi & Saatchi: “Congratulations to every gold, silver and bronze winner at this year’s AWARD Awards. You’ve earned serious bragging rights across APAC and probably given your creative rivals a few wounds to lick. Your work didn’t just stand out; it made us lean in, moved us, and inspired action.

“A huge shout-out to our Special Awards winners as well. You’re at the pointy end of creativity, setting the benchmark for the work AWARD champions and celebrations in this part of the world.

“The AWARD Awards remain the most prestigious creative show in our region thanks to our world-class judges. My heartfelt thanks to our jury president, Nils Leonard, our jury chairs, and every judge who gave their time, energy and strong opinions freely, debating vigorously to uphold AWARD’s exacting standards for recognising creative excellence year after year.”