Engine Group takes out Best of Show at the 2025 BADC Awards for Bravehearts campaign; National Heavy Vehicle Regulator named Client of the Year

Engine Group has taken out Best in Show at the 2025 Brisbane Advertising and Design Club Awards for its campaign ‘Grooming Hides Behind Harmless’ for client Bravehearts at the awards held on Saturday night. National Heavy Vehicle Regulator was named Client of the Year, for their Being Dead is Boring campaign with Khemistry.

From Engine Group’s team led by Mike Fritz and Aiken Hutcheson, Grooming Hides Behind Harmless is a national child sexual abuse prevention campaign focusing on grooming to fruition. Grooming (specifically contact grooming) was chosen as the focal point for the campaign due to it being a preparatory process enacted by offenders in all forms of child sexual abuse. Furthermore, research shows that 79% of child sexual abuse survivors know their abuser, highlighting the vital need for parents and caregivers to be more aware of potential threats close to home.

Sesh Moodley, award-winning creative director from Thinkerbell, chaired the judging panels for the 2025 BADC Awards.

Speaking about Engine Group’s Best in Show campaign, Moodley says: “This piece didn’t behave like advertising. It behaved like the issue itself. It built trust. It held you close. Then it snapped that safety in half. It left audiences changed. It left juries rattled. And it lifted the standard for how cause-based work can move culture.”

The most awarded agency based on the number of medals was Khemistry with one gold, nine silver, and five bronze. They were closely followed by Engine Group with three gold, four silver, and seven bronze, and Alt.vfx with four gold, seven silver, and two bronze.

The most awarded campaign was Grooming Hides Behind Harmless for Engine Group, taking out a total of 14 medals across multiple categories, including Film TV & VOD, Integrated Media, Creative Strategy, Radio, Art Direction, Press Advertising, and Poster. Khemistry’s Being Dead is Boring received 13 medals, and VML Brisbane’s You with RACQ? took home six medals.

Grooming Hides behind Harmless won seven additional medals for production partners, including gold for Leah Purcell for Direction from Taxi Film Production and Oombarra Taxi.

Catie Allen won gold for Direction Branded Content for Surf Abu Dhabi campaign, and Siobhan Mulready, also from Taxi Film Production, took home silver and bronze for Queensland Government’s Coercive Control campaign, completing a successful year by Queensland’s female directors.

Khemistry’s account manager, Wendy Phan, was awarded the Otis Recruitment Rising Star Award for her work on the Being Dead is Boring campaign.

The 2025 BADC Awards were again held at the spectacular The Star Brisbane. The event was a celebration of the region’s top creative talent, showcasing the best in advertising and design work from the past year. The evening was expertly emceed by Ian ‘Dicko’ Dickson with the theme It’s all Swings & Roundabouts! developed by Jessamy Ross and Tyler Russell, which perfectly captured the dynamic nature of the industry – the highs, the lows, and the resilience that keeps the creative spirit alive.

Says Moodley: “It’s been great to be here as the chair of judges, and a big thanks on behalf of all the judges goes to BADC for bringing us all together. To our forty-three judges, I want to say, thank you. Truly. The debates we had were lively. The challenges were real. And the passion in those rooms pushed the work to where it deserved to be. But one thing was very clear in judging. The local work and real Brisbane spirit rose to the top, with proper Queensland pride shining through.”

Alt.vfx signed on earlier this year as platinum sponsor for the 2025 BADC Awards.

A special presentation was made for Person of the Year to BADC’s president Stuart Myerscough for his continued dedication in leading the club as it honours and represents the creative industry in the region.

A Hall of Fame induction was made on the night honouring post-production company Cutting Edge, which went into liquidation this year after 35 years, and helping shape hundreds of high-profile projects across the advertising, film, and TV industries, and mentoring many creatives over that time.

Ron Johanson OAM ACS, who passed away in June, was honoured as a true giant of the industry and a proud member of the BADC Hall of Fame, inducted in 2009. He was a passionate and tireless mentor, known for training and guiding many who went on to become some of the best in the business – not just in the camera department, but across the production industry, from assistants to producers.

BADC president Stuart Myerscough says: “The quality of world-class work once again on display from Brisbane’s creative community in this year’s awards is truly inspiring. Our judging panel had an extremely difficult job to do, and we congratulate all the medallists and finalists on their truly outstanding creative work in what was an outstanding year.”

Leading Australian film production and content group Taxi Film Production was the sponsor of the fabulous After Party.

To view all the work and medals by category and by entrant – go to badc.com.au now.

Image 1: Engine Group’s Mike Fritz accepting the Best in Show award for Grooming Hides Behind Harmless for client, Bravehearts.
Image 2: Judging chair Sesh Moodley (left) from Thinkerbell and BADC president Stuart Myerscough.
Image 3: Best in Show for Engine Group and Taxi. Jill McMahon, producer Taxi Film Production and Oombarra Taxi, with the award for Grooming Hides Behind Harmless. (L to R) Justin Lyons (Taxi+Oombarra), Andrew Wareham (Taxi+Oombarra), Kylie Hewitt (Bravehearts), Tim Weger (Engine Group), Jill McMahon (Taxi+Oombarra), Dianne Grice , Megan Le-Nguyen, Mike Fritz, Saxon Squire, Keriana Salisbury (Engine Group)

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