MFA AWARDS REVEALS NGEN FINALISTS; WINNERS ANNOUNCED AT AWARDS GALA ON OCTOBER 17

Judges for the MFA Awards have selected five finalists in the NGEN category, with the winner to be celebrated at a gala presentation on 17 October.

The NGEN Award is one of 16 entered categories at this year’s MFA Awards and is designed to develop the skills and recognise the talent of young media agency executives with less than five years’ experience. The MFA Awards charity partner UnLtd nominated BackTrack as the 2019 charity.

Entrants were asked to respond to a brief calling for an FY20 communications plan to increase the total value of donations to BackTrack, in order to fund the expansion of the BackTrack model into new markets, including regional areas Australia-wide.

BackTrack is a not-for-profit organisation helping kids who are doing it tough to get back on track. The young people BackTrack works with are mostly from rural areas and aged between 12 and 18, facing challenges in education, health, justice, housing and employment. They’re the 5% of kids that society has given up on. BackTrack’s aim is to keep them alive, keep them out of jail, and help them chase their hopes and dreams.

The 2019 NGEN Awards finalists are:
• Bradley Easton and Joshua Hogg, Initiative Media – Ruff Pups
• Emily France and Kirsten Nicola, The Media Store – Welding Hearts
• Maddison Croker and Sarah Ford, News Corp Australia – BackTrack Response
• Nolan Yu and Max Learmont, OMD – Walk A Mile in Their Boots
• Sophie Liu, Spark Foundry – BackTrack Guides

Says Sophie Madden, CEO, MFA: “The judges were blown away by the talent and insights displayed in the NGEN entries, all of which demonstrated actionable ideas and a solid understanding of the category and the target audience. Good luck to all the finalists!”

Finalist duo Nolan Yu and Max Learmont from OMD were the NGEN Award winners in 2017. Their entry resulted in the creation of world-first virtual mentoring world for deaf teenagers inside Minecraft, called ‘League of Hearoes’, in response to a brief from Hear For You.

NGEN Award entrants must be registered members of NGEN with less than five years’ experience, and currently working for a media communications agency or media industry supplier.

The 2019 MFA Awards will be held on 17 October, at Carriageworks Sydney, following the inaugural MFA EX: Media For All effectiveness expo, which will be held during the day. Tickets for both the expo and awards are on sale via the MFA website.

The 2019 MFA Awards sponsors are:
Grand Prix Sponsor: Seven Network
Major Sponsors: Ad Standards, Facebook, Google, OMA, OzTAM, SBS Media
Activation Sponsors: IAB Australia, Nine
Supporting Sponsors: ARN, Clarety, Nielsen, SMI, UnLtd