The Media Leader Awards partners with M&M Global
The leaders shaping media now have an even bigger stage.
The Media Leader’s flagship awards programme is joining forces with the 37-year-old M&M Global Awards, putting senior and emerging talent from across the industry in front of a global audience.
The Media Leader Awards is to be incorporated into the M&M Global Awards in an exclusive partnership that takes the programme beyond the UK and into a global conversation about media leadership.
For the people who lead agencies, media owners, brands and technology businesses, it means more visibility, more reach and recognition that carries weight internationally.
Under the partnership The Media Leader’s five leadership categories will sit inside the long-running M&M Global Awards programme, organised by The Festival of Media and celebrating its 37th year in 2026.
The partnership brings together two of the industry’s most credible brands to put the people driving media forward at the centre of the conversation.
Steven Scaffardi, global CEO of the content division at Adwanted Group, said the move was a natural evolution for a programme that was never conceived as a commercial exercise.
“We made it clear six years ago when we launched these awards that this was not a money-making exercise for us,” Scaffardi said.
“We genuinely wanted to put brilliant leadership front and centre.
“This partnership feels like a natural progression to grow our reach to media leaders across the globe.”
Festival of Media CEO Jeremy King welcomed the collaboration, noting it will mark the first time in the organisation’s history that people categories have been incorporated into its awards programme.
“This partnership allows Festival of Media to use its revered judging processes to help build and develop The Media Leader Awards into a global platform,” King said. “We’re excited about identifying and celebrating senior and future media leaders from around the world.”
Born in a pandemic, built for the long term
The Media Leader Awards launched in 2020, at arguably the most disruptive moment media had faced in a generation. The brief was simple, find and celebrate the leaders who were steering organisations through chaos. And make that recognition mean something.
The five categories joining M&M Global
From 2026, The Media Leader’s five leadership categories will be judged as part of the M&M Global Awards process:
Media Agency Leader of the Year
Media Owner Leader of the Year
Brand/Advertiser Leader of the Year
Adtech Leader of the Year
Future Media Leader of the Year
The four senior categories are open to individuals at managing-director level or above (or marketing-director level for the brand category). The Future Media Leader award, free to enter for members of The Media Leader’s Future 100 Club, celebrates emerging talent already making a meaningful impact before the wider industry catches up.
Key dates for 2026
Entries open on 2 April. The shortlist will be announced on 13 August, with the awards ceremony taking place on 1 October. Winners of the five leadership categories will be invited to take part in a panel debate at The Future of Media on 3–4 November, where an overall Leadership Awards Grand Prix winner will be named.
About M&M Global Awards
Established in 1989, the M&M Global Awards recognise the world’s most innovative and effective media campaigns. Spanning more than 30 categories across brands and agencies, the programme has spent nearly four decades championing excellence in strategy, creativity and execution. The addition of The Media Leader’s leadership categories in 2026 marks its first step into people recognition, a significant shift for one of the industry’s oldest and most respected awards.
Entries for The Media Leader Awards 2026 open 2 April.