Adwanted Media Research Awards 2025: JCDecaux lands Grand Prix
The 10th edition of the Adwanted Media Research Awards took place on Wednesday at London’s Banking Hall, with JCDecaux taking home four gongs, including the top Grand Prix.
JCDecaux picked up Best Custom Media Research Project — Media Owner for its work with System1 on creative testing, while the OOH company’s strategic insights manager Nick Drewe was awarded the Rising Star award.
For its work with Strat7 analysing location-based OOH evaluation, JCDecaux also won in the Best Use of 1st Party or 3rd Party Data category as well as the coveted Grand Prix.
“This was a great solution to a real-life and increasingly common research problem,” the judges said of the Grand Prix winner. “It was a neat approach that can extend to other formats, with impressive speed of analysis as well as benchmarking. It delivered to the client with impressive outcomes and revenue growth.”
Other big winners
Channel 4, Thinkbox, Wavemaker and Tapestry Research also landed multiple awards at the ceremony.
The Best Custom Media Research Project — Budgets Under £50,000 prize went to Channel 4 alongside Trinity McQueen. Their research took an innovative approach by asking people how others will react to a programme as opposed to their personal opinion.
Channel 4 also won in the Pulse of the Nation category along with Craft, as well as in the Research Effectiveness category with BVA BDRC on ad experience.
Thinkbox and Wavemaker were both winners in Best Custom Media Research Project — Trade Body for Profit Ability 2, alongside Ebiquity, EssenceMediacom, Gain Theory and Mindshare.
“Thinkbox has successfully built on the original publication, providing detailed insight that’s received exemplary feedback from clients,” the judges noted.
The first Profit Ability project was released in 2017 and won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Adwanted Media Research Awards.
Thinkbox was also named Media Owner/Trade Body of the Year, while Wavemaker triumphed in Best Media Research Tracking or Syndicated Project.
As well as winning in Best Custom Media Research Project — Supporting Diversity in Media and Advertising, Tapestry was also awarded Research, Data or Measurement Company of the Year.
Full details
The event also celebrated the legacy of head judge Belinda Beeftink, who is retiring from the media research industry as the IPA’s research chief. Denise Turner, CEO of OOH joint measurement currency Route, is succeeding Beeftink in the IPA role.
The awards brochure is available here.
UKOM was gold sponsor for the 2025 Adwanted Media Research Awards, while Brand Metrics was silver sponsor. Audex, Brainsights, Dynata, Kantar Media and On Device were category partners, with additional partnerships from Digital i and Potentia.
See the full list of winners below.
Best Custom Media Research Project — Trade Body
WINNER: Thinkbox and Ebiquity / EssenceMediacom / Gain Theory / Mindshare / Wavemaker UK — Profit Ability 2
Shortlisted:
- Newsworks and Colourtext — Youth: News Matters
- Radiocentre and Colourtext — Radio: The Performance Multiplier — Helping Radio Punch-Through its Performance Marketing Ad-Spend Plateau
- Thinkbox and Map-the-Territory / Tapestry Research — Context Effects
Best Custom Media Research Project — Media Owner
Sponsored by AudEx from TRP and Sopra Steria
WINNER: JCDecaux and System1 — Starting Brand Revolutions through Creative Testing
Shortlisted:
- BBC and MTM — TikTok: Behind the Filter — is it an Opportunity or a Threat to the BBC?
- Global and Tapestry Research — Why Audio is Your Secret Weapon in the Era of Distraction
Best Custom Media Research Project — Agency
WINNER: Havas Media Network, Lumen and Brand Metrics — The World’s Largest Attention and Outcome Study
Shortlisted:
- Acacia Avenue and Marks & Spencer — Substance over Style: Creating New Models for New Media
- Hearts & Science — Solving the Consideration Conundrum with The Category Entry Point Tool
- Hearts & Science — Creating an Industry First Attention Study for The National Lottery
Best Custom Media Research Project — Budgets Under £50,000
WINNER: Trinity McQueen and Channel 4 — Picking The Winners: How to Predict Successful TV Shows
Shortlisted:
- Hearts & Science — Solving the Consideration Conundrum with The Category Entry Point Tool
- NSPCC and OMD UK — Cracking Christmas Donations for NSPCC
Best Custom Media Research Project — Supporting Diversity in Media and Advertising
WINNER: Tapestry Research, Paramount and Peek Content — Industry in Progress
Shortlisted:
- Highly Commended: Channel 4 and Sonder — Black in Business Impact Evaluation
- OMD UK — The Real Britain Series
Best Media Research Tracking or Syndicated Project
WINNER: Wavemaker UK and Keep Britain Tidy — Cleaning Up Britain’s Streets using a Duck and a Butt Box — How Monitoring Behaviour Change Brought New Products to Market to Make Britain a Better Place to Live
Shortlisted:
- PepsiCo and OMD UK with On Device — PepsiCo Passive Cross-Media Measurement
Best Use of 1st Party or 3rd Party Data
Sponsored by Dynata
WINNER: JCDecaux and Strat7 — Location-Based OOH Evaluation: Targeting Audiences Where They Live
Shortlisted:
- British Gas and OMD UK — British Gas Dynamic Audiences
- On Device, RealityMine and PHD — Breaking Through Walled Gardens: Harnessing First and Third Party Data to Unlock Actionable Social Media Insights
- Wavemaker UK — Revolutionising the Betting Market with Revealing Insight and an Innovative Geo-Targeted Campaign
Best International Media Research Project
Sponsored by Brainsights
WINNER: Google, MTM and Ipsos — The Relevance Factor
Shortlisted:
- JCDecaux and Ipsos — First Class Advertising — The Enduring Magic of Airports
- Kantar Media and BBC World Service — Global News Brand Tracker
Pulse of the Nation
WINNER: Channel 4 and Craft — Too Much to Watch
Shortlisted:
- RISJ and Craft — OK Computer? Public Attitudes to the Use of AI in News
- Wavemaker UK — Being the Voice of Londoners
The Adrian Edwards Award for Best Use of Datasets
In partnership with Barb
WINNER: Bauer Media and the7stars — Think National; Act Local
Shortlisted:
- Digital Cinema Media — AV Reach Maximiser
- Radiocentre — Listen Up! How to Create Audio Advertising that Stirs the Passions and Drives Business Profits
- the7stars — the7stars Atlas — Regional Testing with 99.9% Accuracy
- Thinkbox and Ebiquity / EssenceMediacom / Gain Theory / Mindshare / Wavemaker UK — Profit Ability 2
Best Representation of Data
WINNER: Newsworks and Colourtext — Youth: News Matters
Shortlisted:
- Ozone — Planning Ahead for 2024 with Reading the Nation
- TRP Research and Sopra Steria — AudEx Visualise
Research Effectiveness
WINNER: Channel 4 and BVA BDRC — Ad Experience: Reduced Ad Load and Ad Innovation
Shortlisted:
- Highly Commended: JCDecaux and Talon — Location Location Location: A New Model to Measure Media Effectiveness
- We Are Family — BBFC Classification Guidelines
Media Agency of the Year
Sponsored by Kantar Media
WINNER: Hearts & Science
Shortlisted:
- OMD UK
- the7stars
Media Owner/Trade Body of the Year
Sponsored by On Device
WINNER: Thinkbox
Shortlisted:
- Highly Commended: JCDecaux
- UKOM
Research, Data or Measurement Company of the Year
WINNER: Tapestry Research — “Making the Complex Beautifully Simple”
Shortlisted:
- Differentology
- MTM
Rising Star
Sponsored by UKOM
WINNER: Nick Drewe — JCDecaux
Shortlisted:
- Matthew Irwin — Kantar Media
- Michael Rozanov — the7stars
- Alex Westfield — Wavemaker UK
Grand Prix
JCDecaux and Strat7 — Location-Based OOH Evaluation: Targeting Audiences Where They Live