EssenceMediacom and Tesco take top gongs at Newsworks Awards 2025
Partner Content from Newsworks
EssenceMediacom and Tesco take home the double for advertiser of the year and the grand prix award
Independent media agencies perform well on the night: JAA Media wins twice, while Bountiful Cow receives first-ever ‘judges’ special recognition award’
The judges awarded EssenceMediacom and Tesco the advertiser of the year award for their long-term commitment to news brands, as well as their dedication to embracing format and data innovations — all of which made a significant impact on return on investment.
The pair also won the grand prix, which was awarded by chair of judges and Asda chief customer officer Rachel Eyre.
Commenting on the winning entry and her experience of chairing the awards, Eyre said:
“I’ve loved chairing this year’s Newsworks Awards. It’s been a huge privilege to see brilliant work that demonstrates news brands’ versatility, effectiveness and innovation in 2025.
“Tesco stood out as a very worthy grand prix winner. It is a brand that has shown a long-standing and consistent commitment to effectiveness, deeply understanding its customers as well as news brand formats.
“I was impressed by the long view Tesco took when building this partnership with news publishers, as well as courage and ability to evolve as technology and consumer needs change. All this has been richly rewarded with phenomenal short- and long-term business effects.”
Special recognition award
Meanwhile, the judges awarded their first ever ‘special recognition award’, a prize dedicated to outstanding entries deserving of recognition beyond the remit of existing categories. Bountiful Cow took home this special trophy for its ‘Relative Advantage: Unblocked’ work, which proved the brand suitability and effectiveness of digital news brands when blunt keyword blocking tools are removed.
Eyre commented: “This entry truly brought the judges together for its bravery, uniqueness, singular focus and relevance to the advertisers, the media industry and millions of people across the country.
“Rather than let it fall through the cracks, the judges decided to create a special award to recognise this fantastic entry. I’m looking forward to seeing more positive results as Bountiful Cow continues to scale this initiative.”
Another big winner on the night was JAA Media for its work with MSI Reproductive Choices. The agency won both best contextual campaign and best social impact campaign for its highly impactful ‘Signed Away’ ads, which were released in the wake of US President Donald Trump’s reinstatement of a ‘global gag rule’ for international NGOs advocating for abortion rights.
It marked an excellent night for independent agencies, with JAA Media, Bountiful Cow, Medialab Group and Notorious Communications all receiving winners or highly commended awards from the judges.
Elsewhere, Zenith UK won best content partnership (under £250,000 media spend) for Macmillan, while Starcom took home most effective campaign for ALDI.
OMD UK took best tactical for PepsiCo Walkers, the best content partnership (over £250,000 media spend) prize went to Hearts & Science for Allwyn’s Euromillions campaign and the advertising industry voted PHD’s content partnership for Andrex as its ad of the year in our poll.
Best display campaign went to iProspect for its striking cover wrap for Netflix’s ‘The Diamond Heist’.
Close collaboration and commitment
Newsworks CEO Jo Allan reflected on the Awards, saying: “It’s been brilliant to see how close collaboration and long-standing commitment to news brands have resulted in advertisers being at the forefront of multiplatform opportunities, harnessing the medium’s key strengths such as scale, trust and authentic storytelling.
“From larger media agency groups to the UK’s flourishing independent sector, congratulations to all those whose work was recognised on the night and thank you to everyone who entered.”
See our full list of winners and highly commended campaigns below. Case studies can be found here.
Newsworks Awards 2025 winners
Best display campaign
Winner: Netflix, Diamond Heist, iProspect
Highly commended: Tesco, Tesco Clubcard Prices: Ten Years of Front-Page Value Leadership, EssenceMediacom
Best content partnership — up to £250,000 media investment
Winner: Macmillan, The Will Becomes Real, Turning Intention into Action, Zenith UK
Highly commended: UKTV, Wicked Whispers, Arena Media
Best content partnership — over £250,000 media investment
Winner: Allwyn, Allwyn — EuroMillions, Hearts & Science
Best contextual campaign
Winner: MSI Reproductive Choices, Signed Away, JAA Media
Highly commended: Butcher’s Dog Food, Healthy Heart Pawsitive Mornings, Notorious Communications
Best tactical ad
Winner: PepsiCo Walkers, It’s Crunch Time, OMD UK
Best social impact campaign
Winner: MSI Reproductive Choices, Signed Away, JAA Media
Highly commended: Alzheimer’s Society, Dementia Action Week 2025 with Mail Metro Media, Medialab Group
Most effective campaign
Winner: ALDI, ALDI Gift of ROI Christmas 2024, Starcom
Highly commended: Boots, Boots health: delivering healthy returns whilst supporting the nation’s health and wellbeing, EssenceMediacom
Ad of the year
Winner: Andrex, PHD UK
Advertiser of the year
Winner: Tesco, Tesco Clubcard Prices: Ten Years of Front-Page Value Leadership, EssenceMediacom
Highly commended: ALDI, ALDI Advertiser of the Year, Starcom
Judges’ special recognition award
Winner: Relative Advantage Unblocked, Bountiful Cow
Grand prix
Winner: Tesco, Tesco Clubcard Prices: Ten Years of Front-Page Value Leadership, EssenceMediacom