You can purchase a duplicate trophy from the Don't Panic trophy shop here post winners announcement and these deliveries are estimated to take 7-8 weeks once payment has been received for your order.
2026 Winners
Paid Media Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Space & Time & WOLF 1834
— Annual Winter Sale: Scaling Luxury
"The Judges thought...This was a masterfully constructed campaign that reads as a true omni-channel performance system rather than a collection of isolated tactics. The channel-level detail, disciplined budget pacing, and feed segmentation model demonstrated genuine strategic maturity, while AI-driven creative testing felt evidence-led rather than decorative."
Collaborative Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
One-Two Digital & Growth Society & Stellar
— A Chef's Kiss Partnership
"The Judges thought...One-Two Digital presents a cohesive, well-crafted campaign that demonstrates the power of genuine collaboration done right. The audience segmentation built around emotional and behavioural personas was a clear strategic highlight, and the shift to commercial viability tracking showed real sophistication."
Paid Social Media Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Public Nectar & OTTY Sleep
— Using Paid Social & Creative to scale a hybrid mattress brand to 8-figures
"The Judges thought...This was a standout campaign built on commercial fundamentals rather than vanity metrics. The persona-led creative framework, Zombie Rule testing process, and P&L-led KPI guardrails demonstrated high level of strategic discipline and transparency. AI-driven audience insights translated directly into purposeful, high-quality creative that clearly drove real business outcomes."
Paid Search Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Propellernet & Kuoni
— 2025 Turn of Year: Search Innovation for Travel Growth
"The Judges thought...Propellernet delivers a best-in-class campaign that combines strategic sophistication with exceptional technical execution. The five-pillar approach, forecasting-led budget allocation, and n-gram analysis demonstrated a deep understanding of the travel booking journey."
Shopping Ads Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Embryo & Holloways of Ludlow
— Premium Shopping at Scale
"The Judges thought...This was a thoroughly impressive campaign that combines technical innovation with genuine commercial instinct. The dynamic budget modelling and bucketing strategy were particularly standout. The team's understanding of performance marketing for a premium audience was evident throughout, from smart creative choices to sophisticated audience layering and product feed enrichment."
Silver 2026
Public Nectar & Sonno
— Scaling a Premium Bed Brand to 7-Figure months with Google Shopping Ads
"The Judges thought...This was a sophisticated and compelling campaign that demonstrates genuine mastery of ecommerce performance marketing. The shift from vanity metrics to a breakeven profitability framework shows real commercial maturity, while the Heroes, Villains, and Zombies segmentation is both innovative and refreshingly practical."
B2B Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
TIDAL & British Fossils
— Fossil Fuelled Growth
"The Judges thought...TIDAL delivers a remarkable transformation story. Building complete digital infrastructure from scratch, with a self-developed measurement framework and the instinct to push scroll-stopping creative, shows real craft and commercial maturity."
B2C Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Connective3 & AliveCor
— Heartbeat of Success: Driving Growth in a Restricted Health Category
"The Judges thought...This was an exceptionally well-executed campaign that turned the constraints of a heavily regulated health environment into a genuine creative and strategic advantage. The cross-market approach was impressively nuanced, tailoring behavioural science principles to local cultural biases across three distinct markets showed real sophistication and craft."
Travel/Leisure Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Accord Marketing & Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines
— Cruising Smarter: AI Innovation Driving Summer Success
"The Judges thought...This was an outstanding campaign that demonstrates what genuinely advanced paid media looks like when applied with commercial precision. The integration of AI-driven call optimisation and offline revenue tracking shows real sophistication. The alignment across the full funnel, from audience segmentation to real-time budget reallocation, reflects a maturity rarely seen in the cruise sector."
Retail Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Embryo & Homebase
— Project Phoenix
"The Judges thought...An impressive launch from zero that demonstrates real strategic and technical mastery. The structured approach to product coverage and margin control showed both depth and discipline. Results presented against targets with clear linkage to specific actions made the commercial impact easy to assess and highly credible."
Silver 2026
Connective3 & Barker & Stonehouse
— Overstock to Overachievement – Paid Media that delivered beyond expectation
"The Judges thought...This is a campaign that exemplifies paid media operating at true strategic partnership level. The phased approach reads like a replicable internal process, which speaks to genuine expertise. Spend control was disciplined, delivery was clear, and the commercial impact was compelling and well-evidenced throughout."
Finance Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Route Agency & Darlington Building Society
"The Judges thought... A smartly positioned local campaign that tackles the trust barrier head-on with region-specific creative and a genuinely community-led message. The integrated delivery across social, search, and display effectively supported both awareness and conversion, while the clear commercial framing made the impact easy to assess and hard to ignore."
Real Estate & Property Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Focus Agency Group & Simple Life Homes
— How Brand Investment Drove Performance Efficiency in Build-to-Rent
"The Judges thought...A strategically coherent campaign with real clarity of thinking throughout. The life-stage audience framing was a smart choice, moving beyond simple intent signals to reach people earlier in their decision journey. Disciplined channel sequencing and honest engagement-led measurement made this a refreshingly well-evidenced campaign."
eCommerce Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Public Nectar & Sonno
— Scaling a Premium Bed Brand to consistent 7-Figure months
"The Judges thought...An exceptional campaign that bridges digital marketing and corporate finance in a way rarely seen at this level. The business-first approach and working backwards from what the campaign actually needed to succeed, shows genuine commercial maturity. Using AI to surface real customer pain points was smart, and the creative direction clearly resonated with a high-consideration audience."
Lead Gen Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Magnetize & Aura
— Setting a New Standard in Funeral Plan Lead Gen
"The Judges thought...Magnetize demonstrate strong commercial maturity here, shifting from CPA to POAS in a lead gen model shows a clear focus on true profitability. The offline conversion loop, feeding phone outcomes back to Google Ads, delivers the data integrity needed to scale with confidence."
Local Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Route Agency & Darlington Building Society
— Community Saving
"The Judges thought... A smartly positioned local campaign that tackles the trust barrier head-on with region-specific creative and a genuinely community-led message. The integrated delivery across social, search, and display effectively supported both awareness and conversion, while the clear commercial framing made the impact easy to assess and hard to ignore."
Charity / Not for Profit Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Propellernet & Dogs Trust
— Driving Sponsorship Growth & Efficiency Through Smarter Search
"The Judges thought...An inspiring campaign that blends disciplined performance strategy with genuinely emotionally resonant storytelling. Anchoring the creative around real dogs and seasonal moments added authenticity that clearly translated into results. What makes this entry truly stand out is the clear linkage between campaign performance and real-world charitable impact."
FMCG Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
Fluid Marketplaces & Lee Kum Kee
— Noodles, Redoodled: An Audience-First FMCG Launch
"The Judges thought... A brilliant omni-channel launch campaign that demonstrates how insight-led audience strategy can outperform forecasts even under creative and data constraints. The use of cultural and lifestyle signals to build audience profiles was particularly impressive, going well beyond standard targeting."
Hospitality Campaign of the Year
Winner 2026
LOCALiQ & Cut & Craft & Lucia
— Demand Growth for Premium Hospitality
"The Judges thought...A genuinely integrated campaign that demonstrates what best-in-class cross-channel collaboration looks like in practice. Rigorous tracking, EEAT-driven momentum, and a joined-up paid search, SEO, and PR strategy showed real cohesion throughout. The attitude toward challenges turning each obstacle into a system improvement was as impressive as the results themselves."
Best Integrated Paid Media Campaign
Winner 2026
Absolute Digital Media & Stelrad
— Heating the Future of Search
"The Judges thought...A grounded, expertly managed campaign that reads like it was lived week by week rather than written after the fact. The focus on controllables; query refinement, ad testing, and waste reduction, reflected real discipline and channel maturity. Ambitious objectives, exceptional integration, and results that clearly delighted the client."
Best Use of Amazon Ads
Winner 2026
Fluid Marketplaces & icon
"The Judges thought...An impressive display of Amazon platform mastery, executed at pace and with real technical depth. The full-funnel approach across Sponsored Ads and DSP was sophisticated and clearly well-considered, while the honest acknowledgement of strategic trade-offs added credibility to the results."
Best Use Of LinkedIn Ads
Winner 2026
Embryo & Worknest
— Quality over Quantity
"The Judges thought...A confident, insight-led campaign that demonstrates how first-party data can improve lead quality rather than simply inflate volume. The linkage between strategy, execution, and measurable outcomes was clear and credible throughout."
Best Use of Meta Ads
Winner 2026
Lifeblood & Years.com
— Building the UK's Fastest Growing Pet Brand
"The Judges thought...A masterclass in evidence-based growth marketing, combining behavioural science, attribution rigour, and genuine creative craft in a way rarely seen in subscription DTC. The decision to openly acknowledge a failed strategy and show the data behind the pivot is a mark of real confidence and it makes the final results all the more credible."
Best Use of Snapchat Ads
Winner 2026
Performics at Starcom & Invisalign
— Biting into Teen Markets with Snap-Story Brilliance
"The Judges thought...A smart, focused campaign that demonstrates real platform expertise and strategic clarity. The choice of a First Story takeover on Boxing Day matching the "first ad seen" behaviour with peak scroll time, showed genuine channel understanding. Also, the KPI selection was refreshingly honest, prioritising upper-funnel metrics over forced conversion claims."
Best Use of TikTok Ads
Winner 2026
The University of Manchester, Science & Engineering
— Civil Engineers Made This
"The Judges thought...The University of Manchester effectively connects with gamers and simulation enthusiasts, smartly timed around the Minecraft movie. The campaign treats TikTok as a creative culture rather than a media channel, with platform-native formats that feel authentic to Gen Z. Performance is equally strong, reversing decline and driving significant application growth."
Best Use of Video
Winner 2026
Push & Fantasy Football Hub
— The AI-Video Engine: Powering FPL's Record Sign-Ups
"The Judges thought...A masterclass in creative velocity and strategic video execution, delivered at impressive scale across multiple markets in a remarkably tight timeframe. The three-tier content approach, blending creator partnerships, AI-generated UGC, and agency production showed both versatility and a genuine understanding of what resonates with the audience."
Best Use of Data
Winner 2026
Ziggy & Canon
— Data as an Operating System: How Canon Europe Orchestrated €9M Pipeline Growth Across 16 Markets Through Enterprise-Grade Data Infrastructure
"The Judges thought...A genuinely impressive campaign that sets a new benchmark for data-led marketing. The mid-campaign attribution rebuild, fixing UTM-based outcomes against actual Salesforce data without derailing performance, is the kind of difficult, unglamorous work that separates good agencies from great ones."
Best Use of Attribution
Winner 2026
StrategiQ & Oak Tree Mobility
— It’s Always Attribution
"The Judges thought...A sophisticated campaign that excels in bridging offline outcomes with media strategy. The data-led location prioritisation, using income and house price signals to identify target areas, showed genuine strategic intelligence."
Best Use of Automation
Winner 2026
Havas, Squared.io & The University Of Law
— AI Meets IQ: How Smart Automation Drove Smarter Growth
"The Judges thought...This camapign stands out for demonstrating how automation can be implemented responsibly without compromising performance. The integration of AI-driven placement risk scoring directly tackles a key Performance Max concern while delivering clear, business-relevant impact."
Best Use of AI In Paid Media
Winner 2026
TIDAL & Perfume Direct
— “Launch of the Fakefluencers”
"The Judges thought...TIDAL delivers a compelling campaign that feels like a genuine glimpse into the future of paid media; strategic, responsible, and creatively intelligent in equal measure. The Brand Equity Intelligence Framework elevates this well beyond standard performance thinking and responsible AI guardrails alongside true innovation make this a template for the new era of paid media."
Paid Search Technology of the Year
Winner 2026
Profitperclick.ai
— Redefining the meaning of PPC, from Pay Per Click, to Profit Per Click.
"The Judges thought...Profitperclick.ai impressed by tackling one of PPC’s most persistent challenges: knowing what to optimise first. Its ability to rank actions by projected commercial impact, while accounting for cascading effects, pushed the industry toward profit-led optimisation over tactical busywork."
Innovation Awards
Winner 2026
Squared.io
— Redefining brand safety in PPC through Integrated AI
"The Judges thought...A timely and genuinely innovative solution that tackles one of the most pressing challenges in modern performance marketing with impressive precision. The ability to automate brand safety at scale, with explainable AI-powered risk scoring, reflects both technical sophistication and a deep understanding of the real pain brands face with limited placement visibility."
Emerging Talent Award
Winner 2026
Shelby Philbrook Mayse
— Paid Media (Beauty) - The Media Image
"The Judges thought...Shelby demonstrates the rare combination of commercial excellence and authentic human leadership that defines future industry leaders. Measurable growth, platform innovation, zero team turnover, and glowing client testimonials all point to strategic judgement, not just execution."
In-House Paid Media Team of the Year
Winner 2026
Travel Chapter
— Digital Media Team
"The Judges thought...Travel Chapter delivers standout cross-channel performance, particularly across Meta and Microsoft. Their profit-led measurement framework and advanced tracking through CAPI and CRM integration highlight strong technical sophistication, supported by smart account consolidation and automation."
Start-Up Paid Media Agency of the Year
Winner 2026
Magnetize
— The PPC Growth Formula for Service Businesses
"The Judges thought...Magnetize demonstrates what true specialisation looks like; deep sector insight, genuine technical innovation, and measurable impact in a notoriously difficult field. Their CRM-driven, value-based approach positions them as specialist leaders, not scaled-down generalists."
Small Paid Media Agency of the Year (25 and under employees)
Winner 2026
One-Two Digital
"The Judges thought...One-Two Digital demonstrated how a small agency can outperform larger competitors through focus, experience, and disciplined execution. Strong client outcomes, exceptional retention, and sustainable profitability made this a highly credible performance."
Large Paid Media Agency of the Year (26+ employees)
Winner 2026
The Media Image (TMI)
"The Judges thought...A well-rounded agency that grounds its achievements in genuine business metrics rather than channel-level vanity figures. The variety of case studies demonstrated breadth and consistency, while linking the graduate programme to retention and delivery outcomes showed genuine strategic foresight."
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Testimonials
“Being nominated for this award was already an incredible achievement for us, but taking home the award is something we’re immensely proud of. It truly validates our hard work, energy, and enthusiasm for what we do. We’ve had some really tough setbacks in the last couple of years, but instead of holding us back, we’ve pivoted and moved forward on our strongest foot. We can’t wait to power through 2024!”
Julia Symonds, Co-Founder outbloom
“Winning the Best Use of Amazon Ads at the 2024 UK Paid Media Awards is a tremendous honour for us at Fluid Marketplaces. It underscores our commitment to excellence and innovation in the digital marketplace, and celebrates our success in driving significant growth for our clients like Le Col. This accolade not only validates our strategic approach but also inspires us to continue pioneering in the ecommerce space.”
Adam Hindle, Managing Director Fluid Marketplaces
"Being recognised at the UK Paid Media Awards is the ultimate validation of Happy Yolk’s collaborative work with Pooky Lighting. Our laser-focused targeting, creativity, and comprehensive strategy generated top-notch leads and ROI, propelling our campaign into the spotlight as a worthy contender. We’re thrilled to be in the running and to be among so many great agencies."
Happy Yolk
“We’re delighted to have been shortlisted for the UK Paid Media Awards due to its prestigious nature and standing in the digital marketing world. We feel that being shortlisted for awards like this is a testament and culmination of the hard work that has been put in by both our team and our clients.”
Seb Dean, Managing Director Imaginaire
"After taking home gold last year for Best Integrated Paid Media Campaign, we decided to throw our hat in the ring again this year. We also saw success at the UK Search Awards 2023 whereby we took home Best Low Budget PPC Campaign and Best Integrated Campaign. Following a very busy year with huge client wins and impressive performance results produced quality material to work with for our entries. As a boutique agency we pride ourselves on our dedication and diligence to each client relationship and the clients from our nominated campaigns – The Online Lighting Store and Supersoil were ecstatic to hear of the recognition of the joint efforts."
GrowWeb
Awards Ceremony
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