02 Mar 2023 | The Media Leader Staff

Mediatel Media Research Awards: Sky & MTM take home Grand Prix

Sky & MTM’s research project, “Fuelling the development and impact of Sky Glass”, won the coveted Grand Prix, as well as the Research Effectiveness Award, at Thursday’s Mediatel Media Research Awards ceremony in London.

Hosted by Mediatel Connected, the awards recognise and celebrate the organisations and people that are driving innovation and development in UK media research

The awards featured 16 categories for 2023. Channel 4 were big winners, taking home Pulse of the Nation for their “Different not Divided: understanding diverse modern Britain” research as well as Media Owner/Trade Body of the Year and Rising Star for Katya Des-Etages.

In addition Channel 4 was involved with the cross-industry CFlight research from Thinkbox, Channel 4, ITV and Sky, which won Best Use of 1^st Party and 3^rd Party Data as well as The Adrian Edwards Award for Best Use of Datasets.

Wavemaker also had a very successful afternoon, winning three awards for Best Media Research Tracking or Syndicated Project, Best Custom Media Research Project – Agency, and Media Agency of the Year.

Other winners included Radiocentre, UKTV & Irrational Agency, Google, AMPD Research & Reality Mine, and JCDecaux. There were also a number of highly commended research papers among the shortlisted entrants, which received a certificate at the awards ceremony.

The judging was chaired by Belinda Beeftink, research director at the IPA. She was joined by Denise Turner, CEO at Route, Matt Hill, director of research & planning at Thinkbox, Helen Rose, managing partner at the7stars, Andy Pang, independent consultant, Kathryn Saxon, head of audience science at Wavemaker, Neil Eddleston, founder & director at Runor Data Consulting, Louise Twycross-Lewis, head of insight at PHD Media, Lucy Gregory, research & insight director at Walt Disney Company, Sarah Ashley, research manager at Google, Peter Stevens, head of commercial insight at Bauer Media and Omar Oakes, editor of The Media Leader.

Read on to find out which other shortlisted nominees were crowned at this year’s Mediatel Media Research Awards, with judges’ comments.

Best Custom Media Research Project (Trade Body)

- WINNER: Radiocentre — The Radio Planning Optimiser: welcome to a new era in data-driven radio campaign planning

“This is another beautifully crafted tool to add to the wonderful tool box that Radiocentre has developed over the years,” said Belinda Beeftink. “A simple, easy to use approach which delivers a data framework to guide planners and advertisers towards optimum campaign weights.”

Shortlisted: IAB — Marketers x Digital: the relationship laid bare
Shortlisted: Newsworks, Tapestry Research & Map the Territory — Trust: more than a feeling
Shortlisted: Thinkbox — The TV playbook for online businesses

Best Custom Media Research Project (Media Owner)

- WINNER: UKTV & Irrational Agency — The alibi barriers project

“UKTV were brave enough to admit that traditional research was producing the same old answers – and they recognised the need to have a new way of understanding what drives viewers choice,” said Kathryn Saxon. “Utilising behavioural science they uncovered insights, that led to marketing changes which resulted in record breaking channel viewing figures. In a fragmented tv landscape the desire to understand viewers better and the results that followed were extremely impressive.”

Shortlisted: Mail Metro Media — Centre for Attention **Highly commended**

Best Custom Media Research Project (Agency)

- WINNER: Wavemaker — Eco-effectiveness, a bespoke integration of carbon impact data and econometrics to identify the carbon impact per sale driven by media

“As we collectively work towards the goals of Ad Net Zero, recognising the carbon footprints resulting from our ad campaigns is a vital step,” wrote Matt Hill. 

“Wavemaker’s paper on their eco-effectiveness approach, significantly moves our thinking on in this area – developing a ‘have your cake and eat it’ solution, Wavemaker have devised the means to reduce the negative environmental impact of their media plans, at the same time as improving their effectiveness. Initiatives like this, that help us move to a brighter future, without sacrificing profit margins are a necessity if we are going to achieve our sustainability goals.”

Shortlisted: mSix&Partners — Democratising Econometrics: making sophisticated full funnel MMM insight faster, more frequent and less expensive and thereby more accessible to more advertisers
Shortlisted: We Are Family — Demanding Kids: how kids discover and consume content in the video on demand world

Best Custom Media Research Project: Supporting Diversity in Media and Advertising

Best Media Research Tracking or Syndicated Project

- WINNER: Wavemaker — Saving lives, a tracker about the hardest call

“This work made us all realise why we do what we do, it tugged at all of our heartstrings. This is where research and marketing can make a difference to people,” wrote Denise Turner.

Shortlisted: Channel 4, Tapestry Research & Versiti — Mirror on the Industry **Highly commended**
Shortlisted: Samsung & Savanta — Changing the shape of the future: unfolding media campaigns for Samsung smartphones

Best Use of 1st Party or 3rd Party Data

- WINNER: Thinkbox, Channel 4, ITV, Sky — CFlight

“The launch of CFlight this year is a landmark in TV measurement,” said Lucy Gregory. “It represents the most significant industry collaboration in recent years, underpinned by established industry audience measurement and extended to include 1st party data, at scale.”

Shortlisted: ITV & YouGov — Finding the Perfect Match
Shortlisted: PHD — Viewermatch

Best International Media Research Project

- WINNER: AMPD & Reality Mine — Uncovering detailed consumption habits of streaming services across APAC

“Such a vast and powerful data set allowed both media planning and content ideation to improve for stakeholders across the buy and sell side which in turn would enrich and increase the user experience for the end customer,” wrote Andy Pang.

Shortlisted: Bloomberg Media & DVJ Insights — Forces of Attraction: Embracing new perspectives in foreign direct investment **Highly commended**
Shortlisted: Ipsos & Google — Privacy by design: the benefits of putting people in control
Shortlisted: Sky Media — CFlight: time for a European adventure

Pulse of the Nation

The Adrian Edwards Award for Best Use of Datasets

In partnership with BARB

- WINNER: Thinkbox, Channel 4, ITV, Sky — CFlight

“It may seem a really obvious thing to say, but research and measurement are not just simply about asking people what to say,” said Denise Turner. “Quite apart from the huge amount of work to make this entry work from a data perspective, the coming together of the industry to make this happen should not be underestimated.

Shortlisted: ITV & YouGov — Finding the Perfect Match
Shortlisted: Mail Metro Media — Centre for Attention: Creative Edition
Shortlisted: the7stars — the7stars’ Investment Planner: Delivering forecast rigour at speed and scale

Best Representation of Data

- WINNER: JCDecaux — Insight for all: Empowering everyone and taking back time

“The team demonstrated excellence in this award category through pro-actively democratising data and insight into the hands of their fellow colleagues and their clients, resulting in positive outcomes for all,” wrote Helen Rose.

Shortlisted: Sony Pictures Television — Truth in Data: Democratising data & insight **Highly commended**

Research Effectiveness Award

- WINNER: Sky & MTM — Fuelling the development and impact of Sky Glass

“Business decisions taken by Sky were materially affected by the research and resulted in impressive outcomes on the launch of Sky Glass, with rapid insight delivery allowing continuous refinement of these decisions immediately post launch, generating real business results,” added Neil Eddleston.

Shortlisted: Lumen — The Dentsu Attention Economy Project

Media Agency of the Year

Media Owner/Trade Body of the Year

- WINNER: Channel 4 AR&D team

“[They’re] a team that embraces diversity [and] is clearly unlocking research that makes a difference. Acknowledgements by both the United Nations and The International Olympic Committee are testament to this,” wrote Kathryn Saxon.

Shortlisted: JICMAIL **Highly commended**
Shortlisted: JCDecaux
Shortlisted: Thinkbox

Research Agency of the Year

- WINNER: MTM

Belinda Beeftink described the agency as having an “impressive client list and great testimonials, which have led to excellent financial results,” adding that MTM “provides careful thought leadership for their clients and has also signed up for the MRS Inclusion Pledge and Net Zero Pledge and actively support clients to drive the conversation around diversity and equality.”

Shortlisted: Tapestry Research **Highly commended**
Shortlisted: ResearchBods