FCB Media dominate the 2021 Beacons Awards

Auckland, Thursday: FCB Media has again dominated the 2021Communications Council Beacon Awards, held at Shed 10 in Auckland last night.

The agency won the coveted Best in Show for its campaign for Fire & Emergency NZ, “Fire doesn’t wait”, a campaign which helped Kiwis realise the unimaginable reality of house fires and the need to create an escape plan. This was the 7^th Best in Show gong secured by the agency in the last ten years of the Beacons. 

In addition the agency had the highest medal tally of any agency on the night, with 11 golds and six silvers (plus a further two for UM).

Commenting on the Best in Show for Fire & Emergency NZ, Anne Lipsham, Head of Strategy at FCB Media commented, “Asking people to complete escape plans was no easy task, especially in a year like 2020. Genuine collaboration between our media team, client, creative, data teams and our media partners like TVNZ, was the key to being able to produce something pretty special. No ego’s or agenda’s, just focussing on what was going to get people to take action.”

FCB Media was also the only agency to win gold in three key digital categories: Best use of Data (Water Safety NZ), Best use of Technology (Mitre 10) and Best use of Social (PAK’nSAVE). They remain one of only two agencies to win gold in the data category since it was introduced in 2016. 

Kate Grigg, Head of Digital Marketing at FCB Media said,  “We’re particularly proud to win gold across three key digital categories. Having specialists such as performance, data and tech and digital production all under one roof, is such an advantage for creating great work.”

Managing Director of FCB Media, Blair Alexander commented, “We’ve put a lot of work in the last 18 months on our new comms planning process, underpinning it with the best tools from Mediabrands and FCB’s global network. And these awards are validation that our new approach is working. Our clients are telling us they increasingly value agency services, such as strategic planning, consumer insights, data and tech and we’ve managed to combine these into one cohesive solution in response.”

Alexander also paid tribute to his team, saying, “Ultimately we couldn’t have achieved this success for our clients without our people. Not only did we invest in new specialist talent, but also in record levels of training to continue to develop skillsets reflective of client ambitions. It was also great to back with our industry colleagues in person, after the virtual Beacons last year.”