The Australian Marketing Institute (AMI), has added four new categories to its prestigious Marketing Excellence Awards: Purpose-led marketing, Sustainable marketing, Independent agency of the year, and Large agency of the year.

The Awards recognise marketing brilliance across all types of campaigns from individuals and organisations – big and small. Notable winners from 2022 included the ABC Audiences Team for ‘Marketing Team of the Year’ and South Australia Police who took out the top spot for ‘Social Change Marketing of the Year’ and ‘Campaign of the Year’ for its drunk driving road safety campaign, ‘Selfish Prick’.

The new marketing award categories are a reflection of consumer trends transitioning to established consumer expectations. Sustainability and purpose-led brands are a growing priority for millions of consumers around the world, data from research agency Savanta shows that 86% of consumers are seeing the effects of climate change and more importantly, 83% want to make a positive difference. According to the Voice of the Consumer Lifestyles survey (2021), a third of global consumers said they only bought from brands that were aligned with their values and a fifth of consumers preferred to buy from purpose-driven brands. While a quarter of consumers boycotted brands that didn’t align with these values.

AMI CEO Bronwyn Powell said: “The new additions to the longstanding annual awards program reflect how marketing is always at the forefront of changing consumer sentiment and how AMI continues to evolve with industry changes.”

For example, Brownes Dairy was the 2022 category winner for ‘Product or Service Revitalisation’ with its sustainability campaign on its new milk packaging (created from fully renewable plant-based materials). The campaign demonstrated the company’s position on sustainability with a tangible product that resulted in a 36% increase in sales in a matter of weeks.

The prestigious annual AMI Marketing Excellence Awards will be awarded to companies who have excelled in B2B and D2C marketing campaigns for:

1. Acquisition Marketing

2. Brand Revitalisation

3. Content Marketing

4. Creativity in Brand, Product or Service Marketing

5. Excellence in Customer Experience

6. Data & Insight-Driven Marketing

7. Experiential Marketing

8. Loyalty and Retention

9. Not-for-Profit Marketing

10. Product or Service Launch or Relaunch

11. PR Campaign of the year

12. Public Sector Marketing

13. Purpose-led Marketing (new category)

14. Small Budget Marketing (Less than $50K)

15. Social Media Marketing

16. Sponsorship Effectiveness

17. Sustainability Marketing (new category)

There will also be a special awards category for:

1. Emerging Marketer of the Year

2. Future Leader of the Year

3. Certified Practising Marketer of the Year

4. Chief Marketing Officer of the Year

5. Independent Agency of the Year (new category)

6. Large Agency of the Year (new category)

7. Life Member Award (Board nominated & awarded)

8. Sir Charles McGrath Award (Board nominated & awarded)

9. Marketing Team of the Year

10. Marketing Campaign of the Year (Up to $1 million)

11. Marketing Campaign of the Year ($1 million and above)

The Awards judges involves more than 100 independent Certified Practising Marketers across Australia and the Awards itself are expected to receive over 300 entries showcasing the crème della crème of Australia’s marketing industry.

Entries and nominations for the awards close on 31 May 2023. Full details of the awards and criteria can be found here.