Reflecting on a year of extraordinary change, leaders of Australia and New Zealand’s top agencies came together to celebrate the industry’s big wins at Google’s 2023 Premier Partners Summit on 7 December.
The Premier Partners program supports the top 3% of Google’s partner agencies in Australia and New Zealand. At the close of each year, the Premier Partner Awards recognise the campaigns that moved the needle, announced alongside discussions by thought leaders for an end-of-year debrief.
The afternoon featured two panels - one exploring the practical lessons agencies have learned in harnessing the power of AI; and one demonstrating the power of YouTube to achieve both long and short term results. The panels were stacked with leaders from agencies including Atomic 212, Sparro, Kinesso, Incubeta, and rapidly-growing NZ startup HNRY.
When it came to AI, the panel explored the incredible performance increases it’s driven across media buying and measurement, as well as internal productivity - giving agencies more time to focus on higher level strategic challenges.
And on the video marketing front, we heard how agencies have succeeded this year by following their audiences at every stage of the consumer journey, using YouTube to meet both short-term goals and long-term brand-building objectives.
Next up was the Premier Partner Awards ceremony, recognising winners in six categories – four Marketing Objectives awards (Brand Awareness, Online Sales, Lead Generation, and App Growth), plus the International Growth, and Workplace Excellence awards.
Without further ado (drum roll please!), here are your 2023 Premier Partner Award winners:
Winner of the Brand Awareness category: Sparro
Winner of the Online Sales category: Dentsu Australia
Winner of the Lead Generation category: Sparro
Winner of the App Growth category: Alley Group Digital
Winner of the International Growth category: Digital Minds Group
Winner of the Workplace Excellence category: Soul & Wolf
But in a Premier Partner plot twist, this year Google has also recognised the agency with the highest lift in performance in each of the first four categories, with a Breakthrough Excellence Award.
Breakthrough Excellence in Brand Awareness: Calibrate (NZ)
Breakthrough Excellence in Online Sales: Pattern
Breakthrough Excellence in Lead Generation: Hatched
Breakthrough Excellence in App Growth: Reload Media
You can read more about the Premier Partner Awards program here.
Congratulations to all of the finalists and winners!
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