NZME has been named a finalist in a swag of categories in the International News Media Association awards.
NZME's The 90% Project, aimed at getting Kiwis vaccinated by last Christmas, has won special favour with the judges, appearing in a range of categories including best brand relations or community service campaign, and best brand awareness campaign.
New Zealand sits alongside India, United States, Austria, United Kingdom, Norway, Germany and Australia in leading the finalist list.
Judging was held in February with 50 media experts from 24 countries. The experts whittled down the 333 finalists from 854 entries focused across 20 categories, including news brands, media platforms, subscriptions, advertising, data and insights, product, and newsrooms.
First-place winners, regional winners, and the global "Best in show" winner will be announced on June 9.
NZME's Lighting Up The Sky Tower campaign was named as a best use of an event to build a news brand, The Big Fight – Joseph Parker v Junior Fa Special and Call to Arms stories were finalists in the best use of print category and NZME x FENZ – Escape Week was a finalist in the most creative use of advertising formats.
Three NZME campaigns - NZME x DairyNZ – River of Change, NZME x Waka Kotahi NZ Transport Agency - Ridden, and NZME x Tourism Australia – Think You Know Australia? Think Again - are all contenders for the Best multi-client channel advertising campaign award.
The NZ Herald's Karma Personalisation Engine was named as a finalist for the best use of data to drive a business result.
Stuff is also a finalist in a number of categories.
Although pandemic coverage dominated the entries again this year, other key issues included health, climate change and reaching out to millennials via concerts, competitions, awards, tech, music and parenting.
'He has disregarded our voice and continued with this divisive kaupapa.'