At a sparkling gala event at Sydney’s Doltone House, Jones Bay Wharf, Shop! ANZ has crowned the top retail marketing campaigns of the last 12 months.
The Shop! The ANZ Retail Marketing Awards were first held in 2000 and showcase the ingenuity and success of the Australian and New Zealand retail marketing industry, with entrants awarded Gold, Silver, and Bronze accolades across more than 27 categories spanning both physical displays and the shopper experience.
Raydar’s Cadbury Try Time emerged as the prestigious Tom Harris Retail Marketing Best in Show winner. Cadbury Try Time asked Cadbury Block purchasers to upload their receipt and be randomly assigned an All Blacks jersey number.
If that player scored New Zealand’s first try in the upcoming match, shoppers instantly won a share of a guaranteed NZD 50,000 prize pool. It is the first time in the Awards’ 25-year history that the Best in Show prize has been won by a campaign from New Zealand.
Grocery campaigns shone this year, with other big winners including Communicado’s Wicked Sister x Wicked campaign taking home Best Innovation and Design for PDP Foods, and Red Rock Deli’s Tunnel by The Ship Marketing for PepsiCo winning Best Display.
Occasions such as Christmas, Halloween, and sporting events are a major drawcard for consumers, reflected by the volume of entries received in the Occasion-Based categories.
Gold winners across these categories were ID Pop’s Ultimate Christmas Gifting Display for InComm Payments, IVE Group’s Myer Christmas 2025, Lithocraft’s 19 Crimes ‘Scream to Win this Halloween’ for Treasury Wine Estates, and VML’s XXXX Summer 2025 Good Life Prizes for Lion.
Retailer Exclusive Campaigns also saw a boost in popularity, with campaigns tailor-made for individual channels emerging as a key trend.
Gold prizes across Retailer Exclusive categories were awarded to IVE Group for William Grant & Sons’ Glenfiddich Aston Martin F1 Launch and Lego’s F1 x Target activation, as well as PMG’s Say it Loud… ‘GINGAAAAHHH’ campaign in liquor stores.
Digital integration within the store environment flexed its muscles. Canon’s Interactive Lift and Learn Display gave a lesson in best practice with its Gold performance; VML’s XXXX Summer 2025 Good Life proved high-level tech integrated in-venue, mobile-first education with robust data capture and shareability works to convert purchases with its Silver win; and another New Zealand favourite campaign, Cartology and Raydar’s Do Yoghurt Right for Fonterra took home Bronze.
The inaugural CARTindex AI Retail Marketing Effectiveness Award, presented to the entry with the highest effectiveness score, as determined by CARTindex AI’s design, messaging, brand recognition, and purchase trigger parameters, went to Lithocraft for Asahi Beverages Solo Energy activation.
Pet food companies also saw their fair share of success with immersive and larger-than-life POS displays proving themselves as standouts.
Both the Permanent and Temporary streams of the Speciality Retail categories were won by pet retailers – PetQuarter’s Purina Single Serve Wet Cat by Treat Retail, and Purina won Permanent; and the PetStock Giant Dog Food Pack off location display by Styleprint was crowned the best Temporary Speciality activation.
Retail Media campaigns emerged in a host of categories, but the category winner was Mars United Commerce’s Purina One Dry Dog Launch with Coles 360; Cartology and Raydar’s Fonterra Do Yoghurt Right claiming Silver, and D2C’s Lindt Dubai Style Chocolate Launch taking Bronze.
Carla Bridge, Shop! ANZ General Manager said that with the retail environment having become increasingly competitive as a result of cost-of-living pressures, effective marketing not just in-store, but all along the path to purchase has become critical to converting shoppers to buyers.
“As the retail marketing industry continues to consolidate, the proliferation of touchpoints available to influence shoppers has grown, and this is reflected in the diversity of the past 12 months’ campaigns."
More from Carla Bridge here
