Let’s talk about the recently announced 2026 Global Media Awards shortlist. Here, I want to talk about the Best Idea to Grow Advertising Sales or Revenue finalists.

Most of the 10 finalists across five regional/local and five national/international brands share an underlying shift away from selling scale and toward selling audience quality, intent, or the capacity to demonstrate measurable outcomes.

Regional and local brands

• Imtest/Vertical Hub: from Print Niche to Digital Powerhouse (Funke Mediengruppe, Germany) documents how a legacy print product-testing brand was rebuilt as a digital-first operation (not just digitised but structurally rebuilt.) Production and monetisation were redesigned around user intent and modular digital assets. Operating costs fell 42%, total revenues grew 24%, and digital revenues grew 128%, driven by a shift from display to affiliate commerce, intent-based buying guides, and product quality seal licensing. The unit now operates as a centralised content hub feeding multiple Funke brands. (This entry is also a finalist in Best Revenue Diversification, so I’ll only cover it fully here.)

• Lula and News24 Partnership (News24, South Africa) is a multi-channel SME awards and survey campaign that turned a near-zero client relationship into a 5.1x return on investment driving R11.3 million in total media value against R2.2 million in spend across display, video, newsletters, social, and a live event. The commercial relationship with the client has already moved to discussions for multi-year partnerships in 2026 and 2027.
• Together Long Island: Brand360 Cause Marketing Initiative (Newsday New York, United States) drives incremental revenue from corporate social responsibility budgets by spotlighting the community work of local businesses and non-profits through Newsday’s Brand360 content studio. Year one: four founding partners, 50+ community partners, 13 million+ gross print impressions, and over US$500,000 in incremental revenue. The programme is ongoing, and the team behind it will walk through how it works in our Advertising Initiative Webinar on April 29.
• Unlocking Regional Potential: The HERO Transformation Journey (Nordwest Mediengruppe, Germany) is a sales strategy built on a simple insight: 80% of digital revenue comes from three product types — interstitials, display, and advertorials. Rather than maintaining a broad portfolio, Nordwest concentrated resources on those formats and created designated lanes between local sales teams and digital specialists. In year one, ePaper revenue was up 50%+ (€460K to €700K), local digital revenue crossed €1 million for the first time, and active display clients increased 10x.
• Philly First + Changemaker Spotlight (Philadelphia Inquirer, United States) is a scalable branded content format built around civic reputation storytelling centered on profiles of people and organisations making a positive impact in the Philadelphia region. Changemaker Spotlight is repeatable by design: 1.5M+ guaranteed impressions per campaign, six-figure multi-year partnerships via modular upsells, 77% of readers reporting a more positive perception of featured organisations, and Philly First articles averaging more than 2x the pageviews of a typical Inquirer story.

National and international brands

• Ad Manager by DPG Media, a Local Alternative to Big Tech (DPG Media, Netherlands/Belgium) is a proprietary self-serve advertising platform reaching more than 80% of the Dutch and Belgian Internet population monthly. In 2025, Ad Manager reached 97% year-over-year revenue growth. An AI suite delivered a 30% uplift in performance proxies while keeping eCPM stable. First-party data now powers 67% of video and 95% of display revenue within the platform. Documented advertiser results include a 27.3% brand lift for Naïf Care, 50% CPA reduction for Leukstetickets.nl, 14% cost savings for TUI shifting from Google DV360, and +46% engaged visits for EuroParcs. It is the most comprehensive example in the shortlist of what it looks like to build and operate owned advertising infrastructure at scale.
• In-Market: A First-Party Intent Strategy Built to Drive Real Business Outcomes (Irish Independent/Mediahuis Ireland) identifies consumers demonstrably in the market to purchase across 10 commercial categories and activates those audiences for advertisers. The strategy drove €200,000 in new revenue in year one. Viewability averaged 83% vs. a 65% Irish industry benchmark; click-through rates averaged 0.26% vs. 0.07%, a 271% uplift. Documented bottom-funnel outcomes include two confirmed Volkswagen vehicle sales, 166 qualified leads, and 86 purchases in month one for a new savings brand, and 1,200+ monthly conversions for Tesco Mobile, which has renewed five consecutive months. 
• Back Australia (News Corp Australia) started with an insight showing Australians wanted to support local business but lacked clarity on how. The news company built a 12-brand, multi-platform campaign movement around it. Partners included Harvey Norman, Westpac, Coles, Bunnings, Qantas, and BHP, running across the full News Corp network. Independent YouGov research confirmed a +15% lift in intent to prioritise Australian-made purchases and a +10% increase in those “very likely” to change their spending behaviour.
• Premium World from Ozone (Ozone UK) extends Ozone’s publisher coalition model to 36 international markets with hand-selected premium publishers. In year one: £2.6 million in incremental revenue across 56 campaigns with 34 multinational advertisers and 24 agency groups. Quarterly growth ran at +105%, +247%, and +349% in Q2, Q3, and Q4 respectively. One campaign redirected a £400,000+ pan-regional budget initially destined for social media to publisher inventory. 

• HOW — Radio Show (Stuff Group, New Zealand) is a weekly radio show built to protect an existing client relationship. When Chemist Warehouse announced plans to launch a national radio property and only one non-competitor operator existed in the New Zealand market, Stuff built the show itself, positioning it as a multi-platform wellness ecosystem spanning print, digital, audio, video, social, and events rather than a standalone channel buy. Overall client revenue grew 6%. The underlying point: Publishers who wait for clients to expand into adjacent channels risk losing those clients to competitors who will build those channels for them.

Implications from the Best Idea to Grow Advertising Sales or Revenue finalists

• First-party data is moving from infrastructure to commercial product. The Irish Independent, DPG Media, and NZME entry in the next section are all building advertiser-facing products directly on intent and behavioural data, consistently outperforming benchmarks for viewability, click-through, and conversion.
• The most distinctive entries started with audience insight, not a product. Back Australia, Philly First, and the News24/Lula partnership all began with a research-grounded understanding of what an audience cared about, then built commercial structures around it.
• Publisher collaboration at the coalition level is commercially viable. Ozone’s Premium World is not a hypothetical but a product generating +349% quarterly revenue growth by year one, quarter four.
• Organisational clarity is underrated. Nordwest’s HERO strategy is less about a new product than about concentrating resources on what actually works. The same logic applies to most publishers carrying a product portfolio that has grown faster than their sales team’s ability to sell it.

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