Campaign has published the shortlist for the Campaign Media Awards 2026, one of the UK advertising industry’s most established celebrations of media planning, buying and effectiveness. The announcement, made on 30 March 2026, sets up a highly anticipated awards ceremony scheduled for 30 April, where winners across a range of categories will be revealed.

The Campaign Media Awards recognise outstanding media work from agencies and brands across the UK market, covering disciplines from channel planning and data-driven targeting to creativity in media execution and cross-platform integration. The awards are positioned as a benchmark for agencies seeking to demonstrate commercial impact and innovation for their clients, with the shortlist typically drawing entries from the full spectrum of the UK media landscape — from major network agencies to independent specialists.

The 2026 shortlist arrives at a pivotal moment for the UK media market. IAB UK’s full-year Digital Adspend report, published earlier in March, confirmed the market had exceeded £40 billion in 2025, driven by accelerating investment in video, retail media and digital out-of-home. Those growth areas are likely to feature prominently in shortlisted entries, as agencies seek to demonstrate that budget shifts into emerging formats are delivering measurable results for clients.

The awards also arrive in the context of a broader industry conversation about media effectiveness measurement. Sky Media research published in March showed that addressable TV campaigns deliver a 2.1 times uplift in awareness compared with linear TV alone, a finding that is likely to inform entries across several of the awards’ performance-focused categories. Judging panels typically include senior marketers from major UK brands, giving the awards additional weight as client-side validation of agency media work.