"While the media industry has experienced incredible flux in recent years, this year is a time to reflect on what we’ve done right as we celebrate a decade of MOST," says Sandra Gordon, founder of the awards.

Gordon adds, "By voting for the MOST Awards, you are contributing to the continued growth of excellence in the media sector."

The aim of the MOST Awards is to motivate media owners and media agencies to improve their businesses through service performance.

Media agency employees are invited to rate the performance of the media owner sales teams, with whom they have frequent contact, and vice versa.

The online MOST Awards survey asks respondents to select the companies that they wish to vote for and requires that they are scored against a number of specific performance criteria.

Companies are then ranked according to this data. Every vote counts and adds to the sample size.

"The agencies and owners that have bought the research over the years have all benefitted from the in-depth insights and trends, allowing them to improve their service, communication and delivery levels, ultimately leading to increased sales," says Gordon.

New additions to the 2018 MOST Awards

Each year, before the MOST Awards survey is opened for voting, a series of focus groups are held, aiming to review the robustness and relevance of the research design through a consultative process with media industry stakeholders.

After consideration of the suggestions made in the focus groups held in Johannesburg and Cape Town, the following changes will be implemented:

There will be no tiebreaks

In the past, a tiebreak methodology was used by the awards in cases where voting was close. After consultation with members of the industry, however, it has been decided that even in cases where voting is divided by as little as 0.1%, a clear winner will be declared.

Media Agency survey (completed by media owners)

In 2017, a Category Specialist segment was added to the Media Agencies listings. According to the MOST Awards, after careful consideration, it was decided to return to the original format of the award.

Full-Service Media Agencies – defined as companies that offer their own in-house media planning and media buying service across more than one media category.

Specialist Media Agencies – defined as companies that offer their own in-house media planning or media buying service, or focus on only one media category.

A decade of the MOST Awards

In celebration of the MOST Awards 10th anniversary, a number of once-off accolades will be included in the awards ceremony.

They are:
  • Media Owner of the Decade
  • Media Agency of the Decade
  • Media Agency Lamb of the Decade, and
  • Media Owner Lamb of the Decade.
You can access the online survey here.

For more information, or to sponsor the MOST Awards, contact [email protected].