The Most Awards Celebrate Media Excellence And Strengthen Industry Partnerships In South Africa

The Most Awards! are open for voting. Pictured: Previous Most Award winners (Image supplied)

Award categories include Media Owner of the Year, Media Agency of the Year, Rising Star Award, Legend Award, Sales Team of the Year, and Media Owner Lamb Award (for outstanding individual contribution).

The Awards are presented by Arena Holdings, with research partner Freshly Ground Insights.

Lyndon Barends, MD: Strategic partnerships and events at Arena Holdings, says that the Most Awards have always been about celebrating excellence and strengthening relationships across the media ecosystem.

“What makes it truly unique is that it is built on peer-to-peer evaluation, with media owners and agencies rating each other’s performance directly, with every voice carrying equal weight, from junior executives to CEOs.

“The enhancements introduced this year reflect our commitment to keeping the Awards relevant, inclusive, and aligned with the evolving needs of our industry.”

What’s new in 2025?

The 2025 edition introduces several key research updates to reflect the evolving media landscape:

• Merged print media category

  Newspapers and magazines now fall under a single Print Media category, acknowledging the consolidation within the magazine publishing sector.

• New criteria: Effective use of data and insights

  Both media owners and agencies will now be evaluated on their ability to leverage data for strategy, audience targeting, and campaign performance.

• Availability and engagement

  For media agencies, the “Availability” criteria have been updated to “Availability and Engagement,” reflecting the industry’s demand for more responsive, collaborative partnerships.

• Stronger vetting process

  This year’s category listings have undergone the most rigorous review to date, with media experts consulted to ensure accurate placement, especially for hybrid and digital roles.

• High engagement target

  The survey aims to secure over 500 responses, ensuring a highly representative and credible outcome.

  “My estimation is that we’ve got between 800 and a thousand people in the whole industry actively involved in the buying or selling of media, so getting 500 is a 50 to 60% response rate, which is which is huge,” says Brad Aigner of Freshly Ground Insights.

• Academic validation in progressIndependent researchers are reviewing vote weighting and margin of error to enhance transparency and robustness of the results.

Media industry professionals can participate in the survey and vote at here.