Last night marked the AdNews 31^st Anniversary Agency of the Year Awards. A fantastic night held in the Star Ballroom. Hosted by the very funny ‘tongue and cheek’ Gretel Killeen, who kept the audience at the edge of their seats. The night saw in over 700 people from the advertising, marketing, and media industry. 

The night saw so many nominations and winners with brilliant campaigns. For me, one of the highlights from the evening was the emotional speech from The Toms (the leaders of M&C Saatchi Sydney), who have been honoured as 2018 entrants to the Advertising Hall of Fame. Their speech left everyone wanting to work with their best friend for the next 26 years.

As the founding sponsors of the AdNews People & Culture Award, we want to reward the companies that invest in their people. The companies that go that step further to embrace change and diversity within the workplace. Massive congratulations to the finalists - Adrenalin, The Royals, and The Works Sydney, all of whom had brilliant entry’s demonstrating how they put their people first. This was The Royals and The Works second year as finalists.

I am happy to announce that the winners of the People & Culture Award are the REA Group. How does the REA Group have the best Culture? They are committed to their staff’s wellbeing by holding three-day quarterly events, where people can work on their own initiatives such as health coaching, fitness classes and much more. They are accredited as a White Ribbon Workplace - recognised for taking steps to prevent domestic violence and respond to violence against women. This is just a snippet of what the REA Group do to keep their staff happy, their efforts have contributed to a staff engagement score of 85%. The REA group has set the standard very high for next year’s entrants.  

In the coming blogs, we will be interviewing all finalists, as we are keen to share what they do to make them the best of the best of the industry for People and Culture.

To check out more from the night, have a look at our Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter.