The Media Online’s weekly column delivering news of award wins, entries, competitions, dates to note and winners in the media.
Alpha Ramushwana honoured by National Press Club
Alpha Ramushwana, a political and governance reporter at Eyewitness News (EWN), has been recognised with two prestigious awards at the 2025 National Press Club (NPC) Newsmaker & Journalist of the Year ceremony.
Garnering accolades in both the Radio News and Radio Features/Investigative Journalism categories, Ramushwana’s achievements herald the rise of a formidable voice in South African journalism, one shaped by rigorous training, steadfast mentorship, and an unyielding commitment to public service journalism.
Ramushwana’s fast-developing career reflects the enduring influence of the late Tshidi Madisha, former Political Editor at EWN, whose mentorship profoundly shaped his journalistic ethos. Under her guidance, Alpha was immersed in the principles of integrity, incisive political reporting, and storytelling that amplifies governance accountability.
Since joining EWN in 2022, Ramushwana’s trajectory has been characterised by relentless growth and application of his craft. He said, “This recognition is deeply humbling. It validates the intense dedication required and honours the mentorship that has been instrumental in shaping my career. Journalism is a vital public service, and I am motivated to continue elevating the stories that matter most in South Africa.”
WAN-IFRA’s press freedom award honours photo and video journalists in Gaza
The 2026 Golden Pen of Freedom, WAN-IFRA’s annual press freedom award, has been presented to the professional photographers and videographers working in Gaza.
The award acknowledges the sacrifice and endurance of local Palestinian media professionals living and working in a war zone. It also recognises colleagues injured and killed in the course of doing their job.
The outbreak of war, in response to deadly attacks launched by Hamas on 7 October 2023, has since led to over 260 journalists being killed, the vast majority in Gaza.
As foreign media have largely been prevented from entering Gaza, the burden of reporting the impact of the war – and the ensuing humanitarian crisis – has fallen squarely on Palestinian journalists in Gaza.
“There is no replacing brave, independent journalism. And there can be no replacement for journalists who day in, day out get the images out, often at appalling costs,” said David Walmsley, editor-in-chief of Canada’s Globe and Mail and president of WAN-IFRA’s World Editors Forum.
“The photo and video journalists of Gaza brought the world’s attention to a story that would otherwise have been suppressed.”
Entries open for the Excellence in Branded Content Award at this year’s Content Creator Awards
In many cases, creators have become consultants, collaborators, storytellers, and creative partners, not just talent attached to a campaign at the end. And the quality of work coming out of these partnerships is proving just how effective that approach can be. So effective in fact, that it deserves to be recognised and celebrated.
And that’s exactly why the Excellence in Branded Content Award, part of the Content Creator Awards, was created. This category exists to celebrate the agencies and brands who are doing exceptional work with creators, and to shine a light on the campaigns setting the benchmark for branded content in South Africa.
The Excellence in Branded Content Award also plays a direct role in strengthening the creator ecosystem, as it’s the only category with an entry fee, R2 900 per submission, and every entry fee is reinvested into creator development programmes.
Enter at Content Creator Awards. Entries close Sunday, 28 June 2026.
2026 Effie Awards South Africa extended deadline announced
The Association for Communication and Advertising (ACA) and Effie Awards South Africa have extended the deadline for entries into the 2026 Effie Awards South Africa programme and encourage agencies, brands, media owners, specialist agencies and clients to make use of the additional time to submit their most effective work. The new extended deadline for entries is scheduled for Friday, 12 June 2026.
Uber Eats and Special US earn top Honour at 2026 Effie Awards United States Gala
Uber Eats and Special US Earn Top Honor at 2026 Effie Awards United States Gala
The most effective marketing work in the United States was honoured at the 2026 Effie Awards US Gala, held in New York City, recognising campaigns that delivered measurable business results through bold strategy, creative effectiveness, and cultural relevance.
Uber Eats and Special US – along with PHD, O Positive, Exile and Pariah- took home the Grand Effie, the award recognizing the year’s most effective marketing effort, for their “Football is for Food” campaign.
At a time when sports marketing is more crowded than ever, Uber Eats transformed football fandom into a powerful growth platform for the brand – reframing one of America’s biggest cultural passions through the lens of food delivery. The campaign earned additional honours throughout the night, including Gold awards in Delivery Services and Brand Integration & Entertainment Partnerships.
DKMS Africa scoops three awards at MMA SMARTIES South Africa
DKMS Africa is celebrating a major achievement at the Marketing + Media Alliance SMARTIES South Africa 2026 awards, where the organisation was recognised for its impactful campaigns focused on blood cancer awareness and stem cell donor recruitment.
“As an organisation, we remain committed to using every platform available to educate, inspire and ultimately help save lives. This recognition is a powerful reminder that purpose-led storytelling can drive meaningful action. Every campaign we create encourages people to register as stem cell donors, giving hope to patients waiting to find a matching donor. We are honoured to see this work recognised on such a respected platform,” said Palesa Mokomele, Head of Community Engagement and Communications at DKMS Africa.
DKMS Africa received awards for:
- Gold in Diversity & Inclusion – World Blood Cancer Campaign 2025
- Silver in Social Impact Marketing – World Blood Cancer Campaign 2025
- Gold in Small Budget, Big Impact – From Patient Appeal to Transplant: Saving Baby Leo
Kwikot celebrates Gold SMARTIES win for KwikTok campaign
Kwikot, South Africa’s trusted name in water heating solutions, has won Gold at the MMA SMARTIES Awards for its KwikTok campaign, entered in the Cross Digital Marketing category.
The SMARTIES Awards are regarded as a global benchmark for marketing excellence, celebrating campaigns that demonstrate effectiveness, creativity and innovation across the digital landscape. For Kwikot, the Gold win marks a proud new milestone in the brand’s 123-year legacy and reflects its continued ability to evolve with South African consumers.
How Rogerwilco is winning the AI search era
Rogerwilco has walked away with five more awards for its generative engine optimisation (GEO) and AI-driven digital work at the Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA) Smarties South Africa Awards.
The wins mark the latest milestone in a remarkable year of industry recognition for its work for Stellenbosch University, Stellenbosch Business School and Africa Check, bringing its total tally to 22 awards for AI led campaigns across local and international platforms.
The Smarties wins include four golds for Small Budget, Big Impact; AI Powered Data Insights / Contextual Marketing; Innovative Use of AI in Advertising and Audience Engagement Excellence Using AI, as well as a silver for Advanced Technologies Marketing.
“We saw early that generative AI was going to fundamentally change how people find information online,” says Charlie Stewart, CEO of Rogerwilco. “This recognition is about far more than the awards, it validates that GEO is becoming one of the most important shifts in digital marketing and search visibility today”.
Red Star shines at MMA Smarties with eight award wins for Heineken Beverages
Red Star made a strong impression at the prestigious MMA Smarties 2026 Awards, taking home eight awards in total, including a highly sought-after gold for Real-Time Marketing for its Heineken UEFA Champions League (UCL) campaign.
The wins also include four silver and three bronze awards across categories spanning E-Commerce Marketing Excellence, Design and Customer User Experience, AI-Powered Data Insights and Contextual Marketing, Retail Media Excellence, and Instant Impact. Together, these recognitions reflect the agency’s strength across strategy, creativity, data, and performance.
The highlight of the evening was the gold-winning Heineken UCL campaign, which stood out in a highly competitive Real-Time Marketing category. Built around live match moments, the campaign combined smart data signals with agile, contextual storytelling to deliver timely and relevant messaging that resonated with football fans and strengthened brand connection in real time.
HOT 102.7FM Delivers Historic Achievement with Seven New York Festivals Radio Awards
HOT 102.7FM has done it again, and this time, bigger than ever. For the fourth consecutive year, the station has earned global recognition at the prestigious New York Festivals Radio Awards, widely regarded as the Oscars of radio. This year, HOT 102.7FM claimed seven wins in total: three Tower Awards and four Finalist Diplomas, beating its own record and making history as the first South African radio station to achieve this scale of recognition at the festival.
The wins span the station’s news, on-air talent and programming divisions, and are a testament to the depth of excellence across the entire HOT 102.7FM team.
Head of news, Tara Penny, claimed a Silver Tower in the Broadcast Journalist category, one of the most competitive and prestigious individual categories in global radio journalism. The news team earned a Bronze Tower for Robot Wars, their in-depth investigation into the traffic light crisis gripping Johannesburg. A further Bronze Tower went to the HOT 1027 Drive show in the Music/Personality Show category, recognising its consistent energy, talent and connection with its audience.
Three AAA students take creativity from the classroom to the global stage
Three students, one idea, and a process that never settled. This is the simplest way to explain how Team So’ Réal from the AAA School of Advertising earned its place on the global stage at the L’Oréal Brandstorm 2026 finals in Paris.
Made up of Zaiba Goolam (21), Joel Areington (22), and John Garside (21), the team recently won the South African leg of the competition, widely regarded as the world’s largest creative innovation challenge for young people. But their win is less about a single breakthrough moment and more about how they built their idea from the ground up.
A deceptively simple human truth sits at its core: in today’s fast-paced world, a small everyday pick me up can make a meaningful difference. The strength of this entry lies in how clearly it translates this insight into something tangible and commercially viable.
According to Nkosiyapha Msomi, Head of Department: Creative Brand Communication at AAA, the judges responded to more than just creativity: “So’ Réal’s entry tackled a real problem, presenting a solution that is easy to imagine in people’s lives, and is at the same time feasible, scalable, and backed by solid thinking around cost and profitability.”
The balance between creativity and rigour is not accidental. At AAA, the process begins with ruthless clarity. Students must break down a client brief into its simplest form, interrogate the brand and its context, and immerse themselves in research before a single idea is pursued. From there, multiple concepts are explored, challenged, and refined before one is selected and pushed to its limits.
For So’ Réal, this meant months of iteration. “They presented work, took feedback, reworked it overnight, and came back sharper the next day,” says Msomi. “It is a relentless process, but it is how you move from a good idea to a winning one.”
Chaos Theory wins global event award for immersive Table Mountain experience
South African experiential agency Chaos Theory and the Millat Group have earned global recognition after Skift Africa Megatrends won Bronze in the B2B Event category at the prestigious 2026 Eventex Awards – making it the only African corporate and thought-leadership event recognised internationally this year.
Now in its 16th year, the Eventex Awards are regarded as one of the world’s leading accolades for events and experiential marketing, recognising excellence across live experiences, corporate events and brand activations globally. rts.
Against this highly competitive global field, Skift Africa Megatrends emerged as one of only four African-originated winners recognised across the entire awards programme. The other African recognitions included the CAF Africa Cup of Nations Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the Cape Town International Convention Centre.
Notably, no African event received Gold or Silver in any category this year, underlining both the significance of the recognition and the opportunity for African eventing to further establish itself on the global stage.
Dentsu Africa takes top honours at the 2026 Pitcher Awards
Dentsu Africa has taken top honours at the 2026 Pitcher Awards, securing Advertising Agency Network of the Year and delivering one of the strongest cross-market performances at the continent’s leading creative benchmark.
The network’s success was led by Create Mozambique, named Advertising Agency of the Year, and winner of the Grand Prix for MozaMbique Has 2M for 2M Beer. The agency also secured multiple Gold awards across culture, media and effectiveness disciplines, reinforcing Mozambique’s emergence as a powerful creative market on the continent.
Jetour takes Car of the Year title
The Jetour T2, launched into South Africa in October last year, has won the 2026 South African Car of the Year sponsored by Old Mutual Insure. This victory marks a historic milestone, with the brand becoming the first Chinese automotive manufacturer to claim the prestigious title in the competition’s 40-year history.
Announced by the South African Guild of Mobility Journalists (SAGMJ) last night, the T2 faced tough competition. From an initial pool of 55 qualifying vehicles, the field was narrowed to 30 semi-finalists before 18 finalists were announced in January this year. The finalists then underwent rigorous evaluation by a 25-member jury panel, supported by three trainee and associate jurors, during a three-day testing programme at Zwartkops Raceway and surrounding routes.
