Seven campaigns. Seven shortlists. Four categories. A load of brilliant work.
The MPA awards (run by the Manchester Publicity Association) celebrate the very best work across media, marketing, advertising, creative and digital, and we’re incredibly proud to see Carat recognised with seven shortlist nominations.
Spanning data-driven digital planning and integrated entertainment to editorial partnerships and long-term brand building, each shortlisted campaign demonstrates the role great media can play in changing behaviour, not just delivering reach.
Here’s what made the shortlist ….
From Insight to Impact: Greggs Xmas Wins
Category: Best Digital Campaign | Client: Greggs
In an economy defined by rising inflation and squeezed household budgets, consumers are reassessing even their smallest everyday purchases. Food-on-the-go, once an impulse habit, has become a considered choice, while even low-cost gifting options face growing scrutiny.
Using Blis’ Audience Explorer and proprietary geo-behavioural insights, we moved beyond broad demographic targeting to identify the audiences most likely to purchase gift cards during the crucial last-minute Christmas shopping window. By analysing footfall patterns from the previous festive period, we identified consumers exhibiting ‘last-minute shopper’ behaviours, including busy city workers and convenience-led shoppers frequenting retail and business districts in the run-up to Christmas.
The gift card campaign was built on an omni-channel, data-driven strategy designed to drive real-world behaviour while enabling robust, end-to-end measurement.
By turning behavioural insight into measurable commercial impact, the campaign delivered Greggs’ strongest festive gift card performance to date and demonstrated the power of intelligent planning backed by robust measurement.
Good for the Soul
Category: Best Media Campaign & Best Sales Team Campaign | Client: VisitScotland
VisitScotland’s ‘Good for the Soul’ platform was built around a simple truth: everyone finds something different restorative. Together with Mail Metro Media, we created a campaign that inspired people to look beyond Scotland’s most familiar destinations through trusted editorial storytelling and an AI-powered interactive map that personalised recommendations based on individual travel motivations.
The partnership combined creativity, technology and premium media environments to encourage exploration and drive meaningful travel consideration.
From Play to Purpose
Category: Best Media Campaign | Client: Co-op
Following a major cyberattack, the Co-op faced a high-stakes choice: remain a victim or become the catalyst for change.
That was the starting point for From Play to Purpose, a multichannel content partnership designed to arm parents and guardians with the tools to guide tech-savvy children away from a life of cybercrime.
Together with The Guardian and The Hacking Games, the partnership transformed a business challenge into a national conversation about ethical hacking and online safety, creating trusted editorial content that helped parents, teachers and young people navigate a growing societal issue.
It’s a powerful example of how media partnerships can build trust, spark meaningful conversations and create impact beyond traditional marketing objectives. And that courage really worked. The bespoke post campaign effectiveness study results were brilliant, and every campaign metric overdelivered on benchmarks.
From Behind to Front of Mind
Category: Best Media Campaign | Client: Co-op Funeralcare
The funeral category is uniquely complex. Demand is urgent, emotionally charged, and largely driven by need. Decisions are made in compressed, high-stakes moments where mental availability is everything.
In removing the “fuss”, new competitors were removing what mattered the most. A funeral isn’t a transaction to optimise. It’s a moment to feel something, to say something and to remember a life.
We live in a culture that values self-expression more than ever. People increasingly want life’s biggest moments to feel personal and meaningful – and our role was to reflect that, strengthening our relevance and emotional connection with our audience. We were zigging, whilst everyone else zagged.
Our media planning followed a simple, uncompromising principle: to rebuild mental availability we needed to maximise quality reach and effective frequency among 45+ adult audiences – before the moment of need.
The campaign was a huge success. We restored share of voice, rebuilt mental availability, and re-established Co-op Funeralcare as the brand people think of first when it matters most. Crucially, we did so not by chasing price, but instead by elevating the category – bringing humanity, meaning and distinction back into funeral care.
Where to Next?
Campaign: Best Integrated Campaign | Client: VisitScotland
Partnering with Channel 4, we turned travel into entertainment. Where to Next? was a branded entertainment series where comedians John Tothill and Fatiha El‑Ghorri travelled across Scotland, competing to be crowned the country’s ‘best tourist’.
Armed with nothing but a microphone and local recommendations, the pair set out to uncover hidden gems, from ancient castles and rugged coastlines, to grooming cows in the south of Scotland.
Our duo took on challenges and experienced Scotland in a way that felt spontaneous, human and real.
The idea was built on a simple but powerful truth: People don’t want to be told where to go, they want to discover it for themselves.
By combining humour, competition and real interactions, the campaign made discovery feel earned, not instructed. Where to Next? showed Scotland through experience and created content audiences actively chose to watch and share.
This wasn’t a travel advert, but a travel experience told through entertainment. The campaign was a huge success for VisitScotland, delivering over 7.4 million views, and 1 in 3 respondents saying they would consider taking a holiday or short break in Scotland in the future.
Make it a NERDS Summer
Category: Best Integrated Campaign
To relaunch NERDS in the UK, we knew the brand needed more than a campaign – it needed a cultural moment. Working with Global, Make it a NERDS Summer brought the playful spirit of the brand to life through Capital’s Summertime Ball, combining live experiences, social content, on-air activity, retail partnerships and experiential activations into one fully integrated campaign.
By putting audiences at the centre of the action, NERDS became part of one of the UK’s biggest summer moments, driving impressive gains in awareness, consideration and brand affinity.
Being recognised across seven shortlist nominations is a fantastic achievement and reflects the brilliant collaboration between our clients, partners and teams. Congratulations to everyone involved in bringing these campaigns to life, and best of luck to all of this year’s finalists at the MPA Awards 2026. We can’t wait for the ceremony on the 15th of October 2026.
