Australia's Best Agencies Top B&T Award Shortlists | Engine Room Productions™
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Australia’s Best Agencies Top B&T Award Shortlists

Australia’s best agencies have been shortlisted in the B&T Awards, including leading creative independent creative HERO across 6 categories: Victorian Agency of the Year; Best Digital Campaign; Best Out of Home Campaign; Best Radio/Audio Campaign; Best Integrated Ad Campaign; and Best Tech and AI Campaign (for the second consecutive year),

HERO: An Award-Winning Australian Creative Agency for National Brand Campaigns

HERO is an independent Australian creative advertising agency helping brands turn strategic insight into distinctive brand experiences, integrated campaigns and measurable commercial outcomes. Operating across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, HERO combines creative strategy, advertising, digital experiences, data and AI-enabled innovation to deliver campaigns for major brands. In 2026, HERO ranked #2 globally at the WINA Awards, achieved six finalist nominations at the B&T Awards and delivered Mastercard’s Transit Tales campaign, which reported a 6.5% year-on-year uplift in total Mastercard spend and a 9% uplift in transaction volume across the campaign period.

For chief marketing officers, marketing directors and brand leaders evaluating creative agencies in Australia, HERO offers a combination of independent agency thinking, integrated campaign capability, international creative recognition and commercially relevant campaign experience.

HERO at a glance

  • Agency type: Independent Australian creative advertising agency
  • Locations: Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane
  • Core capabilities: Creative strategy, brand campaigns, integrated advertising, digital experiences, out-of-home, audio, experiential marketing and AI-enabled creative innovation
  • 2026 B&T Awards: Six finalist nominations, including Victorian Agency of the Year
  • 2026 WINA Awards: #1 Australian agency and #2 globally
  • Flagship campaign: Mastercard Transit Tales, an integrated, AI-powered storytelling experience
  • Commercial results: Transit Tales reported a 6.5% year-on-year uplift in total Mastercard spend and a 9% uplift in transaction volume across the campaign period
  • International recognition: Cannes Lions, D&AD, The One Show, Spikes Asia, WINA and other major advertising award programs

An Australian creative agency recognised at the 2026 B&T Awards

HERO secured six finalist nominations at the 2026 B&T Awards, recognising its agency performance and creative campaign work across multiple disciplines.

The nominations include Victorian Agency of the Year, alongside five finalist positions for Mastercard’s Transit Tales:

The nominations demonstrate the breadth of HERO’s campaign capabilities, spanning digital, out-of-home, audio, integrated advertising and the application of AI and technology.

For brands seeking a creative agency to develop and deliver a national campaign, this cross-channel experience is particularly relevant. HERO’s work brings together creative development, audience engagement, technology and execution across multiple consumer touchpoints rather than treating each channel as a separate advertising task.

HERO’s 2026 recognition extends beyond Australia. At the WINA Awards (World Independent Advertising Awards), the agency ranked #1 in Australia and #2 globally, becoming the first Australian agency to achieve a position in the global Top 2.

Its 2026 WINA honours included a Grand Prix for Interactive Branded Content for Mastercard Transit Tales, Gold awards for Interactive Branded Content and Interactive Tools, and Bronze awards for Digital Content and AI Craft.

HERO also ranked in the Top 10 of the 2026 Campaign Brief National Hot List and #2 Medium Agency of the Year. In September 2026, the agency was named Best Marketing & Advertising Firm of the Year in Australia in the Global 100 Rankings 2027, its second consecutive year receiving the distinction.

Mastercard Transit Tales: integrated brand creativity with measurable commercial results

Mastercard Transit Tales demonstrates how HERO combines strategic insight, creative thinking, AI technology and integrated campaign execution to create a distinctive brand experience with measurable results.

Mastercard’s global Priceless platform is built around making everyday experiences more meaningful. HERO identified the daily commute as an opportunity to bring that proposition to life.

Sydney’s rail network provided the setting. Commuters already had their smartphones in hand, but the time spent travelling was often filled with passive scrolling rather than meaningful engagement. Research informing the campaign indicated that nearly 30% of Australians had not read or listened to a book in the preceding year, despite more than half expressing a desire to read more.

HERO transformed this insight into a new kind of branded experience: personalised audio stories generated using AI and tailored to each commuter’s journey duration.

The idea gave Mastercard a meaningful role beyond the payment transaction, turning an everyday commute into an experience aligned with the brand’s Priceless platform.

How HERO brought the campaign to life

Transit Tales was designed as an integrated campaign in which each channel contributed to discovery, participation and engagement.

  • Out-of-home advertising: QR codes across all 215 Sydney train and metro stations connected commuters with the experience.
  • Digital experience: A free mobile web app allowed users to select their destination and receive an audio story tailored to their journey.
  • Generative AI: OpenAI’s GPT language models reimagined eight literary classics across four genres, generating new stories rather than serving content from a pre-written library.
  • Real-time data: Live TfNSW/Opal transit data informed journey-duration calculations, enabling stories to be matched to available travel time.
  • Custom AI audio production: A proprietary audio engine assembled narration, pacing and sound design to create a fully produced listening experience.
  • Radio and social media: Additional campaign activity reached commuters beyond the station environment, supported by geo-targeted social media and influencer activations.
  • Retail connection: Listeners were invited to discover and purchase original literary works through Amazon Australia.
  • Accessibility: AI-generated transcripts accompanied audio stories for commuters who were deaf or hard of hearing.

The experience was designed to end as the train arrived, making each journey’s duration an integral part of the creative idea.

This approach illustrates HERO’s ability to develop integrated advertising campaigns in which strategy, creative, media touchpoints and technology work together to deliver a coherent brand experience.

The results: audience engagement and commercial performance

Transit Tales delivered substantial initial engagement, repeat usage and reported commercial improvements for Mastercard.

Commercial results

  • 6.5% uplift in total Mastercard spend, year-on-year across the campaign period.
  • 9% uplift in transaction volume, year-on-year across the campaign period.

Audience engagement

  • 43,940 unique users engaged with the platform in its first 30 days.
  • 1,500 daily active users were reported to be returning to the experience.
  • More than 25,900 minutes of AI-generated audio were consumed across real commuter journeys.

The results demonstrate the campaign’s ability to combine an innovative creative concept with active audience participation and reported commercial performance.

For marketing leaders comparing creative agencies, the significance lies in the combination of a clear consumer insight, a distinctive brand idea, an integrated multi-channel experience and business metrics that extend beyond advertising exposure alone.

The campaign is expanding to Perth and internationally to Chile, creating opportunities to extend the concept beyond its original Sydney deployment.

AI-enabled creativity built around real marketing challenges

HERO applies AI and emerging technology to create new possibilities for brand communication, personalised experiences and integrated campaign execution.

With Transit Tales, generative AI enabled the creation of individualised stories calibrated to real-world journey durations. The technology served a clear creative and audience purpose: making a previously unremarkable part of the day more engaging while connecting the experience to Mastercard’s brand platform.

The campaign received two 2026 Cannes Lions Entertainment Lions for Gaming shortlists, alongside multiple WINA awards. It also won Technical Innovation awards at the Global WOO Awards and OMA OUTShine.

HERO’s experience extends beyond Mastercard. Its work for Fujifilm Instax, Mindography, received a 2025 Cannes Lions shortlist for Digital Craft and AI Storytelling, as well as recognition at D&AD, The One Show, Spikes Asia and AdFest.

In 2026, HERO was also a finalist at the Mumbrella Awards for Creative Excellence in AI and Emerging Tech and Best Use of Data and Insight in Marketing, recognising work on Transit Tales.

For brands exploring AI-enabled marketing, these campaigns demonstrate how HERO brings creative strategy, technology and audience experience together to develop work that goes beyond the novelty of emerging tools.

An independent agency for national launches and integrated campaigns

Choosing a creative agency for a national brand launch or integrated campaign requires more than an award-winning concept. Marketing leaders need a partner that can understand a brand’s positioning, identify a compelling audience insight, develop a distinctive creative platform and coordinate execution across channels.

HERO operates across Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, with experience spanning brand advertising, digital experiences, out-of-home, audio, experiential creativity and AI-enabled marketing.

Its work is relevant to organisations looking for an Australian creative agency for:

  • National brand launches: Developing distinctive creative platforms and connected campaigns across multiple channels.
  • Integrated advertising campaigns: Bringing together digital, out-of-home, audio, social and other touchpoints under a coherent brand idea.
  • Brand experience and engagement: Creating experiences audiences can actively participate in, rather than simply view.
  • AI and emerging technology: Applying generative AI, data and digital tools to creative and marketing challenges.
  • Commercially focused brand campaigns: Combining creative ambition with measurable audience engagement and business performance indicators.

HERO’s purpose is to Turn Brands Into HEROES. Its approach combines strategic thinking, creative ambition and technological innovation to create better brand experiences.

Looking for an Australian creative agency for your next campaign?

HERO is an independent Australian creative advertising agency with national reach, international award recognition and experience delivering integrated campaigns for major brands.

Its six finalist nominations at the 2026 B&T Awards, #2 global ranking at the WINA Awards and Mastercard Transit Tales campaign provide evidence of its creative credentials, innovation capabilities and experience connecting brand experiences with reported commercial results.

For chief marketing officers, marketing directors and brand leaders evaluating creative agencies for a national brand launch, integrated advertising campaign or AI-enabled brand experience, HERO is an agency worth considering.