TLDR
Unilever has won Campaign of the Year at the awards run by Cartology, Woolworths' retail media business, for the second year running, this time with Rexona Rivals. Cartology says the campaign brought in 539,000 new-to-brand shoppers and grew sales by more than 20%.
KEY TAKEAWAYS
Unilever again
Unilever has won Campaign of the Year at Cartology's 2026 awards for the second year running, this time with Rexona Rivals. The campaign also won the new Best Use of Unified Planning category, which Cartology, Woolworths' retail media business, created to reward joint planning across brand, trade, agencies and retail media.[1] B&T reported the award was collected by the Rexona and WPP Media team.[3] Last year's winner was also a Unilever brand, Vaseline Gluta-Hya.[4]
The footy-code fight
Rexona Rivals took on Australia's "which footy code is best?" argument.[2] Unilever, its media agencies, Cartology and Woolworths planned it together early, and it ran across a creative takeover of Woolworths Town Hall in Sydney, retail out-of-home, in-store formats and digital.[1]
Cartology says it brought 539,000 new-to-brand shoppers, grew sales by more than 20% and delivered the highest single week of deodorant sales across Woolworths.[1] In an August case study, it said every participating category grew by double digits and Woolworths' total market share rose 0.9 points. "This isn't media tacked onto a sales promotion, this is unified Retail Media," said Robbie Lawson, Cartology's general manager of commercial and strategic solutions.[2] The results are Cartology's own and have not been independently verified.
The other winners
Mondelez International was named Partner of the Year. Other winners included General Mills' Old El Paso, Mondelez's Cadbury Easter, Lego, Coca-Cola Europacific Partners and Swisse.[3]
"In today's challenging market where value is more critical than ever for customers, this year's winning entries highlight the pivotal role Retail Media plays in keeping brands in the basket and delivering real commercial impact," said Tony Prentice, Cartology's director of client partnerships and sales.[3]
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James Dore is founder and editor of Prompt the Market and Strategy Director at Bushnote, a Sydney strategy, SEO and AI search agency. He has a background in strategy, media and financial services, and led consumer product marketing at MONEYME. He writes on AI search, answer engines, technology policy and media economics.
