Nord & Smith has been named a finalist for Innovative Media Agency of the Year at the NEXT Awards APAC, taking the same category from the national stage to the regional one.

The recognition follows a strong run at home. Nord & Smith recently won Bronze for Most Innovative Media Agency of the Year at the NEXT Awards Indonesia 2026, presented on 8 October at Pullman Jakarta Central Park. Being shortlisted at the Asia Pacific level for the same category suggests the work holds up beyond a single market, and that is the part we find most meaningful.

The category itself explains why. It rewards agencies that deliver strong business results, make audience engagement more effective and change how brands reach people. That is a higher bar than running a good campaign. A good campaign can be well executed and still leave the way a brand reaches its audience exactly as it was. Innovation in this category means shifting that approach, and proving the shift produced results the client could measure.

That standard matches how we work. As a data-driven out-of-home media agency, we start from evidence about where attention actually forms in the city and build plans around it, rather than defaulting to the largest or most familiar format. In a market like Indonesia, where audiences move through dense, fast-changing urban environments, the gap between a placement that looks good on a plan and one that gets noticed on the street is wide. Closing that gap is the work we care about.

Being a finalist at the APAC level also puts that approach in front of a wider field. Agencies across the region are dealing with the same questions: how to prove the value of media spend, how to compete for attention against the algorithm, and how to make physical media accountable in the way digital has long been. Seeing where Indonesian practice stands in that conversation is useful in itself, whatever the final result.

We are grateful to the NEXT Awards jury for the recognition at both levels, and to the clients and partners whose campaigns gave us the room to do this kind of work.

Get your OOH campaign planned and executed with the right strategy with Nord & Smith, the most accurate data-driven OOH agency you can definitely trust.