Taxpayers’ Union wins two international Reed Awards

The Taxpayers’ Union is celebrating winning two international Reed Awards, widely regarded as the top global awards for political campaigning and advocacy.

The awards, run by Campaigns & Elections, recognise the best political campaign work from around the world, including election campaigns, advocacy groups, and political consulting firms. They are are often described as the “Oscars of political campaigning” with past winners including US presidential campaigns, national political parties and major international political consulting firms.

The Taxpayers’ Union’s “Nicola’s Fudge” campaign won:

• Best International Campaign (National)
• Best International Online Video (National)

The campaign was also a finalist for Best Public Affairs Campaign.

Taxpayers’ Union co-founder Jordan Williams says the awards are a major international recognition of the organisation’s campaigning work.

“For a New Zealand advocacy organisation to take home two Reed Awards is extraordinary. We’re competing against campaigns with budgets many times our size.”

The Taxpayers’ Union’s win in Best International Campaign (National) places it alongside a number of major international campaigns recognised in previous years, including Claudia Sheinbaum’s Mexican Presidential Campaign (2025 winner), the Liberal Party of Canada 2021 Election Campaign (2022 winner), NATO’s “We Are NATO” campaign (2018 winner) and Justin Trudeau’s “Bring Canada Back” campaign (2016 winner). These campaigns typically involve national political parties or presidential campaigns with large professional campaign teams and multi-million-dollar budgets.

The Taxpayers’ Union also won Best International Online Video (National) for its “Nicola’s Fudge” campaign video. In similar Reed Award categories, winners have included work produced for major election campaigns, including US presidential campaign teams and large international political consulting firms, reflecting the scale of competition in the awards.

Williams says the win highlights the creativity and effectiveness of the organisation’s in-house team.

“The second award – for Best International Online Video – recognises the work of our in-house creative team judged alongside campaigns produced by some of the world’s largest political advertising agencies.”

The winners were announced at the Reed Awards gala in Charleston, South Carolina on Friday (NZT).

“When David Farrar and I founded the Taxpayers’ Union, we wanted to bring the best campaigning techniques from overseas to New Zealand. It’s gratifying that our work is now being recognised as among the best in the world.”

Williams says the campaign followed a clear strategic brief from the Taxpayers’ Union Board.

“The Board asked the team to design a campaign that would hold the Government to account on fiscal discipline and highlight concerns about the failure to get public spending under control or follow through on the coalition’s election mandate.”

“The brief was to create something that would cut through and explain serious fiscal issues in a way that is engaging, memorable and capable of reaching a much wider audience than traditional policy commentary. ‘Nicola’s Fudge’ was the result.”

Williams says the international recognition reflects the effectiveness of the organisation’s campaigning model and shows a small New Zealand advocacy organisation can compete on the world stage.

“Our goal has always been to punch above our weight and use smart campaigning to hold politicians accountable and stand up for taxpayers. We’re a small team compared to many of the campaigns we compete against, but this shows that a clear message and creative campaigning can go a very long way.”