September 25, 2026
Victoria Pawsey, Global Brand & Media Partnerships Director at BCG, was announced as the winner of the 2026 World Media Award (WMA) for Content Leadership & Innovation last night at the annual awards ceremony in London. This prestigious accolade celebrates individuals recognised by their peers for creating outstanding international content-led campaigns that embody brand bravery, creativity and innovation.
Pawsey was selected for the Award for her role as the strategic sponsor behind BCG’s transformation of content marketing from a series of media placements into an international thought-leadership platform. Pawsey has experience across all sides of the media landscape, having started on the publisher side, moving to an agency and now being at a brand. As the Director of Media Partnerships driving BCG’s multiple campaigns, including with The Wall Street Journal, she has consistently backed ambitious ideas, brought the right BCG experts and clients into the conversation, and made the collaboration more useful, measurable and creatively distinctive with each iteration.
“Working with Victoria has shown what’s possible when a client brings real ambition to a media partnership. She doesn’t just approve ideas, she shapes them: pushing our teams to be sharper on the brief, more disciplined on measurement and more willing to try new formats,” said Chris Woodall, Head of European Advertising, The Wall Street Journal, and Co President of the World Media Group “What stands out is the trust she’s built between BCG’s experts and our commercial editorial and creative teams. That’s rare, and it’s exactly why partnerships like this work.”
“I’m honoured to be recognised for content leadership and innovation, but this award belongs to everyone who’s been part of building these partnerships, such as with the Wall Street Journal,” Pawsey said. “It’s testament to what can be achieved when you push the boundaries on content-led collaborations with the right media partner. As an advertiser, supporting trusted journalism is so important, not just because it’s the right thing to do, but because it’s often where the most engaged and influential audiences are.”
Creating a cross-format platform for credible business voices
The progression of Pawsey’s leadership is visible in the work itself. In 2023, BCG and WSJ tackled the information gap around generative AI through The Competitive Edge and Generative AI at Scale, pairing a WSJ Tech Live sponsorship and BCG main-stage thought leadership with a post-event content experience across long-form, mobile-first and video formats. The campaign generated more than eight times its video view goal, with C-suite and senior decision-makers nine times more likely to engage than the comparable WSJ benchmark.
Pawsey and team then scaled the model through Future Forward: Driving Value for Infinity, a custom content hub combining documentary-style storytelling, animated explainers and executive interviews, exploring how AI creates value across industries rather than simply cutting costs.
Throughout her 18-year career, Pawsey has been an active sponsor rather than a passive approver, shaping the brief, protecting editorial standards and using performance reporting to refine formats and distribution. In doing so, she has built a cross-functional environment in which BCG marketers, subject-matter experts and client executives work seamlessly alongside publishers’ custom content, editorial, creative and analytics teams.
Pawsey joins an eminent line-up of senior marketers who have been named as Content Leader including:
- Christoph Woermann, CMO Corporate Bank, Deutsche Bank (2025)
- Ann Gordon, International Marketing Lead for the GREAT Trade and Invest campaign, UK Government’s Department for Business and Trade (2024)
- Navin Rammohan, VP, Segment Head Marketing, Infosys (2023)
- Khaled AlShehhi, Executive Director of Marketing and Communication, UAE Government Media Office (2022)
- Kaat Vanderheyde, Managing Director for Brand & Customer Experience Design, FedEx (2021)
- Johan Jervoe, Chief Marketing Officer, UBS (2020)
- Christine von Hoerde, International Media Management, Audi AG (2019)
Read more about the WMA Content Leadership & Innovation Award winners here.