What Are The APAC Search Awards?
The APAC Search Awards are the top search marketing awards aimed at recognising agencies and individuals in the Asia Pacific Region hosted by Don’t Panic.
The 2026 APAC Search Awards were presented at a live event in Melbourne, Australia in January. The event was home to 47 different awards presented across Organic & Paid search marketing. There is also an individual award category for professionals under 30 called the Emerging Talent Award.
Asia-Pacific Search Awards WINNERS
Digital Surfer was named a Finalist in 13 different categories at the APAC Search Awards 2025, with myself being named winner of The Emerging Talent Award for the second year in a row.
Ryan Chilton – 2x Emerging Talent Award WINNER 2025 & 2026
I had the privilege of being named the Emerging Talent Award Winner for 2025 and again in 2026. Winning back-to-back awards is something I am personally so proud of. However, this award isn’t just about me. No one succeeds alone, and I’m lucky to have an amazing team behind me at Digital Surfer. From the owners who have given me such a great opportunity to my team who support me on any campaign I work on… this win is just as much theirs.
While awards aren’t everything, it’s certainly something I can be proud of, but really to me, it’s just more motivation to improve myself further to ensure I can share both my knowledge & experience with others & any client I work with.
Highlights From Winning Campaigns
The Best Integrated Campaign 2025
My campaign for Concrete Floor Renovations was named the winner of the Best Integrated Campaign for its combined use of SEO & Paid Ads to deliver outstanding results for the client.
Partnering with Concrete Floor Renovations (CFR), Digital Surfer delivered a seamless, data-driven strategy that blended SEO and paid advertising to fuel business growth.
The campaign included:
- A highly targeted SEO strategy, including detailed content clusters and blog posts optimised for long-tail keywords and featured snippets
- A localised Google Ads campaign, leveraging Performance Max and Search Ads to reach high-intent audiences
- Implementation of call tracking and conversion optimisation, ensuring every lead was captured and measured
This campaign proved the power of a truly integrated digital marketing approach, where SEO and PPC work together to drive sustainable, long-term business success.
The Most Innovative Campaign 2025
I worked closely with The Gold Coast SUNS Hospitality team to create a brand-driven SEO & Web design strategy that enabled them to grow their hospitality sales & business networking program. The Aim was to ensure the hospitality site portrayed a consistent brand in SERP while allowing for Non-branded searches to help grow the SUNS presence online.
This campaign saw me redesign and optimise the SUNS hospitality website, integrating it into the club’s main domain to boost brand authority & consistency. A strategic SEO campaign was implemented, focusing on branded and non-branded search visibility.
The results were outstanding:
- Record-breaking number of sold-out games in the hospitality sections.
- 37% growth in the SUNS In Business networking group.
- A great increase in non-branded visibility for business networking searches.
This campaign demonstrated how SEO is more than just rankings—it’s about brand consistency, user experience, and conversion-driven growth.
Asia-Pacific Search Marketing Awards 2026
Having been one of the few agencies in the room to win a combined 8 awards at the APAC Search Awards over the years, we sit in the top 10 agencies for APAC award wins.Â
While 2024 was an excellent year for Digital Surfer, 2025 continued their growth and now 2026 has started on a high trajectory with the team attending the APAC Search Awards in Sydney with plenty of other big things to come from myself and our whole team.
If you’re looking to partner with an Award-winning agency then get in touch with myself or Digital Surfer to get started levelling up your business.
APAC Search Awards 2025 Recap
- 🏆 WINNER – Most Innovative Campaign (For Our Campaign for The Gold Coast SUNS Corporate & Hospitality)
- 🏆 WINNER – Best Integrated Campaign (For Our Campaign for Concrete Floor Renovations)
- 🏆 WINNER – Best Pan Asian Campaign (For Our Campaign for CosMediTour Thailand)
- 🏆 WINNER – Emerging Talent Award (Ryan Chilton)
- 🏅 FINALIST – Best Local SEO Campaign (For Our Campaign for Plus One Vet)
- 🏅 FINALIST – Best SEO Campaign (For Our Campaign for Main Lawyers)
- 🏅 FINALIST – Best PPC Campaign (For Our Campaign for CosMediTour Thailand)
- 🏅 FINALIST – Best Use Of Data (SEO) (For Our Campaign for Plus One Vet)
- 🏅 FINALIST – Most Innovative Campaign (For Our Campaigns for Main Lawyers)
- 🏅 FINALIST – Best Small Integrated Agency (Digital Surfer)
The Best Integrated Campaign 2025
My campaign for Concrete Floor Renovations was named the winner of the Best Integrated Campaign for its combined use of SEO & Paid Ads to deliver outstanding results for the client.
Partnering with Concrete Floor Renovations (CFR), Digital Surfer delivered a seamless, data-driven strategy that blended SEO and paid advertising to fuel business growth.
The campaign included:
- A highly targeted SEO strategy, including detailed content clusters and blog posts optimised for long-tail keywords and featured snippets
- A localised Google Ads campaign, leveraging Performance Max and Search Ads to reach high-intent audiences
- Implementation of call tracking and conversion optimisation, ensuring every lead was captured and measured
- This campaign proved the power of a truly integrated digital marketing approach, where SEO and PPC work together to drive sustainable, long-term business success.
The Most Innovative Campaign 2025
I worked closely with The Gold Coast SUNS Hospitality team to create a brand-driven SEO & Web design strategy that enabled them to grow their hospitality sales & business networking program. The Aim was to ensure the hospitality site portrayed a consistent brand in SERP while allowing for Non-branded searches to help grow the SUNS presence online.
This campaign saw me redesign and optimise the SUNS hospitality website, integrating it into the club’s main domain to boost brand authority & consistency. A strategic SEO campaign was implemented, focusing on branded and non-branded search visibility.
The results were outstanding:
- Record-breaking number of sold-out games in the hospitality sections.
- 37% growth in the SUNS In Business networking group.
- A great increase in non-branded visibility for business networking searches.
This campaign demonstrated how SEO is more than just rankings—it’s about brand consistency, user experience, and conversion-driven growth.
2025 APAC Search Awards Recap
APAC Search Awards 2024 Recap
APAC’s Best Small Integrated Agency 2024
The APAC Awards brings together the best marketing agencies & individuals from across the Asia-Pacific to celebrate our industry’s best campaigns.
However, enough about that. We’re here to see who won!
Digital Surfer and I had the pleasure of taking out the top award in 3x categories, with my client work being named as the WINNER of “The Best SEO Campaign” & “The Best Local SEO Campaign” awards
The excitement didn’t just end there. Digital Surfer was Also Named “The Best Small Integrated Agency” for 2024.  These awards recognise the endless dedication & hard work our team shows for all our clients.
The Best SEO Campaign
The Campaign that won “Best SEO Campaign” at the 2024 APAC Search Awards was for Main Lawyers, a small law firm based on the Gold Coast Australia. As the legal space is so competitive it’s no surprise that being a small law firm can make it hard to compete in the online space. However, that’s not the case for Main lawyers.
The SEO campaign I run for Main Lawyers focuses on a number of different strategies including, location-specific services pages, a detailed blog that targets the firm’s key service areas and a strong focus on the overall experience when using the site.
The results of this campaign speak for it’s self. Main Lawyers outranks several huge competitors for the majority of their key service areas and blog articles which has resulted in an impressive 363% increase in organic traffic.
The Best Local CampaignÂ
The 2024 APAC Search Award-winning “Best Local SEO Campaign” was for Plus One Vet – A new veterinary clinic in Brisbane that opened in early April 2022. Since opening the campaign saw great success with a targeted local strategy which won an award in 2022. Since then we have continued to grow, with Plus One Vet opening its second clinic location after just 18 months.
With the Opening of a new clinic, we needed to optimise the website to be able to drive bookings to both locations. This is where we saw our location-specific strategy really take off. With detailed & targeted location pages that are aimed at ranking in the surrounding suburbs from both clinics, we were able to again increase organic traffic by 161% (274 Jun 22 to 715 visitors in Aug 23). From this, we now have 15 targeted location pages ranking on the first page of Google. We also saw another 119% increase in calls directly from the two Google Business Profiles.
As Plus One Vet continues to grow our strategy and continued partnership grows with them. With hopes to open further clinics in the future.
2024 APAC Search Awards Recap For Digital Surfer
APAC Search Awards FAQ's
How to apply for the APAC Search Awards
The Application process for the APAC Search Awards is as simple as filling out your nomination form detailing your campaigns, goals, strategy and achievements. Applications are limited to 1000 words and when submitted must be accompanied by the fee to enter the prestigious awards.
Where are the APAC Search Awards event Held?
The APAC Search Awards Event was held at Zinc at Fed Square in Melbourne, Australia. The overall event, venue and awards organisation was excellent which provided a great night for everyone in attendance.
Why are The APAC Search Awards Important?
The APAC Search Awards are an important recognition within the Search Marketing industry. The awards not only brings some of the best marketing minds in the Asia-Pacfic to enter the awards, but some of the industries highest calibre marketers are judges. This ensures that any awards given are well deserved and kept to a high standard which makes winning an APAC Award even more important.
