News Corp Australia's digital marketing agency News Xtend has been honoured with the regional 'breakout star of the year' at Microsoft's global advertising partner and innovation awards in Seattle.

The award is made to a "rising business" which has shown exceptional acceleration and growth on the Microsoft Network "through inspired thinking, innovative business solutions, customer focus and delivering top results for their clients".

SME publishing managing director Emma Fawcett, managing director said the win was "great recognition" of News Xtend's work in the search engine marketing space. "We are building a truly world class marketing services agency in News Xtend, for small-to-medium businesses and I'd like to acknowledge and congratulate the incredible work of Todd Fisher, head of search at News Xtend.

"I already knew that the work from Todd and our SEM team was market leading in Australia, but it's fantastic to now see we are a standout in the APAC region, ensuring our customers are smashing their business goals with a world class level of service."

Paul Korber, AUNZ partner development director for Microsoft Advertising said News Xtend thoroughly deserved the award. "They are brilliant channel partners and have accomplished a huge amount in the past year with their impactful, innovative and performance-driven work."

News received the award for their work with shipping container company Royal Wolf.

Pictured: Greg Ollivier of Microsoft (centre) with Paul Korber and Dale Foenander of News Xtend