Havas, Grey, British Gas and more are winners in the Digiday Marketing and Advertising Awards Europe

Winners of this year’s Digiday Marketing and Advertising Awards Europe include Grey London, British Gas and Havas. Winning campaigns put the spotlight on such contemporary topics as climate change, the representation of female athletes and emphasizing love over hate.

Comedian Sanderson Jones hosted Tuesday’s gala at London’s Spitalfields Venue in London. Judges for this year’s crop of entries included marketing executives from Jellyfish, Bonnier Publications and Rezonence, while the guests in attendance hailed from companies ranging from CNN and the Economist to Reuters and Savings United.

Here’s the full list of winners: 

Best Brand/Influencer Collaboration
Karmarama, Influencer, the British Army: “Your Army Needs You”

The British Army wanted to bolster its recruitment, so it turned to the Karmarama agency and social influence company Influencer to build a campaign targeting young people. The third campaign in a series done for the British Army, “Your Army Needs You” is designed to show young people that their resilience, creativity and other skills can serve them well in a military career.

Best Agency/Client Collaboration
Wilderness Agency and Discovery Channel UK

The social media mavens at Wilderness Agency achieved organic reach to the tune of 425 million video views over six months for Discovery Channel UK’s social content. The most extensive bump in engagement came on Facebook, according to David Leggs, Discovery Channel’s marketing communications director.

Most Innovative Use of Content 
DİMES and Yemek.com: DİMES Voice Command

Established in 1963, DİMES launched its Voice Command Assistant in partnership with Yemek.com as a way to further integrate its products into the morning routines of its target audience.

Best In-house Content/Brand Studio
CNN International’s Create

CNN International’s Create in-house creative studio serves the company’s studios around the world and it has crafted campaigns for Visit Budapest, India’s tourism ministry and Lexus.

Best Branded Content Series
Resident Advisor and Asahi: “Japan’s Hidden Listening Bars

Online music magazine Resident Advisor created a video series in partnership with Japanese beer Asahi to highlight the best listening bars in Tokyo. Listening bars (venues specifically created to listen to DJ-presented music) have been popular in Japan for more than 30 years. These establishments of this nature have opened in recent years across the United States and the United Kingdom.

Best Use of Social
AnalogFolk and Nike Italy, “Nulla Puo Fermaci (“Stop at Nothing”)

Nike Italy enlisted social media agency AnalogFolk to come up with a message to inspire a new generation of female athletes. The agency created “Stop at Nothing,” a campaign spotlighting four female athletes involved in soccer, boxing and other pursuits as they took on various TikTok and Instagram challenges.

Best Use of Video
Havas Media and Absolut Vodka: “Drop of Love

Vodka purveyor Absolut wanted its latest limited-edition bottle to serve as a symbol for conveying a message of love in a world that seems to be full of hate. Thus, the campaign showcases ink removed from hate signs at protests that was repurposed into ink for Absolut’s Love bottle.

Best Use of Native Advertising
VG Partnerstudio and Stiftelsen Norsk Luftambulanse

Stiftelsen Norsk Luftambulanse, a Norwegian humanitarian organization that treats people with acute illnesses and injury, turned to VG Partnerstudio to bring to life the story of a man whose Greek vacation nearly ended in a tragedy, averted by his swift actions. The messaging aimed to make clear the need to dial emergency services providers like Stiftelsen Norsk Luftambulanse in such situations.

Best Use of AI
Xaxis, Mindshare, GTB and Ford Norway: “Converting on Cruise Control

Ford Norway wanted to increase the number of website conversions, so it turned to Xaxis (specifically its division devoted to Europe, the Middle East and Africa) and media agency Mindshare for help. Using a year’s worth of Adobe Analytics material, Xaxis and Mindshare created customized programmatic advertising strategies for different segments of visitors of Ford’s Norwegian website.

Best Product Launch Campaign
Arena Media and Havas Portugal: “Covering Portugal with NOS Giga”

In the summer of 2018, cable operator NOS covered all corners of Portugal for the first time. Arena Media and Havas Portugal brought awareness about its coverage by with the help of the classic Portuguese song “A Minha Casinha” (“My Little House”). They commissioned 11 contemporary Portuguese artists to reimagine the song for a new generation, using only their instruments, voices and NOS’ Gigabit internet network to connect with one another.

Best Paid Social Campaign
Grey London, WPP, Facebook and the United Nations: “The People’s Seat

Planners hoped September’s Climate Change Conference at the United Nations would end up serving as a historic moment in efforts to address climate change. To open up the conversation about the crucial topic, Grey London created something called the People’s Seat. The agency invited people from all over the world to submit via social media their questions, comments, concerns and fears about climate change. All this input was fashioned into a speech delivered at the conference by acclaimed nature documentarian Sir David Attenborough.

Best Social Good Campaign
Tug Agency and the World Wildlife Fund: “Stop Plastic Pollution”

Last January the World Wildlife Fund worked with Tug Agency to develop a way to highlight the crisis of surging plastic pollution. The resulting petition called for governments and world leaders to arrive at a legally binding agreement to halt the entry of plastics into the ocean by 2030. The goal of gathering 10,000 signatures was far surpassed, with more than 44,000 collected.

Most Effective and Measurable Campaign
British Gas, Mediacom and Flashtalking

In May 2018, Google announced its plans to remove the Google ID from its ad-server log files; this meant that marketers could no longer track Google audiences with external technology. As a result, British Gas opted to switch its ad server from Google to Flashtalking, allowing the utility to own the ad-server data and keep independent attribution, according to Patrick Smith, digital marketing manager for British Gas.

Best Branding Consumer Campaign

Coca-Cola and Rakuten Viber: “Easter Egg Fighter”

Coca-Cola and Rakuten Viber built upon their 2018 Easter bot activation, creating what they believe to be the first in-bot game on Viber. The game, Easter Egg Fighter, has a fully personalized game flow and lets users invite and challenge their friends. The result: 215,000 new members were added to the Viber community profile.

Best Direct Response Campaign
Nano Interactive, VCCP Media, Villa Plus and Sandals

Caribbean holiday cruise line Sandals wanted to attract customers to cruises in December and January. Search marketing agency Nano Interactive created a direct response campaign with contextual advertising and strategic keywords, resulting in a 30 percent rise in conversions from one month to another.

Best Search Campaign
Brainlabs Digital and Eastpak: “Packing a Punch”

Eastpack, which specializes in providing bags, backpacks and travel accessories, tapped Brainlabs to revamp its messaging from zeroing in on its products to highlighting lifestyles and purpose. Keyword bidding was focused on research and exploration terms as opposed to product terms like “backpack.” Users were sent to tailored landing pages that were more about landscapes than products.

Best Multi-Channel Content Distribution Strategy
Initiative Russia and Unilever: “Talking Ice Cream

When the FIFA World Cup was held in Russia in 2018, Unilever wanted its Inmarko ice cream brand to stand out as the perfect refreshing snack. Its challenge: to support the FIFA theme without being a sponsor. The campaign resulted in sales benchmarks being exceeded. 

Best Influencer Marketing Platform
Influencer

With its influencer-marketing platform founded by creators for creators, Influencer lets influencers connect with campaigns, and brands can vet influencers.

Best Marketing Automation Platform
Impact

Impact offers a software as a service technology platform with a range of automation possibilities for agencies and publishers alike, including influencer marketing, affiliate marketing, mobile partnerships, business development, fraud protection and analytics and attribution.

Agency of the Year
The Goat Agency

As a global influencer marketing agency, Goat stresses that the best way to reach people on social media is through influencers. Thus, it created a customer relationship management system that evaluates the effectiveness of influencers so that brands can make informed decisions about partnerships.

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