
Each year, the Smarties Awards recognize campaigns that use technology to break new ground in modern marketing. The innovation award is presented by the marketing association MMA Germany, which brings together representatives from the fields of marketing, martech, and media.
The «Share with Care» campaign won two gold awards in the categories «Innovative Use of AI in Advertising» and «Brand Purpose / Activism.» Through this initiative, Deutsche Telekom promotes the responsible use of images of children in digital media. At the heart of the campaign is an emotional ad featuring «Ella»—an AI-generated alter ego of a nine-year-old girl. «Ella» was created using so-called deepfake technology based on images like those many parents post of their children on social media. She powerfully confronts viewers with the negative consequences that sharing such photos online can have. The campaign was developed in collaboration with partner agencies Emetriq and Adam & Eve/DDB.
The «EURO 2024 AI Goal Alert: Instant Updates for Fans!» campaign received another Gold Award in the «Innovative Use of AI in Advertising» category. In collaboration with the OOH provider Ströer and the agency Mataracan, Mindshare delivered real-time goal notifications for all 117 goals scored during the 2024 UEFA European Championship to more than 5,000 digital OOH screens and an additional 2,000 screens in Telekomstores. This was made possible by innovative AI-powered technology that automatically identified goals as they were scored, created advertising content, and
published in near real time.
The sequel to the successful «Against Online Hate» campaign won another gold award. The cross-media campaign «Against Hate Speech 3.0 – The Power of a Comment» was honored in the «Social Impact Marketing» category. An emotional TV commercial tells the story of an escalation in reverse—illustrating how a single positive comment can change everything. The campaign was created in collaboration with partner agencies Emetriq and Saatchi & Saatchi Germany.
WPP was also honored with one of the evening’s top awards. The agency network, which includes Mindshare, received the award for «Agency Network of the Year.».
You can find all the other winners here.
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