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Amazon News, Politico and Warner Bros. Discovery are finalists for the 2026 Digiday Awards finalists
This year’s Digiday Awards finalists demonstrated how innovation, audience insights and multiplatform storytelling can work together to create more engaging and accessible experiences. Their work reflected a focus on understanding audiences, reaching them across channels and turning creative investments into measurable results. These nominees represent a media landscape where effective storytelling must balance experimentation with impact, setting the stage for the next generation of audience experiences and business growth.
For instance, in the Most Innovative Publisher category, nominees include Amazon News, the team responsible for telling Amazon’s most important stories. Amazon News transformed a story about complex semiconductor technology into an immersive digital experience with a 3D journey through AWS Trainium chips. Using publishing platform Shorthand, custom illustrations and a city metaphor to explain transistors and data pathways, the team made technical concepts accessible to general audiences. Collaboration with AWS engineers ensured accuracy and enabled visual refinement. The story doubled typical reader engagement and established a repeatable model for ambitious digital journalism.
Among the nominees in the new Media Leader of the Year category is Politico’s CEO Goli Sheikholeslami. Under her leadership, Politico expanded its global political coverage and diversified its business across subscriptions, live events, podcasts and video. New investments in key markets, including Australia and Spain, strengthened its ability to connect policy developments across borders. The strategy delivered 50% growth in B2B subscription revenue over four years and 66% year-over-year events revenue growth, positioning Politico for continued financial resilience amid industry challenges.
Nominees in the Best Use of Retail Media include Warner Bros. Discovery and Ikea. To mark its 40th anniversary in the U.S., Ikea partnered with HGTV and WBD’s Courageous Studios on “Decades of Possibilities,” a four-part series revisiting iconic interior design eras through contemporary IKEA products. Hosted by design experts, the campaign combined streaming, social video and a sweepstakes to turn nostalgia into interactive brand engagement. It generated 35 million impressions, lifted ad awareness by 9 points and increased purchase intent by 9%.
Altogether, the work the judges nominated in 2026 demonstrates how organizations are delivering tailored and personal audience experiences that drive growth and performance.
See the complete list of finalists below.
Agency Executive of the Year
Kimberly Jones – Butler/Till
Chad Easterling – Obsidianworks
Alex McCord – Flywheel
Joe Conrad – Cactus
Alice Woo – New Engen
Ben Jeffries – Influencer
Best Activation – NEW
Audible Story House: the First-Ever Bookless Bookstore
Cisco Galaxy Mode: Turning a moment into adoption
Critical Mass & INFINITI: Multi-Sensory Pod
MSQ Partners – Shell V-Power Feel Closer Campaign
PMG & Bring a Trailer – Buy Diane’s Car
WildBrain Media Solutions x Teletubbies at Cannes Lions 2026
Best Branding Campaign B2B
Coast — Coast to Coast: A Cross-Country Campaign
Dell x NVIDIA and CCWSJ – The Time Is Now for AI
Mediaplus North America
Razorfish & PayPal – The Melon Mogul
TransUnion Brings Clarity to Marketing Chaos
West BBDO & Critical Mass: Wake Up with CrAIg
Best Branding Campaign B2C
Ally Rooting for Success (Urban One/One Solution)
Huntington’s Brand Refresh: Let’s Get More From Money
Murphy’s Naturals / Fitzco, “We Love Bugs”
Urban One’s Double Impact brought to you by Nationwide
Best Creative
First American Home Warranty Omni Channel Seasonal Campaign
Grubhub Gold Days
Martens BeLite & Lewis: “Rivals”
Purdue University — Daydreaming
SCAN Health Plan’s “Health Insurance is Broken”
UnitedHealthcare – “Keeping it 100”
Best Event
adidas & Gamefam: adidas Football Festival on Roblox
Footballco – House of GOAL presented by Modelo
Kentucky Bourbon Trail® x Lewis – 2025 World Bourbon Toast™
The 2026 Crunchyroll Anime Awards
The POLITICO Pub at the Munich Security Conference
Ulta Beauty World Unites Beauty Fans, Brands & Creators
Best Gaming/Esports Campaign
Coach x The Sims 4
Digiday Media & Avia – Avia x AFA FIFA World Cup Campaign
MDRN Logic & PlayStation: MLB 26 ‘Road to the Show’ Campaign
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – Launch Campaign
NFL Race to the End Zone Powered by Verizon
Nomadic Agency and Capcom-Resident Evil Requiem Game Launch
Best Multi-Platform Campaign
PBS & SwellShark
GSK and Lifetime Ask2BSure Campaign
HBO Max & Razorfish – The Re-Rebrand
Mast-Jägermeister – Save the Night Campaign
Telemundo: Y Tú, ¿Con Quién Lo Vas a Ver?”
Uber Advertising x Molson Coors – The Perfect Assist
Best Partnership
adidas & Gamefam: adidas Football Festival on Roblox
Butler/Till & PubMatic’s First Autonomous Campaign
How DHL and EFG Turned Esports Fans into Future Talent
LaserAway & Tombras: A $18.8M Affiliate Growth Engine
Sephora x Lyft: Delivered to Beauty
Sharpie & Crossmedia Score Big with Reddit Sports Fans
Best Podcast – NEW
beehiiv’s Creator Spotlight
Morning Brew Inc. – Morning Brew Daily
The Anime Effect: A Crunchyroll Podcast
Universal Entertainment – Seen on the Screen Podcast
Vanguard & CCWSJ – Better Vantage by Vanguard
Who’s the Asshole? Grindr’s Sex-Positive Podcast
Best PR Campaign
Audible Story House: the First-Ever Bookless Bookstore
BPCM – Shaped by Hope: The Story of VW Microbus “Azul”
Grindr UNWRAPPED 2025
Lewis & The City of Mobile – Protect The MoonPie
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – Launch Campaign
Movchan Agency & EVA AI – EVA AI Café
Best Product Launch Campaign
BCL x Redken- No Splits, Just Hits: Hair Bandage Balm Launch
Hellmann’s #MainFlavourEnergy
Martens BeLite & Lewis: “Rivals”
MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – Launch Campaign
R\West and CineFi – Launch of CineFi digital banking
The Shelf x Messi Fragrance Platinum Launch Campaign
Best Search Campaign
Fitzco Media & Home Instead- When Research Becomes Readiness
From Rankings to Enrollment: Ancora’s Search Transformation
Best Search Optimization Strategy – NEW
Critical Mass & First Command: Mission: Scalable SEO
Dentsu & IKEA – From Overstock to Opportunity
MMA x Reddit – Community Breadth in AI Search Strategy
Best Sports Marketing Partnership – NEW
adidas & Gamefam: adidas Football Festival on Roblox
Critical Mass: Homecourts Advantage
NFL Race to the End Zone Powered by Verizon
Saie Named Official Beauty Partner of New York Knicks
Spectrum & TeamSnap: Breaking Barriers in Youth Sports
The Athletic & eBay: Powering Sports Collectibles
Best Use of Agentic AI – NEW
ActiveCampaign x Toss & Spin: Serving Up Smarter Marketing
Agentio & Maev: Scaling Creator Ads with AI Infrastructure
Hershey’s & Kargo – Plan Build and Buy with Agentic AI
RepTwin: Intelligent AI for Real-Time HCP Engagement
Swivel — Launch of First-Ever Agent-to-Agent Media Buy
USA TODAY – Real‑Time Google Trends Newsroom Alerts
Best Use of AI
Adobe Firefly: The Unfinished Film
How AI Fueled Live Game Predictions for Avocados From Mexico
Huge & CoinTracker – Human Imagination + AI Infrastructure
MSQ Partners – Shell V-Power Feel Closer Campaign
SharkNinja & Horizon – Newton’s Agentic Unlimited Analytics
SWYM + Butler/Till + Geloso – AI-Powered Supply Control
Best Use of Creator Marketing
Coach x The Sims 4
Hellmann’s #MainFlavourEnergy
Intimissimi x January Digital: Fabric-Led, Creator-Driven
Not Influencers. Businesses.
Slate Auto Launch by Open Influence
TurboTax & Influential – Creators Own Refund Season
Best Use of Retail Media
IKEA Decades of Possibilities
iQuanti x Brother: Full-Funnel Growth Engine
Ovative + Albertsons ROAS/CAC Transparency Calculator
Pubbelly Sushi Gains 24% Sales Lift with DoorDash Ads
Ulta Beauty: Where Retail Media Meets Real-World Experience
Walmart Connect & VIZIO – Backyard Escapes
Best Use of Social
Cure Media & La Roche-Posay – NO REGERETS
Daily Mail – The Largest News Publisher on TikTok
HBO Max & Razorfish – The Re-Rebrand
TAC Universe & Dayra Market – The Refurbished Celebration
TurboTax & Influential – Creators Own Refund Season
Virtua Health – Social Media
Best Use of Video
Adobe Express – Anicorn Marketer Campaign
GSK and Lifetime Ask2BSure Campaign
JBL & Perion — Cross-Platform Video at the MTV VMAs
NFL Race to the End Zone Powered by Verizon
SCAN Health Plan’s “Health Insurance is Broken”
St. John & VISIT FLORIDA – LoveFL RAO Campaign
Campaign of the Year
Coach – Explore Your Story Campaign
Steve Madden x January Digital: Conversation to Conversion
Tecovas’ Love Letter to Texas Film
Genexa’s It Takes a Village
Hone Health: Menopause Time Off
Overtime Powers Gen Z World Cup Engagement in Race to Glory
Founder of the Year
Chad Easterling – Obsidianworks
Cassandra Morales Thurswell – Kitsch
Tyler Denk – beehiiv
Alex Dahan – Open Influence
Hudson Leogrande – Comfrt
Nils Lind – Assertive Yield
Marketing Leader of the Year – NEW
Bry Crasch – CAA Brand Consulting
Oli Walsh – Invisible Dynamics
Aruna Ravichandran – Cisco
Jamie Domenici – Klaviyo
Russell Pareti- Stateside Brands
Lauren Ratner – rhode
Media Leader of the Year – NEW
Mike Feldman – Flywheel
Goli Sheikholeslami – POLITICO
David Wisnia – NESN
Barry Dan – Obsessed Media
Jonathan Hunt – HubSpot
Kindel Washington – T-Mobile
Most Innovative Agency
Instrument – Most Innovative Agency
Dreamday
STN Digital – Most Innovative Agency
Collective Measures Named Most Innovative Agency
PMG – Engineered for Impact
Mod Op A Connected Creative Agency, Powered by ORION
Most Innovative Brand
The Context Intelligence Pivot
Yahoo’s Brand Transformation
LIV Golf: Most Innovative Brand
Huntington Bank Launches Let’s Get More From Money
poppi – Moving at the Speed of Culture
Courageous Studios – The Warner Bros. Discovery Brand Studio
Most Innovative Publisher
POLITICO — POLITICO Pub, POLITICO SMS & AI-Enabled Search
Daily Mail – The Largest News Publisher on TikTok
Exploring the intricate world of an Amazon Web Services chip
Amazon News – AWS cloud redesign story
Beyond Publishing: The Forbes Innovation Playbook
PlaySide Studios – MOUSE: P.I. For Hire – Launch Campaign
Most Innovative Technology Platform
Wrango: HCP Precision Marketing Without the Minimums
Bloomreach- The Power of Loomi AI
Klaviyo: The Autonomous CRM Built for B2C Brands
Overwolf Ads: In-Game Advertising at Scale
Oritain’s Membership Program Launch
Subtext Expands SMS Platform to Safeguard Audience Ownership
Technology Leader of the Year
Harshit Jain – Doceree
Amol Waishampayan – fullthrottle.ai
Steven Nishimura – INNOCEAN USA
Mike O’Donnell – Flywheel
Rajeev Goel – PubMatic
Nils Lind – Assertive Yield
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