Financial Times, MiQ and Uber Advertising are 2024 Digiday Awards Europe finalists
This year, the companies driving innovation in Europe focused on omnichannel strategies, including leaning on first-party data and AI-driven insights to improve targeting and audience engagement. The Digiday Awards Europe finalists also share a common theme of elevating user experiences to deliver more impactful technology and campaigns.
For instance, the Financial Times is a nominee in the Best Contextual Targeting Offering category for its innovative first-party contextual targeting platform. By leveraging a proprietary editorial knowledge graph with more than 700 FT-specific topics and thousands of nuanced concepts, the platform categorizes articles with AI technology, validated by human editors for unparalleled accuracy and relevance. This hybrid approach ensures ads are placed in highly suitable contexts, driving up to 50% higher engagement and improving brand suitability. The platform’s ability to seamlessly integrate third-party blocklists provides advertisers with critical insights, helping them recover valuable inventory while unlocking new engagement opportunities.
Finalists in the Best Ad Tech Platform category include MiQ, which addresses the complexities of modern TV advertising. Its proprietary TV Intelligence platform leverages the industry’s largest and most diverse dataset, spanning more than 90 million devices globally, to deliver unmatched audience, campaign and competitor insights across linear TV, streaming and YouTube. By integrating data from 11 ACR sources and demographic datasets, MiQ empowers advertisers to optimize reach and frequency, identify underexposed audiences and make informed decisions about their media strategies. This data-driven precision allows brands to cut through the fragmentation of the TV landscape and reach their target audiences effectively and efficiently.
In the Best Use of Retail Media category, Uber Advertising earned a finalist slot for its partnership with L’Oréal. Its Armani fragrance campaign leveraged Uber’s first-party data, strategically targeting travelers heading to Heathrow and Gatwick airports, and delivering tailored Journey Ads based on real-time destinations and trip purposes. Uber’s unique ad surfaces allowed L’Oréal to engage riders at key moments — while ordering their ride, waiting for pickup and during the trip — seamlessly integrating brand messaging into the journey. By aligning precise targeting with engaging ad formats, Uber Advertising and L’Oréal highlighted the potential of retail media to connect brands with audiences in meaningful, journey-specific ways.
Stay tuned for the reveal of this year’s winners. In the meantime, see the complete shortlist below.
Agency Executive of the Year NEW
Tom Huggins, Group Digital and Data Director
Best Ad Tech Platform
AppLovin’s AI Tech Helping Advertisers Reach The Right Users
Brand Metrics: Democratising brand lift for publishers
EX.CO: The Publisher Video Platform
MiQ TV Intelligence: Unleashing the Full Potential of TV
Best Brand/Publisher Partnership
Mail Metro Media & Jet2holidays – A first-class partnership
Partnermatic – Revolutionizing European Affiliate Marketing
Sela x Newcastle United
Best Branded Content Site
Birdie: Flock, the social network for social care
Best Collaboration
Brandtech’s Pencil x Lancel – embracing Gen AI magic
Jellyfish & Swarovski collaborated with One Search Strategy
Netcore & Farmison-The Secret Ingredient to 300% Conversions
PMG & ShowHeroes – Driving awareness of BYD during the EUROs
Sela x Newcastle United – Unsilence The Crowd
Best Contextual Targeting Offering
FT Target: First-Party Context
GumGum and Havas – The BBC’s Doctor Who Christmas Specials
GumGum and OMD Belgium & Luxembourg – Dare to Be Campaign
GumGum and Starcom – leading cleaning tech brand Kärcher
Best Digital Product Innovation
Brandtech’s Pencil x Lancel – embracing Gen AI magic
Coca-Cola Greece, Rakuten Viber & Mindshare – Fanta campaign
GOLAZO.ro – innovation in sport news publishing
GumGum and OMD Belgium & Luxembourg – Martini, Dare to Be
Maestro, Equativ’s Curation Platform, Scales Alternative IDs
Uber’s Journey Ads: Reimagining in-app advertising
Best Ethical Data Practice NEW
Utiq: The Telco-powered Authentic Consent Service
Best Event
Sales & More and Komputronik’s Interactive Live Shopping
Sela x Newcastle United – We Are One
The Ultimate Team: Sport & Fashion – NYT Event Launch
Best First-Party Data Strategy
Fat Face: Branding with a Bottom Line
Mail Metro Media: first-party pioneer
pharosIQ: Distinctly different, strategically smarter.
Best Influencer Collaboration
Dexerto Media Group, PHD UK, Squarespace: Built Differently
Best Multi-Platform Campaign
Driving awareness for The Gym Group via MiQ TV Intelligence
Nissan & Teads Unveil “Get Your Own Electrified Superpower”
Old Mout & Snapchat: An AR Adventure in Moutopia
PMG & BYD – Driving awareness of a hidden EV giant
UEFA x ERC – Get Trained, Save Lives CPR Campaign
Best Purpose-Driven Marketing Campaign NEW
Birdie: Flock, the social network for social care
PMG & Woolmark – Wear Wool, Not Waste
Sela x Newcastle United – Unsilence The Crowd
Sumsub & Cloudfactory – Welcome to Greenflag
UEFA x ERC – Get Trained, Save Lives CPR Campaign
Best Use of Data
Driving 5.3% incremental reach for Nationwide with MiQ
Sky x Movable Ink: Personalized Sports Fan Engagement
Best Use of Emerging Technology
Brandtech’s Pencil x Lancel – embracing Gen AI magic
Coca-Cola Greece, Rakuten Viber & Mindshare – Fanta campaign
OPTIMISING ATTENTION: TOTALENERGIES WAVEMAKER LUMEN RESEARCH
Best Use of Interactive Content NEW
Coca-Cola Greece, Rakuten Viber & Mindshare – Fanta campaign
Maximising Leads and Wins with Turtl’s Interactive Docs
Netcore & Holzkern: Redefining Engagement with AMP Emails
Precise TV, Generation Media & Panini
Trade Republic
Best Use of Personalization NEW
Tesco’s Personalised Customer Engagement Strategy
Vyde, MGOMD & Nissan – Driving Insights-Led Personalisation
Best Use of Retail Media NEW
Currys x Epsilon: Samsung TVs hit the spot with Tech Hunters
Uber Redefining Mobility Media for L’Oréal
Best Use of Social
Reklamania Creative & DIMES Cool Lime Mix
Sales & More and Komputronik’s Effective TikTok Revolution
Tata Consultancy Services – London Marathon Campaign
Best Use of Technology
DoubleVerify, HSBC & Kepler
How Virgin Atlantic Used Tech to Inspire and Drive Bookings
Precise TV, Generation Media & Panini – Womens Super League
Optimising Cinema’s Role in the AV Mix:DCM &Lumen Research
Sela x Newcastle United – Unsilence The Crowd
Teads Ad Manager: Better results for brands and the planet
Best Use of Video
LG Ad Solutions, Digitas & Wella: Clairol Nice & Easy
Omni-Video Glow: e.l.f. Cosmetics x MiQ TV Intelligence
Nexxen x Initiative for Amazon
Reklamania Creative & DIMES Cool Lime Mix
Sela x Newcastle United – Unsilence The Crowd
Tata Consultancy Services – London Marathon Campaign
Campaign of the Year NEW
Reklamania Creative – DIMES Cool Lime Mix
Save the Children: Holding the government to account on Gaza
Editorial Team of the Year
T Brand, the content studio of New York Times Advertising
Most Innovative Publisher
GOLAZO.ro – innovation in sport news publishing
Mail Metro Media: A three-pronged approach to innovation
Most Innovative Technology Provider NEW
Brandtech’s Pencil: The only end-to-end GenAI marketing tool
Fospha Marketing Measurement Solution
Ogury, the advertising technology grounded in privacy
Outbrain
Utiq: The Telco-powered Authentic Consent Service
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