Havas Sports & Entertainment, Haymarket Automotive Studio and the International Paralympic Committee are Digiday Media Awards Europe winners in 2021

The 2021 Digiday Media Awards Europe honors the companies, technologies and campaigns that have modernized European media over the past year. This year’s finalists proved they could produce impactful, innovative and topical work and programs, even as they navigated business challenges created by privacy laws — and the pandemic.

This year’s winners pivoted in times of uncertainty, but they also listened to what the data had to tell them. This led to an ever-expanding range of platform choices, channel approaches and audience engagement tactics. It prompted our winners to dive into issues that mattered to their constituencies and to modernize and modify their messaging based on the ways customers turned to e-commerce and social media as a baseline for the shopping journey.

Among the judges’ picks this year, Havas Sports & Entertainment partnered with Puma and walked away with Best Virtual Event for the French rapper Alonzo’s virtual musical tour. In the middle of the pandemic and lockdowns, Alonzo touched down in the video game ‘GTA V’ for a fully in-world performance. The virtual experience opened up a world of connections that only the digital space can offer. In the end, Havas stood out with a campaign that brought light to dark times, gave an artist back to his fans and pushed the envelope in terms of what virtual can do for brands going forward.

Also in the winning column in 2021, Haymarket Automotive Studio kicked off 2020 with three standout campaigns for CUPRA, Toyota GAZOO Racing and BMW. The Haymarket team developed COVID-19 protocols to safely shoot video content for Ford and Skoda during the pandemic, keeping their clients’ campaigns alive and reaching consumers during a time when many brands were forced to pause marketing pushes. Haymarket emerged as Best Content Studio in 2021.

When it came to the category of Best Podcast, the International Paralympic Committee put up the winning entry with ‘A Winning Mindset.’ Partnering with Allianz to provide a platform for Para athletes to discuss their empowering and inspirational stories, ‘A Winning Mindset’ worked with its subjects to tell phenomenal, if often harrowing, life experiences. These stories were covered with an eye for the details that put audiences’ own human lives into context and helped drive a cultural shift in the way differing abilities are perceived.

Explore all the winners of the 2021 Digiday Media Awards Europe below — including a quick rundown of the campaigns and insights into why they won and what marketing teams can learn from them. Download the complete guide here.