Refinery29 UK wins Publisher of the Year at the Digiday Media Awards Europe

The Digiday Media Awards Europe is a new Digiday awards program that recognizes companies modernizing European media. Other winners include Vice UK for Video Team of the Year; Reuters for Best Use of Technology for its Reuters Connect content platform; and The Times of London for Best Use of a Podcast and Best Email Newsletter.

View all of this year’s winners below.

Publisher of the Year
Refinery29 UK

Publishing Executive of the Year
Melissa Chapman, CCO, Jungle Creations
As the third hire at video creation company Jungle Creations, Chapman has overseen the growth of the company from its first days to being the second most viewed company on social media, above the likes of BuzzFeed, LADbible, Group Nine Media, UNILAD and Disney.

Video Team of the Year
Vice UK
Instead of relying on short-form videos for social feeds, Vice focuses on long-form videos that examine global issues affecting young people, including politics, mental health, drug culture and nightlife.

Best Content Studio
24sata – 24sata Native
In 2017, 13-year-old Croatian news outlet 24sata created a native advertising studio. The company grew revenue 40 percent last year by convincing advertisers such as Coca-Cola and contraceptive pill Pliva to invest in digital content in a traditionally conservative media market.

Best Brand Partnership
Brave Bison and Sports Interactive – “Park Life”
To drive interest for Sports Interactive’s desktop computer game “Football Manager 2018,” video content company Brave Bison created a four-episode YouTube series called “Park Life” that chronicled the ups and downs of a group of football players, weaving elements of the game into the story.

Best Social Video Campaign
Ladbible Group – “Trash Isles”
To draw attention to lethal levels of plastic in the world’s oceans, Ladbible Group encouraged young people to sign up as residents of the Trash Isles, the first country made out of trash. By becoming a country and a U.N. member, the Trash Isles would be protected by U.N. environmental principles, obligating other countries to clean it up.

Best Use of Technology
Reuters Connect
Reuters Connect is a digital content platform available to journalists, partners and other customers that houses all Reuters’ 14 million pieces of content, including interactive graphics, videos, photos and visual archives dating back to 1896.

Best Brand Video – Series
24sata and Coca-Cola – “Share the Dream”
To drive awareness of Coca-Cola’s Shake&Take rewards app among kids and millennials, 24sata created a scripted YouTube series chronicling students at the fictional YouTube Sciences Academy, where young YouTubers perfect their art.

Best Brand Video – Single
DMS Media and Toyota – “Fredric Aasbø and the Donuts From Space”
DMS Media’s campaign for Toyota’s GT86 model involved creating the world’s largest piece of drift artwork, which was visible from space.

Best New Vertical/Brand
Football Whispers
Football Whispers, launched in 2017, uses proprietary sports data and engaging visuals to deliver detailed analysis of every aspect of a football game. Its first algorithm was Transfer Index, which predicted the likelihood of a transfer, and it has since added six more algorithms, including Player Values, Predicted Lineups and Player Ratings.

Best Use of Snapchat
VG – Snapchat Discover
VG, Norway’s largest newspaper, used Snapchat starting in January 2017 to reach millennials with a 11-snap daily news edition that VG says 1 million people view each month.

Best Use of Facebook Live
Lime Pictures – “Hollyoaks Slice of Summer”
To keep viewers engaged with British soap drama “Hollyoaks” during the summer, when viewership tends to fall, Lime Pictures worked with broadcaster Channel 4 to bring five post-show discussions to Facebook Live in July 2017, reaching over 2 million people.

Best Use of a Podcast
The Times of London and Sunday Times – “Walking the Dog”
The Times put a spin on the celebrity interview, inviting prominent British celebrities like presenter Jonathan Ross, former football player Gary Lineker and comedian Sarah Millican to speak candidly about their careers, personal lives and, of course, their dogs.

Best Use of a Messenger Bot
MummyPages – Pregnancy Bot
MummyPages, Ireland’s leading website for new and expectant mothers, developed a bot in-house that would deliver information whenever a woman requested it, then ask her how she feels and tailor information to her based on her responses.

Best Live Event
Refinery29 UK and Nars – “Power Mouth”
To drive awareness of makeup brand Nars’ new Powermatte Lip Pigment, Refinery29 UK combined its makeup expertise and artistic roots to create “Power Mouth,” a two-day event at London’s Protein Studios featuring digital art, photography and live performances from up-and-coming female artists.

Best Use of Audience Data
Jukin Media – “People Are Awesome”
Video content company Jukin Media combed through thousands of submissions to create its roundup video “People Are Awesome,” which features people performing activities like skateboarding, competitive jump roping, champion cup stacking, juggling and skydiving.

Best Email Newsletter
The Times – Red Box daily politics briefing
Started by the Times after the 2014 U.K. general election, Red Box is a daily political briefing that aims to explain why political events occur and their importance. It also promotes the Times’ political podcast, also called “Red Box,” and subscriber-only Times+ events held around the U.K.

Best E-Commerce Strategy
Ringier Axel Springer, Newsweek Polska and Savings United GmbH
Leveraging affiliate links and a trusted news source, Ringier Axel Springer monetized links on Newsweek Polska, achieving market leadership in the Polish voucher code industry.

Best Branded Content Program – B2B
WP BrandStudio and Siemens – “Defending Against a Cyber Attack”
To build Siemens’ recognition as a cybersecurity leader, WP BrandStudio created a 3D experience where users learn how a cyberattack occurs and how to limit these risks.

Best Branded Content Program – B2C
WSJ. Custom Studios and National Geographic – “Connecting Cultures”
To celebrate the anniversary of airline alliance Star Alliance, WSJ. Custom Studios and National Geographic created a series of short films about the places Star Alliance’s airlines serve, from Thailand to the Arctic.

Best Mobile Innovation
Gatwick Airport Official app
Gatwick Airport wanted to create a more useful airport app for the millions of people that pass through each day. The app surfaces useful features of the airport for travelers, including a mobile-friendly reservation system for the airport’s parking lots, augmented reality wayfinding through the airport and the ability to purchase a fast pass through security queues.

Best Custom Advertising
Snickers and Spotify – “The Hunger Spotter”
To refresh its 5-year-old slogan, Snickers worked with Spotify to identify when streamers weren’t listening to their usual music genres, and Spotify then served them Snickers ads with the familiar “You’re not you when you’re hungry” messaging.

Best Multi-Platform Video Campaign
Ladbible Group – “Trash Isles”

Best Live Moment
Social Chain and Superdry – Firestream
U.K. clothing retailer Superdry capitalized on the social spectacle of the U.K.’s Bonfire Night on Nov. 5 by aiming to blow up a Superdry-branded Volkswagen Beetle filled with fireworks. On Facebook Live, users commented “FIRE” to ignite a fuse leading to the car. The payoff was £250 ($332) in Superdry vouchers.

Most Innovative Video Partner
Jungle Creations
Socially driven publisher and creative marketing agency Jungle Creations, which counts Virgin, Unilever, Oreo, Iceland and McDonald’s among its clients, generated over 507 million video views for clients in 2017.

Most Innovative Web Platform
Appsumer
Appsumer is a unified data intelligence platform that calculates return on investment on ad spending for performance marketers in the mobile space.

Best Interactive Content Platform
Trigger Global and Lego – Lego House Fish Designer
To inspire children through play, Lego created a hub at the Lego House in Billund, Denmark, where children can use Legos to build undersea creatures. Kids scan and upload finished designs to the Fish Designer, a digital underwater world.

Best Video Marketing & Advertiser Platform
LoopMe
In 2016, mobile-first video advertising platform LoopMe launched PurchaseLoop, an artificial intelligence-driven video product that optimizes video campaigns for clicks and views.

Best Video Distribution Platform
Brightcove and GSN – Walter Presents
To refine its over-the-top strategy, streaming platform Walter Presents used Brightcove’s OTT Flow product to alleviate costs while enabling the scale needed to reach the desired audiences and markets.

Best Native Advertising Platform
Strossle – Zoznam Audience Boost
Concerned about the duopoly’s influence on audience traffic, Zoznam, one of Slovakia’s top media companies, turned to Strossle, an audience-sharing platform that uses AI to market content to other, relevant audiences in a publisher network. Zoznam saw higher user engagement from other media sites than from platforms.

Best Display & Programmatic Advertising Platform
SpotX
SpotX is a video advertising platform that enables publishers to monetize premium content across desktop, mobile and connected TV devices. In the last 12 months, SpotX has built out its digital video marketplace, introduced further audience data safeguards, invested in video format platform Vemba and worked with DoubleVerify to identify fraudulent inventory.