Gold
GoldA Cry for Hydration
- Entrant
- Imago OGILVY
- Country
- Croatia
- Brand
- Studena
- Advertiser
- Radenska
This campaign is built entirely on local culture and behavior. It uses "Narikače" (traditional Croatian mourning performers) and reimagines them as Studena Wailers in everyday situations people instantly understand. The campaign also builds on a local social habit: tagging friends to call them out. The tone, humor, and scenarios are specific to the Croatian mindset. Because of this, the idea could not be replicated without the same cultural context, making the brand feel genuinely and powerfully local, not just located in a place.
Brand Context
How does a local water brand break through in a commoditised category where everyone claims 'natural' and 'pure'? Studena is a Croatian spring water brand sourced in Lipik. While inherently local, it faced a critical challenge: the bottled water category had become a sea of sameness. Generic messaging about purity and nature had made the entire category easy to ignore, with consumers defaulting to price or convenience rather than brand preference. For Studena, this created three interconnected problems: a business challenge of justifying its premium positioning, a marketing challenge of low brand salience, and a behavioral barrier where con...
Silver
SilverGetting real about saving and investing
- Entrant
- Magic
- Country
- Latvia
- Brand
- SEB
- Advertiser
- SEB
The strategy was built on a simple insight: people avoid saving and investing because it feels distant and easy to postpone. So instead of motivating people with inspirational financial success stories, SEB chose to confront the culture of postponement directly.
The campaign used bold, black-and-white messages that challenged popular excuses and addressed financial procrastination head-on. The tone was intentionally direct, honest and stripped of typical financial advertising clichés.
Rather than presenting investing as an expert activity, the communication reframed it as a normal, everyday habit.
This platform extended across saving, investing and pensions, including the launch of the Next Generation pension solution.
The goal was not to sell individual financial products, but to remove hesitation around financial decisions and make the first step feel accessible.
By replacing complex financial language with clear, relatable messages and simple digital entry points, the campaign turned investing from something distant into something people could realistically start today.
SilverThe Pink Oath
- Entrant
- McCann Riga
- Country
- Latvia
- Brand
- Pink Train Foundation
- Advertiser
- Pink Train Foundation
Once intentions are stated publicly, people are 30% more likely to follow through. And one of the most powerful ways to put intentions into words is an oath. The fundamental oath in medicine is the Hippocratic Oath: a pledge to do good, avoid harm, and treat every patient as you'd want to be treated yourself. But doctors can't help patients who don't show up. To bridge this gap, we encouraged women to take the Pink Oath to make their breast health a priority — the first pledge for women to put themselves first. The campaign was designed as a digital-first ecosystem, where every touchpoint drove participation and sharing. To scale engagement, influential Latvian women (from politicians to media personalities) shared personalized oath videos across social platforms, adapting the message to their audiences and professions. This triggered a wave of user-generated content, as women created and posted their own Pink Oaths. Digital momentum was amplified through PR and extended into real-world touchpoints, including clinics and partner platforms. A mobile mammogram, promoted through digital channels, enabled women to act on their pledges, connecting online commitment with offline behavior...
Bronze
BronzeEUR 1,000 that Saved a Bakery from Bankruptcy
- Entrant
- Independent PR & Communications consultant Greta Šeibelytė
- Country
- Lithuania
- Brand
- Macaroom
- Advertiser
- MB Skonio fiesta
One consultant. EUR 1,000. Seven weeks. Only organic reach. No agency, no team, no third parties, no paid media.
The insight: media doesn’t cover products – it covers stories. And audiences don’t fall in love with products – they fall in love with people.
The strategic and creative solution was to change the business focus and reinvent the hero product. Macaroom stopped competing as another macaron studio and became the home of Lithuania's largest “Medutis” collection – a modern reimagining of the nation's most nostalgic dessert, built specifically for this campaign.
Through earned media, the personal story of two friends behind every cake, and a charitable tasting event partnered with the Food Bank, the campaign reached 3.8 million potential contacts (135% of Lithuania’s population), secured 11 national TV features, and grew sales by 75%.
The bakery, once weeks from closing, now has queues at its door.
BronzeThe Aluminati
- Entrant
- McCann Riga
- Country
- Latvia
- Brand
- Alumni Association of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga
- Advertiser
- Alumni Association of Stockholm School of Economics in Riga
SSE Riga is the most prestigious economics school in the Baltics. It needed to raise 200'000 from alumni in 40 days to fund scholarships. But years of polite requests had stopped working. So we asked a different question: when is a large sum of money raised fast? When there is something to lose. We created The Aluminati and turned fundraising into a ransom. A secretive organisation abducted a beloved professor. To get him back, alumni had to pay. This was not a donation. This was a rescue mission. A ransom newsletter was delivered to all alumni. The tone was clear. Immediate action was required. A live donation platform tracked the ransom in real time. Every milestone unlocked new content. New clues. New messages. Rising tension. A leaderboard stoked competitive egos. "Who cares the most" became the only question. To fuel rivalry even more, social media challenged alumni cohorts. Classes competed and pride was on the line. Physical props blurred fiction and reality. We even created realistic silicone fingers with artist Brenda Jansone. Polaroid photos hinted at conspiracy boards. And we made a huge 2x4m board on the university premises. Sometimes, to save scholarships, you have to...
Shortlist
ShortlistDon’t Be a Guinea Pig (Ära ole katsejänes)
- Entrant
- La Ecwador
- Country
- Estonia
- Brand
- Republic of Estonia Health Board
- Advertiser
- Republic of Estonia Health Board
In Estonian, “guinea pig” translates culturally as “katsejänes” — literally, “test rabbit.”
Young people are increasingly choosing beauty services based on price, social media appeal and availability rather than verified expertise. When an unqualified provider is “still practicing”, someone inevitably becomes the person they practice on.
By turning that person into a literal beauty-enhanced guinea pig, we made an invisible health risk instantly visible — and gave consumers one simple action: check the provider’s qualifications before you trust them.
Before the campaign’s official launch, we created a fake Instagram account, @bunnybeauty_angela, posing as an inexperienced beauty provider. Within a week, it gained 200+ followers and received real booking requests from young people eager to get cheap lashes and permanent makeup. We even ran Q&As asking followers which unverified beauty products we should order from sketchy third-country marketplaces. Instead of raising red flags, people actively joined in and expressed which nails/lashes they wanted to see on themselves.
To push the experiment further, influencer Hanna Martinson visited Angela for a “permanent makeup” appointment....
ShortlistStop excuses. Start moving.
- Entrant
- Magic
- Country
- Latvia
- Brand
- HIGH FIVE
- Advertiser
- Latvian Public Service Media
“High Five!” (Latvian: “Dod Pieci!”) is an annual charity marathon by Latvian Public Service Media, broadcast across radio, television and digital platforms. By 2025, it had already taken place 11 times. To maintain public attention and motivate donations, each year requires a new narrative that resonates both emotionally and socially.
In its 12th year, the communication of “High Five!” was built on the following paradox.
Every year, nearly 500 children in Latvia need financial support for rehabilitation therapies that help them move independently, yet many are not covered by public healthcare funding.
At the same time, Latvia is one of the most sedentary countries in Europe, with 61 % of residents physically inactive.
This contradiction revealed a powerful insight: those who can move often choose not to, while those who desperately want to move often cannot. The strategy was to transform the campaign into an integrated ecosystem where each channel reinforced the core idea: Stop excuses. Start moving.
The campaign transformed a charity marathon into a nationwide movement – activating audiences across media, public space and real-life behaviour.
In just one week, it achieved a r...
