Ally Financial, Mediacom, Ad Council, Brady, and McKinney Win 2021 MMA SMARTIES Best In Show Awards

NEW YORK, Nov. 11, 2021 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- Ally Financial and Mediacom's Animal Crossing wins Best in Show for SMARTIES X and Ad Council, Brady, and McKinney's "End Family Fire - No Extra Life" Campaign wins North America Best in Show

"The work submitted this year represented an abundance of ingenuity, empathy, and innovation, demonstrating how brands have reimagined how to best engage today's consumers" according to Greg Stuart, CEO of MMA Global

Celebrating the most imaginative and innovative work that marketing talent and agency teams have created over the past 2 years to drive business impact, MMA GLOBAL announced the winners for the 2021 SMARTIES X and SMARTIES North America Awards during the Smarties Unplugged Virtual event, November 9-10.

SMARTIES X is the world's first marketing award recognizing innovation. It is the highest achievement across the globe honoring and awarding outstanding innovation resulting in significant business impact for brands, agencies, media companies and technology providers. NORTH AMERICA SMARTIES honors the most effective modern marketing in the United States and Canada.

The winners were selected from among hundreds of submissions across more than 20 countries and were initially evaluated by the SMARTIES Screening Council of over 100 marketing professionals representing leading brands, agencies, and technology enablers across the globe to determine the shortlist. These shortlisted campaigns were then reviewed in virtual jury sessions by the MMA's independent jury, which is comprised by some of the best marketing minds in the industry led by jury co-chairs, Danielle Koffer, Chief Client Officer, Mindshare and Amy Martin Ziegenfuss, SVP, Global Enterprise, and Brand Marketing, Hilton Worldwide.

Mindshare was a top SMARTIES winner overall, with 28 SMARTIES X Awards representing Unilever, Pepsi, Kotex, Dove, Castrol, KFC, Nautilus and more.

Two remarkable campaigns earned the biggest accolade of the Award Program receiving Best in Show honors.

SMARTIES X Best in Show winner Ally Financial tackled a way to reach their COVID-Quarantined customers in a never been done before way. Animal Crossing, a gaming app, made learning financial literacy fun and found an interactive and effective solution to motivate people to adopt smarter financial behaviors.

SMARTIES North America Best in Show winner, Ad Council, Brady, and McKinney focused on the increase of U.S. sales of guns and ammunition, and COVID-19 regulations leading to loneliness, isolation, and despair. They created End Family Fire campaign, a video PSA, print, and OOH gun awareness campaign promoting gun safety to improve gun storage practices, thereby helping to prevent gun suicides.

Categories for this year's awards span across technology, media and marketing which distinguishes work that really stood out, made an impact for their brands, and are amongst the most innovative and forward-thinking leaders in the marketing industry today. With an expanded eligibility window - SMARTIES X, honors were given to work that first appeared in public between January 2020 – July 2021, and SMARTIES North America for work between June 2020 – July 2021. To see the full list of Gold, Silver and Bronze SMARTIES Award recipients visit the 2021 SMARTIES Winners Gallery.

"The MMA is pleased that in the ten years since we first established The SMARTIES Award in North America, it's become a global platform that is increasingly recognized for its emphasis on the future of marketing, consistent with the mission of the MMA to help to shape the future of marketing. Increasingly, we are recognizing that the use of data, technology, and analytics have become more essential to winning entries in addition to delivering superior experiences, meaningful utility, and attention-grabbing creativity." Louis Paskalis, President and Chief Operating Officer of MMA Global

About the MMA:

Comprised of over 800-member companies globally and 15 regional offices, the MMA is the only marketing trade association that, brings together the full ecosystem of marketers, martech, and media companies working collaboratively to architect the future of marketing, while relentlessly delivering growth today. Led by CMOs, the MMA helps marketers lead the imperative for marketing change – in ways that enable future breakthroughs while optimizing current activities. The MMA is committed to science and questioning and believes that creating marketing impact is steeped in constructively challenging the status quo encouraging business leaders to aggressively adopt proven, peer-driven, and scientific best practices, without compromise. The MMA invests millions of dollars in rigorous research to enable marketers with unassailable truth and actionable tools. By enlightening, empowering, and enabling marketers, the MMA shapes future success, while also propelling business growth.

Members include 1-800-Flowers.com, Adobe, Activision Blizzard, Ally Financial, AppsFlyer, AT&T, Bank of America, Campbell's, Chipotle Mexican Grill, Chobani, Choice Hotels, Clear Channel Outdoor, Colgate Palmolive, CVS Health, Diageo, Dunkin' Brands, eBay, E*TRADE, Ford, General Motors Company, Google, GSK, Hilton Worldwide, IBM Watson Advertising, Kargo, Kroger, L'Oreal, Marriott International, Match Group, Mastercard, McDonald's, Merkle, Meta, MillerCoors, NBCU, Neustar, Peloton, Pinterest, Roku, Salesforce, Samsung, Snap Inc., Target Inc., The Coca-Cola Company, The Walt Disney Company, T- Mobile, Twitch, Twitter, Uber, Unilever, Universal McCann, Vibes, Visa, Walmart, Waze, Yahoo! and many more. The MMA's global headquarters are located in New York with regional operations Asia Pacific (APAC), Europe/Middle East/Africa (EMEA), and Latin America (LATAM). For more information see http://www.mmaglobal.com.

Media Contact

Louis Paskalis, MMA Global, + 1 646 257 4515, [email protected]

SOURCE MMA Global

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