The inaugural Internationalist AI AWARDS FOR BETTER MARKETING revealed a striking truth: artificial intelligence is no longer just an emerging tool—it is fundamentally reshaping how marketers deliver relevance, resonance, and results.
Twelve pioneering campaigns from around the world showed that AI doesn’t replace human creativity—it supercharges it. From turning grocery data into joyful personal narratives to using generative AI to spark childhood wonder, the winners demonstrated how AI can make marketing smarter and more emotionally intelligent.
What the AI Awards Say About Marketing’s Future. See Trends.
Audi — The Audi Audit: AI Clears the Clutter
Submitted by PHD Germany
Audi transformed the way used cars are sold online by deploying a custom-built AI to clean and curate thousands of dealer images in real time. By removing clutter like logos and outdated pricing banners, and selecting the most appealing photo for each vehicle, Audi upheld its premium brand standards while optimizing Google Vehicle Ads. The result? A +250% surge in vehicle reservations, a 300% ROAS, and a sleek, trustworthy digital showroom experience powered by AI.
Burgenland Tourismus — Future targeting for Burgenland Tourism
Submitted by MEDIAPLUS Austria
To address the challenge of last-minute travel planning in Austria’s sunniest region, Burgenland Tourismus launched an innovative AI-powered campaign that used real-time occupancy forecasts to dynamically adjust media spend across mobile, desktop, and Digital Out of Home. By integrating “my rate,” a pricing AI tool repurposed for demand prediction, the team shifted from static advertising to responsive targeting—boosting campaign relevance and efficiency. With a modest budget, the initiative drove a 58% increase in forecasted October occupancy and 82% growth in predicted bookings, proving that smart, scalable data solutions can dramatically improve tourism performance.
Continente — From Transactions to Tributes: How Continente Turned Shopping Data into a Personalized Year-End Celebration
Submitted by Arena Media Portugal
Continente, the leading supermarket chain and largest retailer in Portugal, transformed over 240 million grocery transactions into a personalized digital campaign called “Recipe of the Year,” delighting customers with playful, data-driven recaps of their own shopping habits. Drawing inspiration from Spotify Wrapped, the initiative used AI to craft more than 60 million unique content variations, surprising users with their most-bought items, savings, and grocery “trends.” The campaign boosted engagement, app usage, and sales— proving that data and emotion can go hand-in-hand in retail.
Dolomiti Superski – Time Out? Superski!
Submitted by Weischer.JvB x St. Elmo’s Tourism
To spark spontaneous winter getaways among stressed-out city dwellers, Dolomiti Superski, the largest interconnected ski area in the world across Italy’s Dolomite mountains. used AI to deliver real-time, emotionally resonant outdoor ads. By analyzing behavioral and mobility data, the campaign targeted audiences with tailored messages precisely when the need for a break arose—before they even realized it. AI-powered tools generated over 340 ad variations with location- and weather-specific content, transforming a traditional medium into a personalized trigger for travel. The result: double the engagement and a new benchmark for smart outdoor media.
Dove (Unilever) — Real Beauty Redefined For The AI Era
Submitted by Mindshare USA
Dove’s “Real Beauty for the AI Era” addressed the role of AI in perpetuating unrealistic beauty standards. By launching a first-of-its-kind Pinterest partnership and leveraging its Real Beauty DNA tool, Dove empowered women to define beauty on their own terms, thereby reshaping algorithmic outputs and generative prompts to reflect inclusivity. The campaign demonstrated that a legacy of real beauty can shape the future of AI and digital self-image.
IKEA — Start Up the Start-Up: A New Chapter for Modern Offices
Submitted by Starcom Taiwan
IKEA Taiwan’s “Start Up the Start-Up” campaign transformed its home design expertise into business-ready workspace solutions for a new wave of entrepreneurs. By combining AI-powered behavioral insights with flexible, modular furnishings, IKEA has redefined how microbusinesses—such as home bakeries and content studios—can thrive in small, adaptable spaces. The result: 5x growth in demand and a 93% reduction in conversion costs.
Magnum (Unilever) — Ice Ice Maybe? With Data, Baby!
Submitted by PHD Germany x Weischer.JvB Germany
Unilever’s iconic Magnum ice cream turned a summer of unpredictable weather into a showcase for precision marketing. By combining real-time sales, weather, and location data and utilizing AI to dynamically optimize media spend across 434 regions, they increased sales by 30% in targeted areas. This smart blend of AI and human insight ensured that every ad reached the right audience at the right time, eliminating inefficiencies and setting a new standard for data-driven retail media.
McDonald’s Sweden — Deal with the Trash
Submitted by OMD Sweden
In Sweden, where littering has become a growing concern despite a strong national identity tied to nature, McDonald’s has faced public pressure, as takeaway packaging accounts for 15% of all litter. To tackle the issue, the brand launched “Deal with the Trash,” a campaign that turned trash into rewards using a custom AI-powered image recognition tool embedded in its app. Users who properly disposed of fast-food waste (including competitors’ packaging) and submitted a photo were instantly rewarded with McDonald’s deals. The initiative removed over 3 tons of litter, while brand trust among 16–to 34-year-olds increased by 13 percentage points, and McDonald’s expanded its market share by 2.2 points.
REWE – RTRDP-DCO
Submitted by OMD Germany
German supermarket chain REWE reimagined the traditional newspaper ad by using AI to turn static print flyers into dynamic, personalized deal engines. Powered by real-time checkout data from over 3,600 stores, the retailer tailored offers across 138 newspapers and 49 media zones each week. The result? A 600% increase in deal variety, a 900% jump in personalization variables, and a sales lift of over 1%, proving that with a little AI magic, even print can perform like digital.
Samsung — Decoding Doubt: Selling Through Uncertainty
Submitted by Starcom Taiwan
In a crowded e-commerce space, Samsung E-Shop tackled the real barrier to conversion, not price, but hesitation. Using AI to decode signals of doubt, such as repeated comparisons and delayed purchases, Samsung crafted hyper-personalized messages that reassured and converted wavering customers. The result? A 3.5x boost in conversions and a 206% increase in checkouts—all without relying on discounts. By turning uncertainty into opportunity, Samsung pioneered a more empathetic, behavior-driven approach to e-commerce growth.
Telstra — Telstra Free Calls to Santa: powered by GenerativeAI
Submitted by OMD Australia
Facing holiday sales pressure and a national Santa shortage, Telstra turned 15,000 public payphones into magical AI-powered hotlines to the North Pole. Children dialed #HOHOHO for free, personalized conversations with Santa — powered by generative AI trained for warmth, safety, and joy. With 589,000 calls and a 400% year-on-year increase, Telstra reconnected families to tradition, and customers to the brand, delivering emotion at scale and putting sales back on track.
Vattenfall — Creating Hope with Fossil FreeDOME
Submitted by OMD Sweden
In a world overwhelmed by climate fatigue, Vattenfall, the state-owned Swedish multinational energy company, used AI to reignite hope. Their public VR installation, Fossil FreeDOME, enabled Swedes to step into personalized visions of a fossil-free future, shaped in real-time by an AI engine that interpreted their values, choices, and emotional responses.
The result? A 6X boost in belief that a sustainable future is possible. With over 432,000 participants and 89% reporting increased optimism, this campaign proved that AI can do more than automate—it can humanize and inspire.
ABOUT THE AI AWARDS FOR BETTER MARKETING:
In today’s AI-driven world, the most successful brands put the customer at the center of every action and interaction. These awards spotlight marketers who use AI not just for innovation’s sake, but to enhance personalization, unlock real-time insights, and anticipate customer needs in meaningful ways.
Technology alone doesn’t drive great marketing. It’s the combination of AI with human intelligence, emotion, and ethical thinking that elevates both the brand experience and business outcomes. These winning case studies demonstrate that critical balance, and consequently, lead the way forward for all marketers.
HOW JUDGING WORKS
As with all Internationalist awards, an anonymous panel of client-side marketers selected the winning entries. For this special program, we also introduced an AI “judge”—developed in collaboration with past award winner and AI specialist XPLAIN—to analyze trends and provide scoring alongside our human jurors’ instincts, interpretations, and experience.
Our AI colleague offered a helpful perspective, but—as always—the final decisions (and editorial insights) came from people. We look forward to sharing trend highlights and jury observations in the coming days.
Rather than assigning traditional Gold, Silver, or Bronze rankings, this initiative recognizes each of the twelve winning entries essentially as “Grand Prix,” celebrated for being authentic, forward-thinking, results-driven, and an inspiring collaboration between technology and human insight.
ABOUT THE INTERNATIONALIST:
THE INTERNATIONALIST focuses on the reinvention of marketing around the globe by connecting the people and ideas in international marketing, advertising, and media through content, insights, case studies, and peer-to-peer marketer Think Tanks, Awards, and Summits- all to better serve the needs of this community. Marketer-driven, The Internationalist is now in its twenty-second year and was founded by Deborah Malone, a former executive at Ad Age and CNBC. The Internationalist is especially proud of its Marketing Makes a World of Difference™ initiative and its long-term alliance with ANA.
