dentsu UK is celebrating an exceptional performance at the 2025 The Drum Marketing Awards EMEA, with three of its leading agencies—Merkle, Carat and iProspect—collectively securing seven shortlist nominations. This impressive showing demonstrates the network's comprehensive expertise across content creation, media innovation, strategic partnerships, and digital experience.
The Drum Marketing Awards EMEA is one of the region's most respected recognition programmes, celebrating exceptional marketing campaigns across Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. With thousands of entries from advertising agencies, in-house teams, design consultancies, digital agencies, PR companies, and integrated agencies, the competition represents the pinnacle of marketing excellence.
Merkle
Kellanova | Pringles: Poptopia
Category: Digital Experience
Merkle has secured a shortlist nomination in the Digital Experience category for their innovative Poptopia platform for Kellanova's Pringles brand. This always-on digital destination has reshaped how consumers interact with Pringles, offering interactive, gamified content, engaging competitions, and deeply personalised experiences underpinned by sophisticated first-party data strategies.
Through QR codes on every pack across Europe, Poptopia bridges the gap between physical and digital interactions, creating continuous, meaningful engagement that drives brand loyalty and saliency around key moments while enriching Pringles' consumer database.
For consumers, the platform provides ongoing value through playful, rewarding experiences that encourage repeat interactions. For Pringles, Poptopia has become a rich source of first-party data, capturing valuable consumer insights through registrations and continuous interactions. The platform enhances understanding of consumer preferences, including location data, flavour preferences, and interaction patterns, which directly informs targeted media strategies, product development, and personalised marketing.
By strategically harnessing first-party data and consumer insights, Poptopia appeals to Social Explorers (Pringles' core audience), delivering an enjoyable, interactive space far beyond typical product interactions. With a 93% increase in return visits, a 133% increase in engagement duration, and a 40% improvement in operational efficiency, Poptopia marks a turning point in digital FMCG brand engagement.
Carat
Co-op Funeralcare: Celebrity Send Off
Categories: Content and Partnership or Collaboration
When tackling a subject like death, where 91% of people think about it but half never discuss it, you need something special to break through such a strong taboo. Carat teamed up with Co-op Funeralcare and Channel 4 to create "Celebrity Send Off," a fresh approach that changed how people talk about planning for the end of life.
This groundbreaking project broke new ground for Channel 4, which, for the first time, allowed its content to be shared beyond its own platforms to YouTube, Facebook, and TikTok. Co-op Funeralcare opened its doors, putting their real funeral directors on camera to guide celebrities through planning actual funerals.
The show paired well-known duos—rockers Bez and Shaun Ryder, Olympic athlete Kriss Akabusi and his daughter Shakira, and Gogglebox stars Marcus and Mica—to plan each other's funerals without knowing what the other would want. The result was both entertaining and meaningful, boosting awareness for Co-op and creating such compelling viewing that Channel 4 permanently added it to their on-demand service, All4. Most importantly, 63% of viewers said they felt more comfortable talking about their own funeral wishes afterwards, showing that the right approach can both entertain and change how people think about difficult topics.
The campaign's recognition in both Content and Partnership categories shows its all-around excellence, demonstrating how working together effectively can achieve remarkable results. Each partner brought something unique: Channel 4 provided the platform, Co-op Funeralcare shared their expertise and opened their doors, and Carat created the strategy that brought everything together. Together, they started a national conversation about a topic many people avoid while delivering great results for everyone involved.
This campaign has already won at the Campaign Media Awards 2025 for Media Partnership, with judges praising its innovative approach to addressing a challenging subject.
Kellanova | Cheez-It: Cheez-Hit? Cheez-It! Category: CPG/FMCG
Bringing a beloved American snack with 100 years of history to a new market was a big challenge—especially in the UK's competitive £4BN snack market. Carat's approach for Kellanova's Cheez-It was simple: make it impossible for snack lovers not to know, love, and want this unique product.
The campaign centred on the catchy "Cheez-Hit? Cheez-It!" slogan, highlighting what makes the product special: a thin, crispy baked snack made with 100% real cheese that delivers an amazing burst of cheese flavour. With new food advertising rules coming in October 2025, establishing the brand's distinctive look and sound quickly was essential.
The results were impressive—reaching 8.9% of UK consumers within just 12 weeks and getting 25.8% of buyers to purchase again by year-end. This made Cheez-It the biggest new brand launch in the large-sharing snacks category in four years.
iProspect
IKEA: Sleep
Categories: Media and Retail
iProspect tackled a significant challenge for IKEA in the competitive beds and mattresses market, where the brand held less market share compared to specialist competitors. Misconceptions about IKEA's quality and its position as a generalist rather than a specialist further compounded the challenge.
Our strategy embraced a counterintuitive approach: encouraging people to switch off media. By transforming media from a distraction into a sleep aid, we positioned IKEA as the brand that genuinely prioritised consumers' rest and wellbeing.
The campaign featured innovative partnerships with major media owners to subvert high-attention environments with bedtime messaging. ITV continuity announcements around prime-time shows such as The Voice and The Pride of Britain Awards encouraged viewers to choose sleep over television. Acast podcasts featured specially designed segments to lull listeners to sleep, including Jessie Ware's list of 200 vegetables and Sam Thompson's unread text messages to Pete Wicks.
We reinforced this message through contextual social placements on TikTok, Meta, and Reddit, while in-game advertisements encouraged players to power down their devices. Supporting television and PPC activity strengthened IKEA's positioning as a trusted sleep solution.
The results were outstanding, driving significant improvements in mattress consideration and quality perceptions across key media channels. The campaign also delivered a notable increase in mattress sales and boosted organic search interest and website traffic. Most importantly, IKEA contributed to 75 million additional nights of quality sleep in UK homes, reinforcing its position as a leading mattress retailer.
This innovative approach has already earned recognition, winning the Retail - Online & Offline category at the Campaign Media Awards 2025.
Netflix: Squid Game Season Two Launch
Category: Out-of-Home
In a season dominated by festive cheer, iProspect helped Netflix unleash an army of Pink Guards on unsuspecting Christmas shoppers. Their solution made the Pink Guards inescapable through bold, immersive OOH executions that transformed London into a living extension of the Squid Game universe.
Oxford Circus station became a 360° Squid Game environment where guards followed commuters through tunnels and created an atmosphere of thrilling tension. Above ground, the invasion continued with guards appearing on London's iconic buses, dominating the Flannels building with anamorphic 3D displays, and even showing up pitchside during Premier League matches.
The results were exceptional: Squid Game Season 2 became the third most-watched show over the Christmas period and helped Netflix achieve its highest-ever reach, overtaking BBC's Q4 viewership.
A Network Achievement
The collective achievement in The Drum Marketing Awards EMEA’s shortlist highlights dentsu's commitment to creating work that not only drives business outcomes but also pushes creative boundaries and delivers meaningful cultural impact across the EMEA region.
"These nominations showcase our agencies' fantastic ability to deliver truly integrated solutions that accelerate brand growth through creativity, media innovation, and data-driven experiences," said Annette Male, dentsu CEO UK & I. "By combining deep consumer understanding with bold, innovative approaches, our teams are consistently delivering outstanding results for our clients."
This impressive showing follows strong performances at other industry awards, reinforcing dentsu's reputation for excellence across the full spectrum of marketing disciplines.
The winners will be announced in London this June, bringing together the region's top marketing talent to celebrate exceptional work that moves the industry forward.
The complete shortlist can be viewed here.
