Adland’s night of nights, the 2026 B&T Awards, presented by Rokt is this month!
In this latest instalment of the B&T Awards – The Work series, we’re looking at the finalists for the Best Digital Campaign award.
The judges will be looking for a strong, digital-specific creative idea within the campaign.
As part of each submission, we ask agencies to submit a maximum 300-word condensed version of their entry. Below, it’s pasted verbatim. It’s their take on why they should win. But only the judges will decide.
Last time out, we looked at the Best CTV & Video Campaign finalists.
To find out who wins first, make sure you buy your tickets for the B&T Awards. It’s on 27 November 2026 in Sydney.
And don’t forget our live judging day for Agency of the Year and some Leadership and Marketing awards on 5 November, also in Sydney. Click here to see if you’ll need to suit up and present to our formidable in-person jury.
AKQA Australia, ‘Bollywood Spin’, Google Gemini YouTube
Cricket is almost a religion in India, but the media ecosystem surrounding it remains dominated and gatekept by a boys’ club.
This has alienated over 200 million Indian female fans, representing a whopping 40% of cricket’s viewership, who also love the sport.
Enter Bollywood Spin: an end-to-end, real-time AI ecosystem built on Google Gemini. The platform ingests live ball-by-ball match data, translates high-stakes cricket moments into iconic and emotive Bollywood tropes, and generates bespoke, tone-matched content packs for female YouTube creators in real time.
The results: empowered YouTube creators turning women-led commentary into the most entertaining, viral second-screen experience of the season for the brief’s demographic, and a digital-first blueprint for how AI-powered data can be culturally transformed to unlock massive digital audiences.
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Dentsu Creative Experience, ‘How Charles Sturt Won the Audience Higher Ed Forgot’, Charles Sturt University
Two-thirds of Charles Sturt University’s students don’t arrive from high school. The average is 32, most work full-time with families, and they belong to the segment Australian higher education is losing fastest, with mature-age commencements down nearly half nationally between 2018 and 2024 and applications from people aged 25 and over down 27%. CSU asked us to hold the applications pipeline while cutting digital media 23%, against a cost per completed application under $320 and a cost per offer accept under $480. This audience decides quickly once it engages and rarely comes back for a second look, which put the weight of the task on the conversion end of the funnel.
That shaped the strategic bet. For years the account had spent most of its money buying people who had already decided to search, which is efficient but late, because an Enrolling Stone is most persuadable before they reach the search bar rather than after. The shift was to reach them at the moment of interest across the surfaces they used, Discover, Gmail and YouTube, and to build the conversion engine around a system that could act on intent signals in real time rather than wait for a typed query.
Performance Max was the means, deployed for the first time in the account and set up as the primary engine rather than a supporting line. The central digital idea was to move spend from catching decided searchers to reaching undecided considerers earlier, then hand the conversion to a signal-fed system and feed it the audiences closest to a decision. The craft would sit in the audiences and creative behind the engine rather than in the switch that turned it on.
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HERO x Mastercard, ‘Transit Tales’, Mastercard
Mastercard ‘Transit Tales’: Turning commuter data into 43 million digital experiences. Mastercard’s global Priceless platform exists to elevate everyday moments into something more meaningful. And the daily commute is the most universal, unremarkable moment in Australian urban life.
Every day, Sydney’s 1.2 million train commuters each for their phones. 30% of Australians hadn’t read or listened to a single book in the past year. Over 50% said they genuinely wanted to read more.
The HERO idea:
Mastercard Transit Tales used generative AI and real-time transit data to turn the daily commute into a personalised digital storytelling platform:
- QR codes across all 215 Sydney train stations launched a free mobile web app
- Commuters selected their destination and the AI calculated their exact journey time
- Each commuter received a fully AI-generated audio story – a classic novel reimagined into an entirely new genre
- Every story was timed to their journey
The entire experience lived digitally, from first touchpoint to final chapter:
- Discovered through geo-targeted social media and digital OOH at the point of boarding
- Accessed instantly via mobile web – no app download, no account, no friction
- Delivered through an AI engine that generated over 43 million unique story combinations
Each one original, each one finished, each one Priceless.
- Live TfNSW/Opal transit data was ingested in real time to calculate exact journey durations
- OpenAI’s GPT language models dynamically reimagined eight literary classics
- A custom-built, proprietary AI audio engine assembled narration, pacing and sound design in real time
- No personal commuter data was collected or used.
Get your tickets for the B&T Awards, presented by Rokt!
ICON Agency, ‘If Sextortionists Were Honest’, eSafety Commissioner
AI is making it harder to tell what is real. So we used AI – and the digital environments where sextortion deception begins – to make the lie impossible to miss.
With AI-generated content flooding feeds and compounding harm, eSafety engaged ICON to help young men recognise blackmail tactics earlier and seek safe support.
If Sextortionists Were Honest flipped the script. Rather than hiding behind a fake identity, our scammers announced their intentions upfront: I am fake. I will build trust quickly. I will ask for a nude. Then I will threaten you and demand money.
Digital was not merely the distribution channel. It was the problem, creative environment and intervention. Sextortion begins through profiles, DMs and dating apps; AI makes those identities believable. We recreated the deception, exposed its script and connected audiences to information, support and reporting.
A conventional video could describe the threat; only AI-generated personas could make the medium the proof. Revealing the ending first made manipulation easier to recognise, shifted blame to the offender and connected recognition with action.
Paid content built reach and recognition across Meta, YouTube, TikTok, Snapchat and Tinder. Search captured people who wanted to investigate privately. A concise hub explained how sextortion unfolds, the warning signs and what to do next, with clear pathways to deeper information and reporting.
Each channel had a role. YouTube delivered sustained viewing. Snapchat and TikTok placed short-form video in mobile environments. Meta provided scale and repetition. Tinder used a static execution where romantic approaches can become manipulation. Paid search intercepted active information-seeking near the moment of need.
Assets were adapted by platform, length and placement rather than forcing one execution everywhere.
If Sextortionists Were Honest met young men where the harm begins, guided them from attention to information and transformed digital recognition into real-world help-seeking.
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Jack Nimble, ‘See What Others Miss’, Samsung Australia
Samsung was launching Micro RGB, its new premium TV technology, as the world’s biggest football tournament was taking place. Millions would be watching matches at home, making picture quality more relevant than ever.
See What Others Miss was a digital competition that challenged fans to crack a series of coded clues throughout the World Cup.
Cryptic codes appeared across Samsung’s social channels, each testing how well people knew the game. Codes like VVD-IN-RGB and JA9-IN-RGB led to a bespoke IN-RGB microsite, where fans could submit their answers for the chance to win a Samsung Micro RGB TV.
Rather than compete with official sponsors on their terms, Samsung found an opening that came directly from the product and the way fans already behave.
We couldn’t own the World Cup. So we found something we could own: the details.
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Mindshare, ‘Tourism NZ: Come Play For Real’, Tourism New Zealand
New Zealand is one of the world’s best travel destinations, yet its remote location makes it harder to compete with more accessible tourism markets. Tourism New Zealand faced the challenge of driving demand while encouraging travel during off-peak seasons to reduce pressure on local infrastructure and preserve the natural environment.
The strategy was built on a simple insight. In an era of value-conscious travel, people increasingly want to experience destinations before committing to long-haul trips. Rather than creating a new digital platform, Tourism New Zealand recognised that more than 200-million people were already exploring landscapes that resembled New Zealand through Minecraft, the world’s most popular video game.
This inspired Come Play For Real, a world-first partnership between Tourism New Zealand, Mojang Studios, Warner Bros. and Piki Studios.
Together they created the first fully-playable destination within Minecraft, designed to balance gameplay with cultural representation.
The experience launched as free downloadable content featuring six immersive adventures inspired by New Zealand locations and activities.
Maori culture was woven throughout the experience via non-playable characters, including kaumatua (elders), who guided players through the journey.
A three-step activation plan drove engagement: generating global awareness through Minecraft and gaming media channels, partnering with influential gaming creators to showcase gameplay, and seamlessly directing players towards planning and booking real-life New Zealand experiences.
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Saatchi & Saatchi Australia x Herd MSL x Spark Foundry x TikTok x Animal Welfare League NSW, ‘AdopTok’, Animal Welfare League NSW
AdopTok transformed creator content into adoption ads through a partnership between Animal Welfare League NSW, TikTok and the creators whose videos audiences already loved.
Instead of commissioning new influencer content, we worked with TikTok to identify existing viral pet videos. Creator posts retained their identity, humour and accumulated social proof, while TikTok’s native tools allowed that content to be amplified to relevant pet-loving audiences.
We then embedded bespoke, platform-native adoption prompts tailored to each video, directing viewers to real animals available for adoption through Animal Welfare League NSW.
The result was advertising that didn’t interrupt creator content. It worked through it. And the partnership kept evolving. As people adopted animals through AWL NSW, they began creating content featuring their new pets. When those posts gained traction, they could become part of AdopTok too.
Creator content inspired adoption. Adoption created more creator content.
By combining AWL NSW’s adoption programme, TikTok’s platform capabilities and the authenticity of its creator community, AdopTok created a self-sustaining ecosystem where adopted pets helped more pets find homes.
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Special w/ Initiative and oOh!media, ‘The Ashes Unmissable First Ball’, Cricket Australia
There’s no more anticipated sporting moment than when the first ball of The Ashes is bowled on Day One of the storied clash. It’s a moment not to be missed, and we wanted to ensure all Australian eyes were on it.
But with the first ball being bowled at midday on a Friday, a large portion of the nation were not in front of their TV screens. They were ‘out of home’. So, we turned OOH into TV screens, live streaming the first ball (and first over) of The Ashes First Test, as well as the following four matches.
We transformed a total of 4,557 digital Out-of-Home sites across the nation into live broadcast sites, turning traditional Out-of-Home into a simultaneous network of live TV screens. Customised site-level broadcast technology was built into each screen, enabling a live, self-optimising Out-of-Home network that streamed The Ashes in real time and adapted to screens right across the country.
The result was a first-of-its-kind media takeover, ensuring more eyes than ever before were on the first ball of The Ashes. With 85 minutes of uninterrupted live action, the campaign contributed to the most-watched Ashes series in history.
From city centres to suburban shopping centres, the ‘Unmissable First Ball’ lit up Australia’s largest Out of Home network (oOh!media), becoming not only the ball that stopped a nation, but the ball that stopped advertising for a truly unmissable cultural moment.
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Starcom x IGA, ‘IGA Local Grocers: Lightening the load,’ IGA
IGA: lightening the dinner load.
42 stores. 504 answers. One question: “What’s for dinner?”
IGA needed to launch its new Meal Solutions range and prove its media model could build awareness and trial before expanding to 200 stores. But its local advantage created a national challenge: different stores stocked different products.
Our pilot had three weeks, 42 stores and $73,186. Broad awareness risked promoting meals unavailable nearby. Every impression needed to feel useful.
The obvious audience was the grocery buyer. But that label overlooked the person carrying the real problem. Every household has a “dinner person” managing the invisible weight of planning and cooking. As work and family wear down good intentions, convenience starts to compete with compromise.
Our idea was to lighten the load by creating a different answer to “What’s for dinner?” for every moment and local menu.
Using Smartly across Meta and Pinterest, postcode, product availability and day of week signals changed the meal, store name and message people saw. Inspire, Rescue and Mood communications followed the emotional rhythm of the week, turning one national campaign into 504 local variations.
The pilot sold 2,118 products, increasing sales almost 900 per cent against the initial baseline. Meta reached 1.2 million people, delivered a click through rate 89 per cent above IGA’s awareness benchmark and reported 1,169 store visits. Sunday messaging recorded an 81 per cent higher click through rate than generic creative.
The pilot’s audience, creative and product learnings informed the next burst across 200 stores. The broader Meal Solutions launch went on to generate nearly $1 million in total product sales.
This work deserves to win because it turned IGA’s fragmented range into an advantage and a modest campaign into a scalable digital service.
IGA did not become louder. It became more useful when dinner felt hardest.
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VML, ‘Magnif-eye’, 1001 Optometry
Myopia (nearsightedness) has become one of the fastest-growing health crises in the world. If kids aren’t diagnosed sooner, half the world will be at amplified risk of retinal detachment, glaucoma, macular degeneration and blindness by 2050 (WHO World Report on Vision, 2019).
But most parents only act once they notice their child is struggling to see. Despite myopia altering eyes as early as four, almost 50% of Australian children don’t get an eye test before the age of nine, and 30% don’t get one until adulthood (The Australia and New Zealand Child Myopia Report 2022/23).
As such, 1001 Optometry’s brief was simple: if early detection normally requires proactively visiting an optometrist, we needed a way to help parents see the early signs themselves. The signs invisible to the untrained eye.
Magnif-eye is a digital tool that identifies the early signals of myopia in parents’ camera rolls.
For the first time, unstructured, real-world image archives can be processed into clinically meaningful, pre-diagnostic signals. This was only made possible by the recent convergence of 3D facial landmarking, multimodal AI and grounded knowledge retrieval, each reaching production viability simultaneously.
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Yango, ‘Scape: The Gen Z Intent Engine’, Scape
Scape operates in a premium student accommodation sector facing intense market headwinds and a Gen Z audience that notoriously ignores traditional digital advertising. With 74% of this demographic using social media or AI for product research, Scape realised their traditional, static web forms were fundamentally failing to connect.
Furthermore, with 43% of young Australians reporting loneliness, Scape knew they weren’t just selling rooms—they were selling a community.
To capture this audience, Scape replaced passive broadcasting with “The Gen Z Intent Engine,” a two-pronged digital transformation achieved with zero additional media investment YOY.
First, they future-proofed their discoverability by pioneering Generative Engine Optimisation (GEO), rebuilding their content architecture to ensure AI search engines recommended Scape to high-intent users.
Second, they completely killed the traditional web form. Scape shifted their display budget into interactive, conversational ads across Social, Twitch, and YouTube that asked students about their personal preferences. High-intent users were then routed directly into WhatsApp to chat with a real human, transforming the lead-generation process from a cold transaction into an authentic connection.
Get your tickets for the B&T Awards, presented by Rokt!
