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Unit9, the digital production studio, is looking to repeat its success at last year's ±±¾©Èü³µpk10's Tech Awards by leading a hotly contested field of shortlisted entries for this year's event.

The global company, which is headquartered in London, was awarded Tech Company of the Year in 2020 and now leads the 2021 awards nominations after being shortlisted 12 times. 

Three of Unit9's nominations are for "The Met Unframed", an immersive virtual art and gaming experience for the The Metropolitan Museum in New York. Despite the museum being shut due to the pandemic, Unit9 and Verizon created a virtual experience that featured a replica of The Met, digital renderings of more than a dozen galleries and nearly 50 works of art.

MediaCom, the UK's biggest media agency, is the second most shortlisted company with 10 nominations. Two of these nominations were for Mars brand Maltesers, which launched Snapchat's first ever augmented-reality treasure hunt last Easter. Among other real-life locations, the "Maltesers Bunnies" game used out-of-home phone kiosks as "bunny-hunting beacons".

Now in its fifth year, the Tech Awards champions the collaboration between agencies, brands and the technology communities, and recognises the outstanding work produced together to drive the creative industries forward. 

The headline awards – Agency of the Year and Tech Company of the Year – are not open for entry. Instead, they are nominated and chosen by the Tech Awards’ panel of judges of specialists and digital leaders from across the marketing and tech industries. 

This year’s winners will be revealed at an online awards ceremony in April. 

Sarah Salter, head of innovation at WPP media agency Wavemaker, is chair of the overall judging panel for this year’s awards. 

The shortlist in full

Best Audience Engagement

• Cavai “Sheer driving pleasure with BMW – Sharing Christmas cheer”
• MediaCom "Mars – Transfer Deadline Day”
• Unit9 “League of Legends: Wild Rift – Battle of Baron”
• VMLY&R “The Mission” (Royal Navy)
• Verizon Media “Vodafone ‘Finding Unlimited’ From Your Couch”

Best ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 of the Year by a Start-up

To be announced at the winners' ceremony.

Best Response to Change Using Tech

• Because Experiential “For the Love of Your Local – Virtual Redemption Solution”
• DOOH.com “#MyHeroes: International ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 to Celebrate Key Workers During the Pandemic”
• Unit9 “The Met Unframed”
• Unit9 “(Microsoft) Xbox: Power Your Dreams”
• Verizon Media “Vodafone ‘Finding Unlimited’ From Your Couch”
• XYZ “Levi’s Human Nature FW21 / XYZ”

Best Use of Creative Personalisation

• Channel 4 “All4 dynamic audio and Now TV”
• Essence “Keeping the flame alive for the Tokyo Olympic Games”
• Matterkind “Using Dynamic Creative To Personalise JBL To Consumers”
• MediaCom “Boots – what the world needs now"
• A Million Ads “Bose: Listen Up! Delivering personalised audio at scale”

Best Use of Data

• Channel 4 “BrandM4tch: The First Cookie-less Data Matching Broadcaster Product”
• Incubeta “(Pub) Crawling Amazon for Laithwaites Success”
• MediaCom “DFS – Halo-Luxe: An unmissable campaign”
• PwC “ISBA & AOP Programmatic Supply Chain Transparency Study by PwC”
• Xaxis EMEA “Volvo Holistic DCO – Mindshare, Grey Gothenburg, Xaxis”

Best Use of Experiential Tech

• George P Johnson “The Rainwall”
• SharpEnd “Fly Campari Group”
• Unit9 “The Met Unframed”
• Unit9 “(Microsoft) Xbox: Power Your Dreams”
• Unit9 “EE BAFTA 5G-powered AR Dress”
• VCCP “Cadbury's Secret Santa”

Best Use of Experimental Tech

• MullenLowe MENA FZ “ProtectSet”
• PrettyGreen “Three’s 5G multi-sensory fashion show and AR model of Adwoa Aboah"
• Unit9 “EE BAFTA 5G-powered AR Dress”
• Unit9 “League of Legends: Wild Rift – Battle of Baron”
• VIOOH “Ghost of Tsushima launch using mobile and programmatic OOH"

Best Use of Insight

• Goodstuff Communications “From Psychology To Psychographic Targeting”
• Incubeta “(Pub) Crawling Amazon for Laithwaites Success”
• OMD UK “Frontline Spotify for Dogs”
• Total Media “Thinking outside of the box”
• Mindshare UK “PG Tips Cuppas Together”
• WhoWotWhy “Spotify Pumped”

Best Use of Paid Search

• Essence “BT Enterprise: Mastering search to support small businesses in 2020”
• MediaCom “DLG – Using media for more than marketing”

Best Use of Paid Social

• Because Experiential “A smokin’ hot KOL campaign for Weber”
• Goodstuff Communications “Yorkshire Tea Toast & Jam”
• Manning Gottlieb OMD “The Daily ‘Digital Control Centre’ – A Response to Covid-19”
• Manning Gottlieb OMD “MAC Cosmetics Virtual Try-On”
• MediaCom “Mars – Maltesers Bunnies”
• Total Media “Pitting puppets in the polls for BritBox”

Best Use of Tech in CRM

• MediaCom “Costa – first one’s on us”
• Ometria “How Made.com grew CRM revenue twice as quickly with Ometria”
• The7stars “TSB – Customer data delivers planning transformation and business success”

Best Use of Tech in Out-of-Home

• DOOH.com “#MyHeroes: International ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 to Celebrate Key Workers During the Pandemic”
• OMGDOOH (Omnicom Media Group) “Interactive Touchless Experience for Skoda”
• MediaCom “DFS – Halo-Luxe: An unmissable campaign”
• MullenLowe MENA FZ “The World’s Tallest Donation Box”
• Rapport “Lego: Rebuild the world – Mid-air haptics”
• VIOOH “Launching the Renault ZOE with programmatic OOH”

Integrated ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 of the Year

• Croud “Croud & the Royal British Legion: Poppy Appeal 2020”
• Manning Gottlieb OMD “NHS – COVID-19 Test & Trace App – Launching a life-saving app in record time”
• MediaCom “British Gas – Local Heroes”
• OMD UK “McDonald's I'm Lovin It Live: Lifting the Nation's Spirits in Lockdown”
• Gravity Global “Profit Hunter – Tech Lion”
• Total Media “Thinking outside of the box”

Location-based or Proximity Marketing ±±¾©Èü³µpk10 of the Year

• Ad-Lib.io “In-store booking appointments for Specsavers UK via Display”
• Because Experiential “For the Love of Your Local – Virtual Redemption Location-Based ±±¾©Èü³µpk10”
• Firstlight PR “Going the extra mile: how 'Free Now' delivered Londoners from commuter hell”
• MediaCom “Coca-Cola – Appreciating Locals”
• MediaCom “Mars - Maltesers Bunnies”
• Verizon Media “Doritos AR Quest”

Most Effective Use of Programmatic Media

• iClick Interactive Asia Group “Expanding Hi-tech Hotel Brand Awareness in Digital China”
• VIOOH “Nespresso StoreBoost: driving sales and footfall to Nespresso stores”
• Xaxis EMEA “Volvo Holistic DCO – Mindshare, Grey Gothenburg, Xaxis”

Start-up of the Year

• Ad-Lib.io
• Boldspace
• Egoli Media

Tech as Part of a ±±¾©Èü³µpk10: Charity

• MullenLowe MENA FZ “The World’s Tallest Donation Box”
• Unit9 “The Met Unframed”
• Unit9 “AdCouncil: She Can STEM”

Tech as Part of a ±±¾©Èü³µpk10: Consumer Goods

• Ad-Lib.io “Open Like Never Before”
• Because Experiential “For the Love of Your Local – Virtual Redemption Location-Based ±±¾©Èü³µpk10”
• PrettyGreen “Three’s 5G multi-sensory fashion show and AR model of Adwoa Aboah”

Tech as Part of a ±±¾©Èü³µpk10: Entertainment

• Unit9 “(Microsoft) Xbox: Power Your Dreams”
• Unit9 “League of Legends: Wild Rift – Battle of Baron”
• WhoWotWhy “Spotify Pumped”

Tech as Part of a ±±¾©Èü³µpk10: Retail

• Incubeta “(Pub) Crawling Amazon for Laithwaites Success”
• VIOOH & StoreBoost “Driving sales and footfall to Nespresso stores via programmatic”

Tech Diversity Advocate of the Year

To be announced at the winners' ceremony.

Tech for Good

• AKQA “Blockdown simulator”
• AnalogFolk “BigUp.AI”
• MullenLowe MENA FZ “ProtectSet”
• MullenLowe MENA FZ “The World’s Tallest Donation Box”
• Wunderman Thompson UK “Refuge National Domestic Abuse Helpline Website”

Tech Pioneer of the Year

• Andrew Casale, Index Exchange
• Projjol Banerjea, ZeoTap
• Kelly Kokonas, Starcom
• Shaun Zacharia, TripleLift