Highly Commended (2026) 🏅
Deutsche Telekom: Own Your World
Brand:
Deutsche Telekom
Entered by:
Mindshare / WPP Media
Credits:
INGO Stockholm, Whalar, emetriq GmbH
Category:
Technology and Telecoms
Strategic Solution
To win the trust of a skeptical, highly tech-savvy Gen Z, Deutsche Telekom launched “OWN YOUR WORLD,” strategically shifting the narrative from a fear-based warning about data vulnerability into an empowering celebration of digital self-ownership.
As a global tech leader, Deutsche Telekom recognized that corporate lecturing would fail; the solution demanded radical transparency, immersive social storytelling, and cultural authenticity scaled across nine European markets.
The strategy was built on three core pillars:
1. Cultural Resonance Over Corporate Messaging:
Instead of using dry technical jargon, Deutsche Telekom visualized the abstract concept of data tracking using “digital doppelgangers.” Collaborating with electronic music icon DJ VTSS, they launched a surreal, “brainrot-inspired” music video. This mirrored Gen Z’s fast-paced, meme-driven aesthetic, instantly commanding attention and making data privacy culturally relevant.
2. Active Empowerment (The “Own Your World” Hub):
Trust is earned through action. Deutsche Telekom proved its commitment as a digital ally by launching a free, interactive learning platform (ownyourworld.online) featuring masterclasses led by credible creators. Rather than just raising a problem, the brand provided tangible, gamified tools to help youth actively secure their online identities.
3. Hyper-Localized, Social-First Execution:
Operating across nine distinct markets, the campaign lived where Gen Z does. Through native TikTok and Instagram formats, localized influencer partnerships, and interactive social lenses, Deutsche Telekom met the audience on their own terms.
By fusing high-impact entertainment with practical utility, Deutsche Telekom transformed a complex corporate responsibility topic into a shared, empowering movement. “OWN YOUR WORLD” successfully redefined Deutsche Telekom’s relationship with Gen Z, proving that true brand affinity is built on mutual transparency and active digital empowerment.
Content Solution
Gamified Play & Radical Transparency
To connect authentically with a highly cynical, digital-first audience, Deutsche Telekom’s creative approach was simple yet disruptive: meet Gen Z in their native digital playgrounds with radical, unpolished transparency.
Instead of only pushing top-down commercial messages, Deutsche Telekom built an innovative, decentralized content ecosystem centered on gamified entertainment and direct peer-to-peer dialogue, seamlessly blending the brand’s authority in cybersecurity with Gen Z’s internet culture.
The content solution was executed across two highly native platforms:
1. Interactive Gamification on Twitch: Data Privacy as Play
Deutsche Telekom partnered with four highly credible gaming creators to demystify data vulnerability in real time.
Rather than lecturing, the creators hosted live, interactive Twitch streams that turned the abstract threat of data tracking into a participatory experience. Through gamified sessions – including live rounds of GeoGuessr alongside customized interactive quizzes – the creators and their audiences explored how easily minor fragments of shared online information can be stitched together to pinpoint offline locations and construct “digital doppelgangers.”
By gamifying cybersecurity, Deutsche Telekom transformed a dry, complex topic into a high-stakes, entertaining live spectacle that naturally drove deep audience awareness.
2. Radical Accessibility on Reddit: The Chief Security Officer AMA
To reinforce Deutsche Telekom’s authenticity and address corporate skepticism head-on, the campaign hosted a Reddit AMA (Ask Me Anything) featuring Thomas Tschersich, Deutsche Telekom’s Chief Security Officer.
Reddit represents the internet’s baseline for unfiltered, rigorous debate.
By putting Deutsche Telekom’s top cybersecurity expert in the “hot seat,” the brand opened a direct, unmoderated channel to answer tough, technical questions about corporate surveillance, algorithmic tracking, and digital self-protection.
This act of raw corporate transparency resonated massively, generating an astounding 11 million organic views and proving that Gen Z is deeply hungry for serious data sovereignty discussions when engaged on their own terms.
Why It Succeeded:
By pairing the raw, real-time interactivity of Twitch with the intellectual transparency of a Reddit AMA, Deutsche Telekom delivered an incredibly innovative content solution. It bypassed traditional advertising spaces to co-create with the community.
Crucially, it remained deeply authentic to Deutsche Telekom’s corporate DNA, leveraging the brand’s real-world security expertise to protect and empower the next generation.
Media/Content Amplification Solution
To amplify our message across nine European markets, Deutsche Telekom designed a highly strategic, paid-for media architecture structured around three distinct phases: Awakening, Witness, and Cementing.
This sequential framework turned passive viewers into active participants, matching specific channels and partners to Gen Z’s digital habits to maximize campaign effectiveness.
Phase 1: Awakening (The Paid Media Hook)
The amplification began with a massive, video-led paid activation across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube to break through Gen Z’s highly selective sensory filters.
Rather than utilizing a traditional corporate spokesperson, Deutsche Telekom partnered with electronic music producer and underground cultural icon VTSS. She starred in a high-energy, cinematic campaign film depicted being chased by her own digital doppelgangers. Crucially, VTSS also produced a bespoke campaign track and performed at our physical launch event.
Paid media was targeted strictly around music, tech, and youth subcultures. Partnering with a highly credible cultural creator ensured the initial paid hook felt native and desirable, driving explosive initial awareness.
Phase 2: Witness (The Interactive Proof)
To transition Gen Z from general awareness to active belief, Deutsche Telekom mobilized a multi-market, peer-led advocacy network. Over 25 local creators were activated to produce authentic, platform-native “data safety masterclasses.”
This phase culminated in high-impact live partnerships on highly trusted platforms:
• Twitch Live Events:
Popular streamers across Germany, Austria, and the Czech Republic hosted gamified broadcasts, while Deutsche Telekom also partnered with Polish gaming and GeoGuessr Pro Ryszard Graf. By playing GeoGuessr, they proved to live audiences how easily minimal online digital traces reveal precise offline locations.
• Reddit AMA:
A promoted Reddit thread facilitated a live, unfiltered “Ask Me Anything” session with Deutsche Telekom’s Chief Security Officer, Thomas Tschersich.
• Snapchat Custom Lens:
An interactive custom lens on Snapchat served as another engaging element, allowing the audience to play and interact with the campaign natively on a highly relevant platform.
Phase 3: Cementing (The Strategic Connection)
Mirroring the hero film where VTSS symbolically leaves her permanent footprints in wet cement, the final phase anchored the message.
To maximize impact, all content and content pieces from phase two—including the creators’ masterclasses—were cut “snackable” and fit-for-platform, allowing for native integration and a frictionless experience. Utilizing smart, sequential, and paid strategies, following up with GenZ audience.
This approach cleanly connected the entire gamified and educational campaign experience directly back to Deutsche Telekom and its local Magenta brands, permanently cementing Deutsche Telekom’s position as their trusted digital ally.
Technology & Telecoms | Highly Commended
"The campaign found a way to have a conversation we all need to have, in a different way, and addressed it in a tone of voice that meets the audience in a place they inhabit."
– Judges comments.
Results
Shifting Perceptions and Shattering Benchmarks
The “OWN YOUR WORLD” campaign delivered outstanding business impact, outperforming media benchmarks across all markets and proving that a global service provider can transcend its “commodity” status to become a highly meaningful brand for Gen Z.
Outstanding Business & Brand Impact:
While campaigns in saturated, hyper-competitive industries rarely move established brand metrics, KANTAR’s Lift+ survey confirmed a 4.3% Meaningful Lift—a “Champions League” achievement. In Kantar terms, this measures a brand’s ability to build a clear, consistent emotional connection while delivering on consumer needs.
Furthermore, 77% of surveyed GenZ now associate Deutsche Telekom with providing information on how personal data is handled, demonstrating an exceptionally strong, undeniable connection to the sender.
Innovative Media Efficiency & Deep Engagement:
An essential pillar of this success was our media optimization, focused on a custom effectiveness KPI: “Cost per Message Received,” which delivered a massive 21% uplift in incrementality.
This strategic precision, paired with culturally resonant, high-quality content, drove spectacular, long-term brand salience:
• High-Intent Action:
Over 1.3 million landing page visits resulted in an astonishing 11,000 hours (460 days) spent on-site.
• Educational Scale:
The creator Masterclasses combined generated 110 million impressions.
• Subcultural Integration:
VTSS’s bespoke track was streamed over 830k times, while the music video was streamed millions of times, racking up 28,000 hours watched.
By embedding these assets into Gen Z’s daily digital routines, Deutsche Telekom proved that authentic utility, paired with razor-sharp media execution, builds immense brand equity.
We didn’t just deliver a campaign; we secured a permanent position as a highly trusted, meaningful digital ally.
