15 January 2024
For anyone with a passion for design or marketing, attending the renowned German Design Awards is a unique opportunity to be inspired by the best creative talents. But it’s even better when you’re also there to receive an award (or two).
As recently announced, smartclip, the adtech development unit of RTL Group, has been honoured twice at the 2024 German Design Awards. And on 26 January 2024, Shira Leffel, Executive Director of Marketing & Product Education, travelled with members of smartclip’s marketing team — including Lisa Rischke, Head of Brand (pictured above with Shira) and Harshita Parnami, Marketing Design Manager Europe — to the Awards Ceremony at Kap Europa in Frankfurt to accept the prizes on behalf of everyone involved.
Design awards are a rare achievement for companies in the adtech sector, and the awards collected — which recognise outstanding and exemplary design achievements for two recent smartclip projects — highlight smartclip’s unwavering commitment to innovation in all aspects of the business. The company’s recent brand refresh, designed to make adtech more tangible and emphasise smartclip’s new adtech focus, was honoured in the “Excellent Communications Design — Brand Identity” category. The jury, made up of renowned design experts, commented: “The design appears high-quality and conveys the demand for high-tech, but also creates an emotional closeness through the striking colour scheme, which refers to the passion of the people behind the brand.”
smartclip’s newly launched website was also recognised in the “Excellent Communications Design — Web” category, with the jury noting: “The new brand identity of smartclip is perfectly embodied in the design of the website, both formally and in terms of content, down to the last detail. The focus on the employees is likeable and creates a friendly closeness.”
Shira Leffel: “In the world of B2B technology, it’s unusual for companies like ours to win design awards. Typically, we’re up against big consumer brands with deeper pockets and ‘sexier’ products to market than, say, an ad server. However, winning this award — twice — affirms exactly what we sought out to do. We wanted to use the power of design in a way that hasn’t been used in our category. Our aim was to simplify the complexity of adtech, not just making it more tangible but also as alluring as the media side of our industry — disrupting the status quo, just like we strive to do in every other area of our business.”
Offering a wealth of inspiration and ideas, the event also featured a roster of GDA Talks, with industry experts sharing their insights on topics such as the Business Impact of Design, and an opportunity to dive deeper into all the winning projects at an interactive exhibition.
It was also a celebratory day for other RTL Group companies: RTL Luxembourg won in the “Excellent Communications Design — Brand Identity” category; RTL+ won in the “Excellent Communications Design — Integrated Campaigns” category for its RTL+ Musik marketing campaign; and RTL AdAlliance won in the “Excellent Communications Design —
Event” category for the RTL Beach at Cannes Lions 2023.
With a total of four RTL Group companies honoured, the German Design Awards 2024 showcased the exceptional level of creative talent not just within smartclip but also within the entire Group and highlighted the progressive, industry-leading approach each company brings to every aspect of its business.
Lee is the Marketing Specialist Europe at smartclip and is responsible for content writing, editing, social media, and creative support across the department and company. Originally from the United States, Lee graduated from the University of Cincinnati, where she received a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Electronic Media. Before joining smartclip, she has worked with various organisations managing social media accounts and assisting in the video and audio production processes.
Lee Richter
Marketing Specialist Europe
