Santander will host the 18th edition of the GENIO Awards in 2025

«The GENIO are a well-established event in the market and there is more and more interest. We have just opened registration and we have already received the first agency calls, it is going very well,” explained Kika Samblás, Partner & Managing Director of SCOPEN, at the press conference to present the 2025 edition at the Vocento headquarters, where Alfredo Jiménez-Millas, general director of Vocento.Medios, Elisa Brustoloni, CEO of Dentsu X Spain, and Paloma Bravo, general director of Communication and Institutional Relations of Vocento.

Since 2007, the GENIO Awards have recognized the work of more than 500 agencies and 800 advertisers, with more entries each year. In the last contest, up to 83 new advertisers and 65 new agencies registered, once again breaking a “registration record.” In this historical journey, Mahou San Miguel, Vodafone and the Government of Navarra are among the most awarded advertisers in the contest. Among the agencies, iProspect or McCann, which have accumulated almost twenty trophies.

This year, the awards come of age and incorporate several new features. 2025 and the 18th anniversary of the call brings a new category called Innovation in Business Development, which unifies the traditional Commerce-User Experience and Product-Service Design. “We have had to change the mechanics and formation of the jury due to the large number of jobs and agencies that are added each year,” commented Samblás.

The combination of these two categories is not the only novelty that the GENIO Awards bring next year. In this edition, Samblás stated, a single GENIO Innovation 2025 Grand Prize will be awarded and it will be “in recognition of that campaign that demonstrates greater innovation in the transversal use of media or channels, or that product/service or Commerce action o Experience that demonstrates having greater impact on the company’s business and relevance to users,” highlighted the organizing committee.

The rest of the categories remain unchanged compared to other years. At the ceremony next March in Santander, the jury of the XVIII GENIO Innovation Awards will present 8 trophies for the categories Print Innovation, Audiovisual Media Innovation, Brand Activation and Experience Innovation, Social Media Innovation and Use of Influencers/Creators, Innovation Digital / AR / VR / XR /Metaverse / AI, Innovation Branded Content, Innovation Social Impact Campaigns and the already announced Innovation Development of Business.

The jury will meet for the first time in February 2025, once the deadline for submitting pieces has ended, which will be next January 10. The committee that will choose the new winners is made up of a total of 18 “professionals from advertising companies, media, creative and digital agencies and consulting companies.” This team is made up of Arancha Cuadrado, Head of Media Planning at Endesa; Pablo Abellá, CEO of Yellow Brick Road; Sandra Ugena, Managing Director Madrid of iProspect; Fernando Garrido, Marketing and Communication Director of MAPFRE; Vanesa Nieto, Client Managing Director of Arena; Clara Tió, Chief Design Officer of The Cocktail; Marta Milleiro, CMO of Banco Sabadell; Saulo Rocha, Chief Creative Officer of DAVID Madrid; Raquel Martínez, Founder & creative Director of This is Libre; Juan Hevia Aza, director of Marketing and Events at Vocento; Vanesa Poderoso, Head of Media & Sponsorship at El Corte Inglés; Pepa Romero, Managing Director of Tangity; Amagoia Sologestoa, Advertising, Brand and Branded Content Manager at MASORANGE; Óscar Martínez, Chief Creative Officer of Digital Wysiwyg; Miguel Pereira, co-founder and CEO of Darwin & Verne; Sergio Vicente, Director of Brand and Communication at Leroy Merlin; Ainhoa ​​Oyarbide, Brand & Communication Director of Eroski and Abel Jaime, Managing Director of EssenceMediacom. And, as secretaries of the jury: Alfredo Jiménez-Millas, general director of Vocento.Medios; and Kika Samblás, Partner & Managing Director of SCOPEN.

The organization, during the presentation, recalled that for another year the registration limit for the same work in a maximum of two categories is maintained. In this event, Vocento.Medios and SCOPEN, with the sponsorship of Hyundai and Dentsu, have opted to “recognize innovation in communication, recognizing companies and professionals who have demonstrated the greatest effectiveness in their marketing and communication strategies.” ».