Cheil Wins Network of the Year at MAD STARS 2025

​Cheil has won the Network of the Year, sweeping a total of 53 awards including a Grand Prix, four Golds, seven Silvers, twelve Bronzes, and twenty-nine Crystals at MAD STARS 2025, setting the network’s own record at the festival.

‘Impulse’ by Cheil Spain for Samsung won a Grand Prix in the Design category. By developing an AI-powered app for Samsung’s smartwatches, the campaign offers people with speech disorders an invisible and inaudible assistant to guide fluent speech through analyzing and translating words into rhythmic vibrations. The work also won two Golds and two Silvers.

‘Safe Sketch’ by Cheil Hong Kong for Save the Children bagged a Gold in Direct, five Bronzes, and ten Crystals. Using a database of over 200,000 drawings, the free app identifies signs of abuse hidden in children’s drawings to safeguard them. Potential cases of abuse are then red-flagged, prompting teachers to seek further evaluation.

Another work from Cheil Spain, ‘The Art of Hack’ for Samsung, was awarded a Gold in Commerce and a Silver. Given the fact that Samsung’s The Frame TV doubles as a digital canvas when in standby mode, the promo offered discounts by classifying the TV as art rather than consumer electronics based on the insight that the Spanish tax system charges lower VAT for art.

Other works that won metals include Burger King’s brand activation ‘Whopper Tattoo’ and Samsung’s ‘Victory Selfie Shared #withGalaxy’ experience at Paris 2024 by Cheil Korea, and Cheil Spain’s AI-powered video game ‘The Mind Guardian’ developed in partnership with Samsung to detect the early signs of Alzheimer’s.

During the three-day global festival for marketing and advertising, Cheil shared AI insights with the industry through various thought leadership sessions including a keynote speech 'The Ambidextrous Agency: Harmonizing AI and Human Creativity' by John Jonghyun Kim, global president and chief executive officer at Cheil, and session by Alejandro Di Trolio, European creative chairman at Cheil, titled 'There is Anything More Human than Algorithm.' Cheil also joined in Samsung Electronics’ session 'Bespoke AI: How to Build Brand Heritage in the Age of AI,' represented by speakers Yuna Kim, Olympic Champion and model in the campaign, Kyungtae Kim, corporate VP at Samsung Electronics, and Soora Min, executive director at Cheil Korea.

MAD STARS 2025 was held in Busan, South Korea, from August 27th to August 29th.