The Webby Awards is the internet’s most respected symbol of success, attracting over 13,000 entries from 70 countries worldwide. With an esteemed jury and over two million votes cast by more than 600,000 people in the Webby People’s Voice, work by DEPT®, BASIC/DEPT®, HELLO MONDAY/DEPT® and DOGSTUDIO/DEPT® has been selected as the best in its category, reinforcing our position as a leading agency that’s setting the standard for tech and marketing.

“Winning Agency and Network of the Year for the third time straight was something I never even dreamed of when we started DEPT®,” says Dimi Albers, CEO of DEPT®. “I really want to give a big shoutout to our awesome clients, our hard working teams, the jury, and everyone who voted. Your support means everything to us. We’re pumped to keep pioneering tech and marketing, especially with our AI and impactful projects. Thanks so much, everyone!”

Cowboy: Elevating a luxury ebike website to match its brand’s elegance
BASIC/DEPT®
Webby Winner: Best Visual Design – Function

The elevated digital brand experience we created for ebike pioneers, Cowboy,  showcases its new ebikes as works of art designed to bring forth true freedom of movement. We crafted a gallery-like site that shows off the beauty of the bike and the intelligence of its design and function, ultimately inspiring site visitors to believe anywhere was possible with Cowboy.


Daniel’s Music Foundation: Raising the bar for accessible design
BASIC/DEPT®
People’s Voice: Accessible Technology 

Daniel’s Music Foundation is a nonprofit empowering people with disabilities through music and Disability Awareness programs that has been changing lives in NYC for almost 20 years.

They needed a website that could keep up, so they came to us for a new one that would build trust, share joy, showcase impact, and also be accessible to people of all abilities. We raised the bar of excellence in accessible design; rather than modifying an experience for a few, it’s about finding ways to translate it for everyone to equally join the fun.

GiveAHand
HELLO MONDAY/DEPT®
People’s Voice: Responsible AI

Following on from Hello Monday/DEPT®’s multi-award winning approach to teaching the American sign language alphabet, Fingerspelling, we launched GiveAHand.ai – the world’s largest open-source image library of hands fully tagged with data to help build better hand models.

One hundred percent crowdsourced, the data collected in the platform will generate a diverse dataset of hands, building an image library that will help unlock sign language. Researchers can then download and use these fully tagged images to improve their machine learning models, truly allowing the detection and translation of the full spectrum of Sign Language.

Google Store: Bringing the best of Google to people worldwide
BASIC/DEPT®
People’s Voice: Best Practices

Our collaboration with the Google Hardware team has helped turn store.google.com into a world-class brand and e-commerce destination.We’ve contributed end-to-end services, ranging from eCommerce strategy and experience design to art direction, content creation, and campaign development.


Google Jigsaw
HELLO MONDAY/DEPT®
Webby Winner: Corporate Social Responsibility

Jigsaw is a unit within Google that researches threats to open societies, and builds technology, products and tangible methods that inspire scalable solutions. Info Interventions is a collection of four of these experiments specifically created to help people build information resilience at critical moments in their online journey.

Together, our campaign reached 3.5M users of our target audience, while helping to drive efficient awareness and traffic to this important initiative.


Gucci – Ancora Fashion Show 2024
BASIC/DEPT®
Webby Winner: Best Mobile User Interface
People’s Voice: Best Mobile Visual Design – Function

In preparation for Milan Fashion Week, The House of Gucci trusted us to collaborate on bringing the digital world of Gucci Ancora to life.  We created a digital platform that embodied Gucci Ancora’s premium visual language, while pushing innovation for delivering live content across 15 different languages. Our immersive experience meant that as soon as looks walked down the runway, they were quickly and seamlessly translated to the fullscreen experience of the site, meaning that guests all over the world could step into the show in real time.


Gucci
BASIC/DEPT®
People’s Voice: Best Visual Design – Function

We created a stunning branded commerce website for Gucci that encapsulates the luxury of this iconic brand.


Philips: One of a kind
DEPT®
People’s Voice: Best Community Engagement

The campaign we launched for the Philips OneBlade revolutionized customer engagement. Harnessing real, passionate user reviews, we transformed them into humorous, relatable films that playfully caricatured each review. This approach created a surreal yet human connection, sparking a cycle of new reviews and TikTok recreations. It proved to be a successful exercise in community engagement and creative storytelling.

Reddit: r/Place
DEPT®
People’s Voice: Arts, Culture & Lifestyle

We worked with Reddit to revive its 2017 experiment, r/Place, which saw users working together to create a digital art piece. With custom videos, time lapses, global leaderboards, and collaborations with Twitch streamers, the r/Place social content drove 218M organic impressions/views and during the week following r/Place), our social channels gained +270K followers and 56k mentions.


Jeff Koons Moonphase: Tailoring a celestial site for a lunar gallery
BASIC/DEPT®
People’s Voice: NetArt 
People’s Voice: Best User Interface

We worked with Pace Gallery’s Web3 innovation hub, Pace Verso, to design and build a digital experience for iconic American artist Jeff Koons’ first-ever foray into the NFT space. Inspired by the moon, Koons created “Moon Phases” –  a collection of sculptures and NFTs celebrating human achievement both past and present.

The project invites viewers to reflect on their place in space, with 125 sculptures inspired by influential historical figures sent—literally— to the moon via a partnership with SpaceX, while 125 corresponding replicas are available for purchase here on planet earth, each with their own NFT counterpart for art collectors to enjoy. We brought this out-of-this-world exhibit into the homes of people around the world, and easily communicated its highly complex concepts in ways that made it relatable to every visitor.

Sesame Workshop: Growing as we grieve
HELLO MONDAY/DEPT®
People’s Voice: Health & Wellness

The Growing as we Grieve platform is a beautiful interactive experience for parents and caregivers to reflect on their own experience of grief and hear what has helped other families cope, thrive, and find joy.


Trainline: A rallying cry to use railways
DEPT®
People’s Voice: Sustainability & Environment

Trainline is Europe’s leading train and coach app. With a purpose for helping people make more environmentally friendly travel choices, the brand enlisted DEPT® to spread the word of its ‘I came by train’ campaign across paid social channels, inspiring people to help fight climate change and lower their carbon footprint by opting to travel by trains over cars and planes.


Undo the Firewall
HELLO MONDAY/DEPT®
People’s Voice: Responsible Innovation

Undo the Firewall is a grassroots initiative between The True Story and Hello Monday/DEPT® designed to counter internet censorship. By leveraging tech for good, we’ve created a straightforward solution to empower website owners globally to actively contribute to the fight against censorship and misinformation by hosting uncensored news stories to deliver the real stories.

DEPT® – Prepare to Pioneer
DOGSTUDIO/DEPT®
People’s Voice: Best Art Direction

‘Prepare to Pioneer’ is an AI-fueled wayfinder experience created by DOGSTUDIO/DEPT®, which encourages users to discover their Pioneering profile. Through a take on the well-known mechanics of fortune-telling, it takes users on a journey that offers a very unique twist on the traditional process of content curation, combining it with an innovative storytelling experience. Try it for yourself. 


Virgin Galactic: Bringing users closer to space
DOGSTUDIO/DEPT®
Webby Winner & People’s Voice: Travel & Lifestyle

On a mission to accelerate the future of transportation and define the next generation of space travel, we worked with Virgin Galactic to launch its new commercial spaceflight website to connect all those who are curious about space travel. We created an immersive website experience to communicate the excitement of space travel that is truly out of this world…

In addition to the award wins, projects for the following clients were awarded as Nominees or Honorees: Design Within Reach; Doordash; eBay; GANNI; Just Eat; KFC; Louis Poulsen; Meebits; Patagonia; ReflexAI; Tempoo; Tony Blair Institute; Webex; Whoop.

Congratulations to our talented teams and pioneering clients for this incredible achievement, and thank you for voting!

Competing against 13,000 entries from more than 70 countries worldwide, our nominated projects are eligible to win two awards: a Webby Award as chosen by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADA) jury in each category, and a Webby People’s Voice chosen by the online public. 

Nominations for DEPT®, BASIC/DEPT®, Hello Monday/DEPT®, and Dogstudio/DEPT® span Advertising, Media & PR, AI, Metaverse & Virtual and Websites and Mobile Sites.

Shortlisted projects include two nominations for Responsible AI awards for our work with GiveAHand and ReflexAI, and multiple awards for impact projects including Trainline’s ‘I came by train’ campaign that inspires people to help fight climate change, Undo The Firewall –  a project to help combat misinformation and censorship, and Google Jigsaw which researches threats to open societies, and builds technology, products and tangible methods that inspire scalable solutions.

Huge congratulations to all of our nominated clients: American Society for Deaf Children; Bang & Olufsen; Cowboy; Daniel’s Music Foundation; GiveAHand; Google; Gucci; Jeff Koons; Philips; Reddit; ReflexAI; Sesame Workshop; Tony Blair Institute; Trainline; Undo the Firewall; Virgin Galactic; Whoop. 

Het publiek heeft de volgende projecten van DEPT®, BASIC/DEPT®, HELLO MONDAY/DEPT®, DOGSTUDIO/DEPT® en STUDIO DUMBAR/DEPT® uitgeroepen tot winnaars van de People’s Voice Awards:

• De unieke Web3-experience die we creëerden voor modemerk H&Mbeyond, die hun showroom veranderde in een immersive, virtuele ervaring, won in de categorie Metaverse, Immersive & Virtual – General Virtual Experiences: Arts, Fashion, Retail & Culture.
• BASIC/DEPT®’s website voor het elektrische fietsmerk Cowboy won vier prijzen voor Best Visual Design: Function, Best User Interface, Best Mobile Visual Design: Aesthetic en Best Mobile User Interface.
• De website voor het eerste NFT-project van kunstenaar Jeff Koons won in de categorie Websites and Mobile Sites – Features & Design: Best Homepage.
• Het project voor Google ChromeOS won General Websites and Mobile Sites: Web Services & Applications en het werk voor Google Store ging ervandoor met Best User Experience: Websites and Mobile Sites.
• Crafted, het door BASIC/DEPT® aangestuurde gemeenschapsinitiatief dat lokale makers en smaakmakers samenbrengt, won General Websites and Mobile Sites: Diversity, Equity & Inclusion.
• JAMS – BASIC/DEPT®’s sociale experiment dat mensen verbindt via gecureerde afspeellijsten won Websites and Mobile Sites – Features & Design: Technical Achievement.
• De site Patagonia Footprint Chronicles won General Websites and Mobile Sites: Sustainability & Environment.
• De app voor KFC won General Apps: Food & Drink.
• Met Webex won de agency in de categorie Websites and Mobile Sites: Best Navigation/Structure.
• HELLO MONDAY/DEPT® won met het project Machine Learning voor Fingerspelling drie prijzen in de categorieën Games for Family, Kids & Education en Social Impact en in de categorie Responsible Technology for Accessible Technology.
• De site die werd gebouwd voor de lancering van Cloud Castles door Digital Insight Games won twee prijzen, namelijk voor Website and Mobile Sites – Features & Design: Technical Achievement en General Metaverse Experiences: Games.
• Demo Festival – ‘s werelds grootste festival voor motion design – georganiseerd door STUDIO DUMBAR/DEPT® won General Websites and Mobile Sites: Events.
• DEPT® ‘s eigen Meta Festival – het eerste 24-uursevenement in de Metaverse won Metaverse & Immersive Features: Best Community Engagement en Metaverse, Immersive & Virtual – Virtual Video Features: Best Festival or Conference.

DEPT®, BASIC/DEPT®, and Hello Monday are today celebrating a record year of Webby wins after scooping up 16 awards, 23 nominations and 24 honorees, and also being crowned Network of the Year 2022.

With over 14,000 projects from 70 countries and nearly two million votes, the 26th Annual Webby Awards was one of the biggest in history. The Network of the Year is awarded to the agency with the most Webby and People’s Voice wins, Nominations and Honorees. 

“Wow, global agency network of the year,” said Dimi Albers, CEO of DEPT®. “Being recognised as the top network at the Webbys says a lot about how far we have come in the last six years. We’re humbled to be recognised, and super thankful for all our clients who enable us to do what we do best. We’re very much looking forward to continuing pioneering technology and marketing to help brands stay ahead.”

For DEPT®, the magical, branded experience that digitally brings de Bijenkorf’s wonderful shopping experience to life won the People’s Voice award in the Best Mobile Visual Design – Aesthetic category.

The Eurovision Village, the unique, 3D world we created for the 2021 Eurovision Song Contest, scooped the People’s Voice awards in the General Social – Events category and the Virtual & Remote – Music category.

The Fingerspelling with Machine Learning website created by Hello Monday, which joined DEPT® last month, was a stand-out performer, securing two Webby wins in the Diversity & Inclusion and Best User Interface categories, and People’s Voice awards for Technical Achievement, Diversity & Inclusion, and Best User Interface.

In addition, Hello Monday won the People’s Voice awards for the Star Atlas website in the Entertainment category, and in the Science category with The Emotional Sound Experience for Hume AI.

The innovative experience DEPT® created for Amazon Prime for the launch of Without Remorse, which saw Twitch streamers taking part in a live, real life gaming experience, won the People’s Voice award for Best Narrative Experience in the Virtual Remote – Immersive category.

BASIC/DEPT® had another hugely successful year with five awards, winning the People’s Voice award for Patagonia in the Best Mobile Experience category, and the Patagonia Footprints Chronicles received the People’s Voice for Corporate Social Responsibility.  In addition, the Silver Oak site won the People’s Voice award for Best Business Blog/Website, Crafted won in the Websites & Mobile Sites – Events category, and the Google Store won in the Shopping Websites and Mobile Sites category.

“DEPT® has set the standard for innovation and creativity on the Internet,” said Claire Graves, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. “This award is a testament to the skill, ingenuity, and vision of its creators.”

What makes this year extra special? Our nominations cover a wide range of categories like responsible technology, DE&I, brand strategy, social, and sustainability. This shows how DEPT®’s 50/50 blend of tech and marketing expertise is helping the most ambitious companies make waves in their industries.

Some standout projects include:

• Kenna, the first AI-powered virtual beauty assistant for essence, which has transformed how customers interact with beauty products.
• Undo the Firewall, a collaboration between Hello Monday/DEPT® and The True Story which fights internet censorship in Russia, showing how we’re using tech for positive impact.
• The digital showroom for GANNI which is redefining creativity and commerce in the digital fashion world.
• Strava’s ‘A Year in Sport’ in-app experience which demonstrates how we transform data into  truly personalized, engaging experiences.
  

In addition to the 31 finalists, Undo the Firewall and our social campaign for Just Eat with Christina Aguilera and Latto are in the running for the 2024 Lovie Awards Collaboration of the Year. 

The Lovie Awards are Europe’s premier awards honoring excellence on the internet, with over 1,200 entries from 35 countries competing this year. We’re proud to have our work recognized for both jury-selected awards and People’s Lovie Awards, affirming our leadership in AI innovation and sustainable solutions that drive real-world impact.

Huge congratulations to all of our nominated clients: Andermatt; Bol; Consensys; DR Ramasjang; eBay; essence; GANNI; Google; Johnnie Walker; Just Eat Takeaway; Louis Poulsen; Sesame Workshop; Simple Things; Strava; Sumthing; The Gym Group; The True Story – Undo The Firewall.

essence – Kenna
AI, Web3 & XR – Technical Achievement

Strava – Year in Sport 2023
Marketing, Advertising & PR – Best Use of Data
Marketing, Advertising & PR – Best Animation
Apps, Platforms & Software – Health, Wellness & Lifestyle
Apps, Platforms & Software – Best Visual Design

GANNI
Website & Mobile Sites – Retail & Shopping
Website & Mobile Sites – Weird & Experimental

Google – The Web Can Do What 
Website & Mobile Sites – Schools & Education 
Website & Mobile Sites – Best Navigation & Structure 

Simple Things
Website & Mobile Sites – Services 
Website & Mobile Sites Best Design – Aesthetic

Consensys
Website & Mobile Sites – Business 
Website & Mobile Sites – Best Homepage

Andermatt – Swiss Alps
Website & Mobile Sites – Corporate Communication 

Louis Poulsen
Website & Mobile Sites – Architecture, Interiors & Home 

DR Ramasjang – Krea app: unleash your creative super powers 
Apps, Platforms & Software – Family & Kids 

Just Eat Takeaway – Home of the Hotspots
Film & Video – Food & Drink 
Marketing, Advertising & PR – Food & Beverage 

Just Eat Takeaway – Delivering joy with an unexpected duo
Marketing, Advertising & PR – Best Social Media Campaign 
Social – Best Partnership or Collaboration 

eBay-  Parts and Accessories
Marketing, Advertising & PR – Best Brand Strategy

Johnnie Walker – Footsteps of progress
Marketing, Advertising & PR – Best Integrated Campaign

The Gym Group
Marketing, Advertising & PR – Best Digital Campaign 

Bol – The Story of the Forget-me-nut
Podcasts – Best Branded Podcast or Segment 

Last year, DEPT® grew to more than 4,000 employees on five continents and surpassed the half-billion dollar mark in revenue. The team won competitive pitches for clients such as Netflix, DoorDash, United Airlines, Canva, and Logitech, and grew relationships with existing clients eBay, Meta, Moody’s, and Google.

The jury commended DEPT® for its extensive and innovative work with top global brands. For Bang & Olufsen, ‘See Yourself in Sound’ launched a new digital strategy targeting Gen Z with interactive avatars reflecting individual musical tastes.

The team crafted an immersive digital experience for Gucci, enhancing fan engagement with catwalk views and exclusive behind-the-scenes content.

Additionally, in collaboration with the ReflexAI team and Google.org, DEPT® developed HomeTeam, an AI-driven tool that trains veterans to support peers with mental health challenges through simulated conversations.

2024 continues to bring industry-wide recognition for DEPT®. In the first half of the year, over 60 awards were received including:

• Webby’s Network and Agency of the Year for the third consecutive year, as well as 21 wins, 10 nominations, and 18 honorees for work with brands including Gucci, Bang & Olufsen, and Virgin Galactic
• Digiday’s inaugural EMEA Agency of the Year
• Campaign US’ Digital Innovation Agency of the Year for the second consecutive year
• 14 Anthem Awards for work for clients such as Google, eBay, and the Van Gogh Museum
• 9 Creative Circle Awards for work for Bang & Olufsen, Google, and the American Society of Deaf Children

Presented by The Webby Awards, the Anthem Awards recognise the purpose-driven work of individuals, businesses, and organisations across the world. By amplifying the voices that spark global change, the awards are defining a new benchmark for impactful work that inspires others to take action in their own communities.

Pooja Dingidal, Global Head of Impact at DEPT®, shares: “We are so incredibly proud of our team for continuing to invest their time, skills and creativity into projects that make a positive difference in the world. Our Anthem wins this year truly speak to how digital solutions can have a deep, leveraged and reaching impact across humanity– from public health, to learning and accessibility, to social connection and community.”

AWS & WPHL: Easy Genomics
DEPT®
3 x Silver

Easy Genomics, the revolutionary project that democratises genomic sequencing, won three silver awards in the Responsible Technology, Innovation, and Health categories.

DEPT® teamed up with Amazon Web Services and the Wisconsin State Laboratory of Hygiene to create an open-source digital solution to help gain a better understanding of diseases and disease prevention. Easy Genomics is a game-changing solution that’s improving the future of public health bioinformatics, and will be used by The Association of Public Health Laboratories in all public health labs in the USA.

Daniel’s Music Foundation
BASIC/DEPT®
1 x Silver

Daniel’s Music Foundation, a nonprofit empowering people with disabilities through music and Disability Awareness programmes, has been changing lives in NYC for almost 20 years.

They needed a website that could keep up, so they came to us for a new one that would build trust, share joy, showcase impact, and also be accessible to people of all abilities. We raised the bar of excellence in accessible design; rather than modifying an experience for a few, it’s about finding ways to translate it for everyone to equally join the fun.

Since launch three months ago, the foundation saw a record high number in inquiries as interest grew exponentially from more people who wanted to work with and for them as instructors. This project won a silver award in the Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category.

Dossy: A simple video app for meaningful connections
DEPT®
1 x Silver

The Dossy app, which is designed to bridge the gap and reduce social isolation among elderly individuals, was recognised in the Responsible Technology category (silver) and in Diversity, Equity & Inclusion category (bronze).

Together with Dossy, we pioneered the use of technology to focus on designing and developing an accessible solution to empower seniors to achieve face-to-face communication effortlessly. Dossy helps them stay connected with their families, friends, and virtual volunteers for meaningful conversations through easy-to-use and secure video calls.

Google Jigsaw: Info Interventions
Hello Monday/DEPT®
1 x Silver

A silver award in the Human & Civil Rights category was given to the Google Jigsaw campaign and website. Jigsaw is a unit within Google that researches threats to open societies, and builds technology, products and tangible methods that inspire scalable solutions. Info Interventions is a collection of four of these experiments specifically created to help people build information resilience at critical moments in their online journey.

Together, our campaign reached 3.5M users of our target audience, while helping to drive efficient awareness and traffic to this important initiative.

Voting polls are now open to the public until Thursday 21st December 2023.

Please cast your votes for your favourite finalists via the links below:

• Easy Genomics
  Responsible Technology – Partnership or Collaboration
  Responsible Technology – Innovation
  Health – Service
  
• Give A Hand
  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Best Use of AI
  Responsible Technology – Book, Story or Feature
  
• Roche X Project
  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Campaign – Brand
  XProject selected in Health – Campaign – Brand
  
• eBay x Pre-Loved
  Sustainability, Environment & Climate – Best Influencer Collaboration
  
• Google Jigsaw
  Human & Civil Rights – Education or Literacy Program or Platform
  
• DOSSY
  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Service
  Responsible Technology – Service
  
• Lean in Girls
  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion – Branded Content or Collaboration
  
• Van Gogh Museum
  Education, Art & Culture – Special Projects
  
• Daniel’s Music Foundation
  Diversity, Equity & Inclusion -Product, Innovation & Service

Kudos to our talented teams and awesome clients for this incredible achievement, and thank you for voting!