FRANKFURT—“#Digitalflashingisflashing,” an issues driven campaign for dating app Bumble, conducted by UK agency Hope&Glory and partner Broadcast Revolution, took home the Platinum SABRE Award for the best public relations campaign of the year at the 2023 EMEA SABRE Awards, which were presented at a gala dinner in Frankfurt, Germany, last night.

The initiative sought to position Bumble as the leader in online safety among dating apps, and in addition to generating extensive media coverage of social media conversation, it garnered support from UN Women, charities such as Refuge and End Violence Against Women, and ultimately helped to make cyberflashing a crime under the UK’s proposed Online Safety Bill.

“Bumble identified an anomaly in the law that allowed for harassment and intimidation of women online, and Hope& Glory delivered a communications campaign that was both highly creative and impressively substantive, drawing massive attention to the issue, sparking a national conversation, and ultimately changing the law,” said Paul Holmes, who chaired the SABRE judges for the competition. “It’s a worthy Platinum winner.”

#Digitalflashingisflashing” beat out four other strong winners for the Platinum award. The other contenders were:
2. The Sunken Bar — Carlsberg Sweden with BCW
3. Be You. Period — Lil-Lets with Retroviral, South Africa
4. Helping Amigo Loans Survive — Amigo Loans with Lansons UK
5. Gillette Venus stirs up a “shame free” conversation around intimate female grooming — Gillette Venus / Procter & Gamble with Brandzeichen, Germany

Hope&Glory was also the biggest winner of the night in terms of volume, taking home eight SABRE Awards including the Best in Show, just ahead of global powerhouse Edelman, which won six SABREs for its client work. There were four awards each for UK creative shop The Romans, and three each for BCW, Cirkle PR, Golin, Hill+Knowlton Strategies, Ogilvy, Tin Man, and Weber Shandwick.

“Overall, the quality of this year’s submissions—and winners—was probably the highest we have ever seen,” said Holmes. “The European public relations business is producing a massive amount of breakthrough work for clients, much of it focused on corporate purpose, and much of it moving the needle on the big, important issues facing business and society.

“It’s worth calling out Africa too. Indigenous African firms took home five trophies this year, demonstrating that the continent can compete with the better-developed, better-funded region of Europe in terms of creative ideas and impact.”

A complete list of winners can be found here.