We come to this industry for stories. We come to entertainment marketing to turn those stories into moments people care about, talk about and return to.
I have judged more than thirty international award competitions -- including the 2026 GEMA Awards Global -- in creativity and innovation this year, reviewing campaigns from North America to Asia. At one point, a piece of work made the entire jury room pause. It was not the most technically complex entry. It was not the one with the biggest budget or the most obvious use of artificial intelligence (AI). It was the one that felt the most culturally alive and the most impossible to ignore. Those are the entries that stay with you long after the scoring is done.
That is increasingly what award-winning work looks like in the age of AI.
Having reviewed thousands of campaign entries, I have seen that award-winning work is anchored in purpose; it seeks lasting impact and avoids leaning on gimmicks. Too many entries pursue short-term virality—polished stunts built for algorithms or shock value that flare up and fade. The winners, by contrast, endure because they connect. They share a vision that makes judges pause and reflect. It does not matter whether the work originates in Asia, Europe or the Americas, or which category it belongs to—the ideas that win are the ones that transform, not just perform.
They remind you why judging is also about setting a standard for what the industry chooses to celebrate. And whatever we choose to honor quietly becomes the bar everyone else measures themselves against. That is the part that matters most.
AI can help marketers work more efficiently within this model. Its most practical role today is operational: analyzing audience data, supporting A/B testing of trailers and thumbnails, identifying performance patterns, adapting promotional assets across formats and speeding up localization.
For lean teams, that matters enormously. AI can make sophisticated analytics and rapid testing available without the large budgets or dedicated data teams that were once required. It can shorten launch cycles and help identify which messages, visuals and audience segments are responding.
However, AI is not a substitute for human judgement.
Many brands are rushing to automate creative ideation, producing work that looks polished and fits the brief, but lacks depth. These concepts may achieve short-term engagement, yet they often feel interchangeable because they have not begun with a distinctive human insight.
There is a lesson here for those of us in marketing and entertainment. Younger audiences do not need to be convinced to care about stories but we do need to give them something to care about. The campaigns reaching younger generations understand that marketing can be part of the experience of loving a story. A fascinating behind-the-scenes detail, a creator collaboration that feels native to the platform or a real-world activation that invites participation can take on a life of its own online. The best campaigns give audiences something to discover, photograph, share and ultimately feel a part of.
AI can accelerate how we work. But it cannot replace the human reason to care.
In the City of Angels and beyond, marketing culture is being reshaped not by tools alone, but by the clarity of the ideas behind them. The future will belong to teams that combine technology’s speed with human depth. The most memorable campaigns will not simply perform in the algorithm. They will endure in culture.
Svetlana Stotskaya is a global marketing executive, mentor and awards jury member with extensive experience supporting companies of various sizes, from France to Singapore. She mentors entrepreneurs at world- leading startup accelerators Techstars and Founder Institute.
Svetlana has served on the jury board for multiple international awards, including the GEMA Awards: General Entertainment - Global in 2026 and 2025, 2026 New York Festivals Advertising Awards, 2026-2025 Artificial Intelligence Excellence Award (USA), Golden Award of Montreux 2026 (Switzerland), and 2026-2025 BIG Innovation Awards (USA), among others.
Named as a Changemaker by the World Intellectual Property Organization and INvolve Heroes Role Model 2026-2025 supported by YouTube, Stotskaya is also a member of several industry groups focused on AI and leadership.
