MANILA, Philippines, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA) has officially announced the SMARTIES Philippines 2026 Finalists. This year's shortlist recognizes campaigns blending cultural insights with emerging technologies to navigate evolving consumer behaviors and deliver measurable business impact.
Brands are creating seamless ecosystems for a social-first audience. Standout themes include the rise of shoppertainment, digital wallet integration, and purpose-led initiatives embodying the Filipino spirit of bayanihan (communal unity).
"The maturity and strategic depth of the work emerging from the Philippines this year is truly remarkable," said Rohit Dadwal, CEO of MMA APAC and Global Head of SMARTIES™. "We are witnessing a significant elevation in the caliber of campaigns, where brands are transforming complex market shifts into powerful growth opportunities. These finalists are not just succeeding locally; they are showcasing a blueprint of marketing excellence that serves as an inspiring example for the rest of the industry."
"What sets the Philippine campaigns apart this year is the profound connection to community and purpose," added Kinshuk Kunwar, President and General Manager, Mead Johnson Nutrition Philippines. "These finalists have brilliantly leveraged technology to amplify authentic Filipino values, proving that empathy and innovation are the true drivers of business growth."
To reflect how modern marketing operates in practice, the 2026 SMARTIES framework evaluated campaigns across four distinct channels tailored to current industry demands:
- Purpose Driven Marketing: Campaigns driving meaningful societal and cultural impact, advancing causes like sustainability, diversity, and inclusion.
- Impact Marketing: Campaigns delivering measurable business outcomes by strengthening brand relationships and driving growth.
- Media & Growth: Media strategy excellence demonstrating how integrated ecosystems effectively reach, engage, and grow audiences.
- Creative & Innovation Impact: Breakthrough marketing powered by creativity, data, and emerging tech to forge new brand engagement.
To ensure the highest level of credibility, all submissions underwent an in-depth, two-stage evaluation. Campaigns were initially reviewed and scored by a Qualifying Jury composed of senior advertising ecosystem professionals. Following this, an esteemed final jury comprising exclusively of marketers, including CEOs and CMOs, assessed each campaign with a strict focus on measurable business impact.
Victorious campaigns earn global prestige, securing spots in the WARC 100 media rankings, RECMA's global agency scoring, and the MMA SMARTIES Business Impact Index.
View SMARTIES Philippines 2026 Finalists.
The industry will gather to celebrate the winners at the SMARTIES Philippines 2026 Gala Night on October 6, 2026, at Shangri-La The Fort, Manila.
Reserve your attendance at the Gala Night.
About the Marketing + Media Alliance (MMA)
The Marketing + Media Alliance is the global non-profit community of CMOs advancing marketers' ability to create value, with 825+ members across 16 countries. mmaglobal.com
About SMARTIES™
SMARTIES™ is the prestigious marketing awards program hosted by MMA, recognizing excellence in marketing effectiveness and innovation. The SMARTIES Awards celebrate campaigns that push creative boundaries while delivering measurable business impact. With programs spanning local, regional, and global markets, SMARTIES has become the industry's most respected benchmark for marketing that drives real growth.
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SMARTIES Philippines 2026 Finalists Revealed: Celebrating Hyper-Local Innovation and Business Impact
New roadmap outlines six strategic priorities to help safeguard Singapore's digital payments ecosystem as fraud, scams and cyber threats evolve
SINGAPORE, Sept. 9, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Visa today unveiled its Singapore Security Roadmap 2026 and Beyond, outlining a comprehensive strategy to strengthen the resilience of Singapore's digital payments ecosystem against an increasingly sophisticated fraud and scam landscape. As digital commerce rapidly evolves together with the rise in artificial intelligence (AI), this roadmap reflects the growing need for collective action across the payments ecosystem and highlights the priorities and collaboration needed to stay ahead of emerging threats while ensuring seamless and secure payment experiences.
Visa's updated roadmap focuses on six strategic priorities designed to enhance security across the entire payments value chain:
- Strengthening cybersecurity to anticipate emerging threats and enhance ecosystem resilience.
- Advancing authentication to deliver seamless and secure digital experiences.
- Enabling safer transactions through tokenisation, reducing exposure of sensitive payment credentials.
- Transforming eCommerce checkout experiences to improve convenience and consumer confidence.
- Leveraging foundational standards and risk programs to improve network performance and security.
- Building a resilient payments ecosystem to combat fraud and scams in the AI era.
"Trust underpins every digital payment experience and maintaining the confidence for consumers and businesses is critical as Singapore's digital economy continues to grow. As AI transforms commerce and creates new opportunities, it also raises the stakes in the fight against fraud and scams. Since launching our Singapore Security Roadmap in 2019, we have worked closely with industry partners to advance capabilities such as risk-based authentication and tokenisation, helping make payments safer and more seamless. This updated roadmap reflects the evolving threat landscape and reinforces our commitment to investing in the technology, intelligence and partnerships needed to stay ahead of emerging risks. By working together across the ecosystem, we can enable innovation, strengthen resilience, and ensure consumers and businesses continue to participate in the digital economy with confidence," said Adeline Kim, Group Country Manager for Regional Southeast Asia & SVP, Global Clients, Asia Pacific, Visa.
"Scams and fraud continue to evolve at an unprecedented pace, making collaboration across industry, government, and the private sector more important than ever. Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA) welcomes Visa's Singapore Security Roadmap and its commitment to advancing collective action, innovation and intelligence sharing to strengthen trust and resilience across Singapore's digital payments ecosystem," said Brian D. Hanley, APAC Director, Global Anti-Scam Alliance (GASA).
The roadmap comes at a pivotal time for Singapore. Digital payments continue to grow alongside broader digital economy expansion, while scams and cybercrime remain among the most pressing threats facing consumers and businesses. Based on a Visa commissioned study, close to seven in 10 Singapore residents trust digital payments. However, 42 per cent of Singapore residents also acknowledged that they have come across scams, although only 8 per cent have lost money from these scams. Fraudsters are increasingly harnessing AI, automation, and social engineering techniques to exploit trust and manipulate consumer behaviour, shifting from traditional unauthorised fraud towards authorised payment scams.
To address these evolving threats, Visa is continuing to invest in technologies that strengthen security while minimising friction. These include advanced AI-powered fraud detection capabilities, tokenisation, authentication innovations such as passkeys and biometric authentication, and expanded scam prevention solutions across both card and account-to-account payment environments. Visa currently deploys over 150 AI and machine learning models globally to help identify fraud, optimise authentication, and protect digital payments.
The roadmap also highlights the importance of ecosystem-wide collaboration. Visa will continue working closely with regulators, financial institutions, merchants, fintechs and industry partners to strengthen cyber resilience, improve fraud intelligence sharing, and accelerate the adoption of secure payment technologies.
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About Visa
Visa (NYSE: V) is a world leader in digital payments, facilitating transactions between consumers, sellers, financial institutions and government entities across more than 200 countries and territories. Our mission is to connect the world through the most innovative, convenient, reliable and secure payments network, enabling individuals, businesses and economies to thrive. We believe that economies that include everyone everywhere, uplift everyone everywhere and see access as foundational to the future of money movement. Learn more at Visa.com.
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Visa Unveils Revised Singapore Security Roadmap to Strengthen Trust and Resilience in the AI Era
