The most shared moments in culture right now are not happening on screens. They are happening in rooms, on streets, and at events, and then travelling online from there. That shift is at the heart of how the Brand Experience team at Allied thinks about every brief we take on.
We call it IRL to URL. The idea is straightforward: a physical activation might only be attended by a few hundred people, but its real value lies in what it generates beyond the room. Earned media. Online conversation. Content that moves. A live brand moment, built with the right creative thinking and the right talent around it, can reach an audience that is orders of magnitude larger than the one that was physically present. That is not a lucky byproduct. It is the goal from day one.
On Thursday, April 16, Allied picked up 13 awards across 8 categories at the 2026 APMC Star Awards at The Westbury Hotel in Dublin, the most of any agency on the night. The wins spanned six clients, eight categories, and campaigns built around Italian food culture, live sport, Halloween, summer refreshment, and a touring coffee brand. Each one started with a brief to show up in the real world. Each one was built to travel far beyond it.
Here is a look at the work.
Nonna's Kitchen | Birra Moretti
Five medals: Gold in Best Brand Roadshow, Silver in Best Experiential, Best Integrated, Best Talent, and the Alcoholic Beverages category.
Birra Moretti's connection to Italian food culture is genuine, but it needed to be felt rather than communicated. Nonna's Kitchen was a touring brand experience that brought that heritage directly to Irish consumers through an immersive restaurant-style environment built around authentic Italian cooking and hospitality. The campaign travelled across multiple locations, with the physical experience designed from the outset to generate content, conversation, and coverage that extended its reach well beyond each venue. The multi-medal result across roadshow, experiential, integrated, and talent reflects how much of the craft went into every layer of the activation, not just the build.
Heineken Matchday Experience | Heineken
Two silvers: Best Experiential and Best Sponsorship.
Heineken has long-standing associations with sport, but association is not the same as presence. The Matchday Experience was built around a simple insight: that match day in an Irish pub is already a ritual with real emotional stakes, and that Heineken's job is to be genuinely additive to that moment. The activation focused on the half-time window, creating participatory brand moments that gave fans something to engage with and share. Recognition in both the experiential and sponsorship categories reflects how well the idea sat at the intersection of live sport and consumer behaviour, in the room and beyond it.
Crack the Cooler | Britvic Ireland/Pepsi
Silver in Best Brand Roadshow, Bronze in Non-Alcoholic Beverages.
Pepsi's "Thirsty for More" platform needed something that matched its energy in the real world. Crack the Cooler was a touring activation built around a striking ice-inspired installation that locked exclusive Pepsi merchandise inside a cooler, with consumers invited to enter a code on a digital keypad for the chance to unlock it. The mechanic was deliberately simple: create curiosity, invite participation, give people a reason to share what just happened. It toured Belfast, Galway, and Dublin, and the brand roadshow silver reflects how effectively the idea scaled across markets.
The Big Chill | Coors
Silver in Best Talent, Bronze in Alcoholic Beverages.
Coors has a clear brand personality: relaxed, refreshing, easy. The Big Chill used talent to bring that personality to life in a way that felt natural rather than scripted. The best talent work makes a brand feel like it belongs in a cultural moment rather than sponsoring it from the outside. The dual recognition in talent and the category reflects that the fit was right.
The Refresh Express | Jimmy's Iced Coffee
Bronze in Best Integrated.
Jimmy's Iced Coffee already has an engaged consumer base and a strong point of view. The Refresh Express extended that into an integrated campaign that gave existing fans a new reason to engage and gave new audiences a way in. The integrated category rewards campaigns that connect across channels rather than showing up in just one place, and that is exactly what this did.
Halloween Door | Haribo Maoam
Bronze in Best Talent.
Seasonal activations live or die by whether the execution matches the occasion. Halloween Door leaned into the playfulness of the Haribo Maoam brand through an activation built around the ritual of trick or treating. The talent brief was specific: warm, energetic, and disruptive enough to make people stop and share. A bronze in Best Talent reflects that it landed.
The full list of awards results:
Best Brand Roadshow: Gold, Birra Moretti / Nonna's Kitchen. Silver, Britvic Ireland/Pepsi / Crack the Cooler.
Best Experiential: Silver, Birra Moretti / Nonna's Kitchen. Silver, Heineken / Heineken Matchday Experience.
Best Integrated: Silver, Birra Moretti / Nonna's Kitchen. Bronze, Jimmy's Iced Coffee / The Refresh Express.
Best Sponsorship: Silver, Heineken / Heineken Matchday Experience.
Best Talent: Silver, Coors / The Big Chill. Silver, Birra Moretti / Nonna's Kitchen. Bronze, Haribo Maoam / Halloween Door.
Alcoholic Beverages and 0.0 Alternatives: Silver, Birra Moretti / Nonna's Kitchen. Bronze, Coors / The Big Chill.
Non-Alcoholic Beverages: Bronze, Britvic Ireland/Pepsi / Crack the Cooler.
Award-winning work does not happen by accident. It is built with taste, timing, and the confidence to make the right call when attention is up for grabs. We help brands create the kind of experiences people talk about, show up for, and remember. If you want brand experience that lands in culture and drives real commercial impact, get in touch.
