Media, Marketing & Communications

Beijing – November 07, 2026 -- The 7th World Media Summit opened in Beijing on Saturday with nearly 500 representatives from nearly 330 mainstream media outlets, think tanks and government bodies across 112 countries and regions.

Xinhua and Beijing government co-organize five-day summit under an intelligent-age theme

Xinhua News Agency and the Beijing municipal government jointly organized the event, which runs from Thursday to Monday. The theme is "Media in the Intelligent Age: From Consensus to Action."

The United Nations and other international organizations also sent representatives.

Senior CPC official Li Shulei delivers opening keynote

Li Shulei, a member of the Political Bureau of the Communist Party of China (CPC) Central Committee and head of the Publicity Department of the CPC Central Committee, gave the keynote speech at the opening ceremony.

Leipzig – November 07, 2026 -- The MDR documentary "Nationalparks – Brandherde und Naturparadiese?", produced for ARTE, has won the 2026 German-Czech Journalism Prize in the Multimedia category. Author Bettina Wobst received the award on 6 November 2026 in Frankfurt am Main.

Report examines wildfire pressure on national park protection concepts

The film uses Saxon-Bohemian Switzerland to show how climate change, drought and more frequent large fires strain national park protection concepts. It frames the core conflict as whether national parks protect nature or also endanger the people living in and around them.

Wobst, a filmmaker based in Dresden, travelled the German-Czech border region. In the Czech village of Mezná she met a couple who lost their home in the summer 2022 wildfire. They believe inadequate fire prevention and large volumes of dead wood helped the fire spread.

New York – November 07, 2026 -- Nearly 300 advertising executives gathered at Tribeca Rooftop on November 5 for 212NYC's 12th Annual Gala & Excellence Awards, where the digital advertising club honored five industry leaders under the theme "Humanity in Action: Staying Human in the Age of AI."

212NYC honors five executives from media, retail and consumer brands

The 2026 honorees span agency, streaming, packaged goods, beauty and marketing roles:

Beijing – November 06, 2026 -- iQIYI used its NadouPro AI platform to recreate "Visiting Shanghai after Sixty Years", a 1938 film lost for nearly 90 years, with an eight-person team in two months. The project is shortlisted for the "2026 Future Images AI Unit" at the 39th Golden Rooster Awards, one of China's most prestigious film honors.

Team rebuilds film from stills, posters and newspaper clippings

The team at the iQIYI-XMU Joint Laboratory of Film Restoration had no surviving prints, reels or scripts of one of China's earliest science-fiction works, a comedy imagining life sixty years ahead. Instead of repairing damaged footage, the team generated the film from scratch. Its only guides were production still-photos, posters and newspaper clippings.

Seoul – November 06, 2026 -- Hyperstar, a Korean creator-marketing startup, has secured 95% of its $1 million revenue target for this year (about 1.4 billion won) through contracts. The company has also launched an AI agent that selects influencers by actual sales rather than follower counts.

Account with 235,000 followers outsold one with 797,000 by 35 times

On the Hyperstar platform, an account with 235,000 followers generated 35 times the sales of an account with 797,000 followers. The company ranks creators by actual sales, active follower ratio and sales history. Selection, outreach, contracting, campaign operation and performance verification run in a single flow.

LONDON – November 06, 2026 -- essential COSTA RICA became the first country brand in the history of the City Nation Place Awards to win Place Brand of the Year twice, adding the 2026 title to its 2019 victory. The country also took Best Citizen Engagement and a Highly Commended distinction for Best Communication Strategy, in a field that included entries from Finland, Sweden, the Netherlands, the United States, Australia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

2035 Strategy targets preference for Costa Rican products in key markets

The top award recognizes the brand's work over the past year under its 2035 Strategy. The strategy aims to increase preference for Costa Rican products in key markets and to strengthen a sense of belonging among people in Costa Rica. The ceremony took place Thursday in London during the City Nation Place Global conference.

Frankfurt – November 06, 2026 -- The German Dialogue Marketing Association (DDV) presented the 2026 Alfred Gerardi Memorial Prize (AGGP) at the DialogSummit in Frankfurt and, for the first time, added a special prize for societal relevance, awarded for a thesis on digital accessibility.

The AGGP has honored academic theses in dialogue and data-driven marketing since 1986. More than 900 works have been submitted since its founding, making it one of the longest-running early-career prizes in its field in the German-speaking region. Printus GmbH of Offenburg, a DDV member and premium partner, funds the prize in full.

Three theses on AI agents, chatbots and accessible UX testing win awards

The winning papers center on artificial intelligence and virtual agents, trust and customer experience, and acceptance of new forms of customer communication.

Cologne – November 06, 2026 -- RTL will launch "Raab gegen alle" in 2027, a new Saturday-night event show in which Stefan Raab faces 100 challengers in head-to-head duels.

RTL casts 100 specialists, not all-rounders, for Saturday primetime

Contestants are not required to be all-round athletes. Each challenger who wins a slot gets a duel in which they can play to a personal strength. A celebrity team captain backs every contestant through games, challenges and duels.

Applications and ticket sales are already open, giving RTL an early audience and casting pipeline for the format.

RTL Deutschland CCO frames the show as a mass-participation play

Inga Leschek, Chief Content Officer of RTL Deutschland, said the format turns the widespread belief among viewers that they can beat Raab into a Saturday-night show. She added that Raab does not regard 100 opponents as a reason for concern.

Frankfurt – November 06, 2026 -- The German Dialogue Marketing Association (DDV) awarded its 2026 EDDI Awards to paint retailer MissPompadour in the B2C category and to cooperative DATEV in the B2B category, with DATEV's roughly 40,000 members at the center of the winning strategy.

DDV presents EDDI Awards 2026 at EDDI-Night during DialogSummit

The association presented the prizes at the EDDI-Night in Frankfurt, held as part of the DialogSummit. The EDDI Award has been given by the DDV since 1993. It recognizes companies with long-term, innovative, integrated and customer-centric dialogue marketing strategies.

AJMAN – – November 06, 2026 -- The Ajman Government Media Office will launch the inaugural Ajman Media Forum 2026 on 18 and 19 November, backed by seven strategic partners and built around the question "Who Owns the Signal?" The office unveiled the programme at a press conference at Thara Centre for Entrepreneurship.

Five themes cover AI, trust and the media economy

Executive Director Mohammed Abdullah Al Kaabi said digital platforms, algorithms, artificial intelligence and content creators now shape how information is produced, distributed and consumed, reducing the influence of traditional media institutions. The programme covers media transformation, AI in content creation, trust and disinformation, national reputation and government communication, and digital platforms and the media economy.