Helm, DStv, and Capitec clinch 2024 Smarties Awards

The Mobile Marketing Association announced the winners of the 2024 Smarties Awards at a gala event on Thursday 11 April, rewarding customer experience company Helm for its collaborative work with DStv and Capitec, which collectively took home a total of four Smarties.

These are the first awards won by Capitec and Helm as a partnership, with the accolades honouring the transformative impact of MoneyUp Chat by Capitec, a financial education platform designed to benefit not only Capitec clients but also the wider South African community. Spearheaded by the innovative MoneyUp Chat Intelligent Assistant, the solution included the highly successful "Slam the Scam" campaign, which was launched during Fraud Awareness Week and also took home a silver award in the Social Messaging category.

Daniela Thom, head of client success at Helm, expressed her enthusiasm, saying, "We’re thrilled to finally see our ongoing collaboration with Capitec recognised for its creative excellence and impact. This project is particularly meaningful to us, and we’re so glad that MoneyUp Chat is now a part of our proud history at the Smarties.”

This year’s awards have acknowledged the business impact of Helm-built intelligent assistants, and the role they’ve played in helping some of Africa’s biggest brands reach their audiences through the power of AI. Not only have they been recognised in the Social Messaging, Chat App, and Text Messaging categories, but they make the case for ‘chatbots’ as a Personalisation and Lead Generation tool.

Following a Customer Experience gold at last year’s MMA Smarties, DStv Assist secured more success in 2024 – this time in the Lead Generation and Personalisation categories. DStv’s most popular self-service tool was transformed into a sales machine, which has emerged as their top lead generator, having already revolutionised the self-service experience for over 11.2 million customers since its inception in 2019.

Helm accolades at this year’s Smarties:

• Social messaging / chat apps / text messaging – Slam the Scam (MoneyUp Chat by Capitec) – Silver
  
• Customer journey marketing – MoneyUp Chat by Capitec – Bronze
  
• Personalisation – DStv Intelligent Sales Assistant – Bronze
  
• Lead generation – DStv Intelligent Sales Assistant – Bronze

MoneyUp Chat's entry into the Smarties arena emphasised its unique approach to fostering financial literacy through interactive conversations. With over 147,000 participants engaging in meaningful dialogue, the platform witnessed remarkable success, with 93% of users initiating one or more chapters to enhance their financial well-being.

Meanwhile, DStv Assist, powered by Helm Engine, showcased its prowess in leveraging AI to streamline customer interactions. Having handled over 1.6 billion messages, the platform seamlessly resolves queries and completes self-service tasks, contributing to DStv's sales growth and customer satisfaction.

The Smarties Awards is the first South African marketing industry awards programme to be ranked in the Warc 100 and Research Company Evaluating the Media Agency Industry (RECMA) organisations. This means that all Smarties Gold, Silver and Bronze winners will now be added to Warc 100’s ranking of the world’s most awarded campaigns and companies for media as well as RECMA’s global scoring for agencies.

Helm’s awards underscore its commitment to innovation and excellence in the ever-evolving landscape of digital marketing and customer experience.