Amsterdam, 16 May 2025. Dentsu Creative is celebrating a landmark win at The One Show in New York, where Dave Frauenfelder, VP Brand, MarCom & Sponsorships at the Netherlands’ leading telco KPN, was awarded the prestigious CMO Pencil. Chosen by a jury of leading brand-side marketers, the award honors the world’s most impactful marketing that elevated the brand and delivered positive results to the bottom line. The ‘A Piece of Me’ campaign, in particular, set a new benchmark for both creative and social impact.
The CMO Pencil recognizes the key marketer behind award-worthy work that prioritized exceptional creativity, rewarding the confidence and bravery of an individual who champions a creative concept from ideation to reality, and ultimately to success.
A Masterclass in Creative Effectiveness, this campaign demonstrates the power of culture to transform brands, business, and society. It united deep cultural insight and bold creative execution to address the devastating issue of online shaming, making a once-taboo topic a national conversation and driving unprecedented impact. Partnering with MEAU, the nation’s biggest singer-songwriter, KPN co-created a song and music video inspired by fans’ deeply personal and often heart-wrenching stories, turning authentic voices into powerful change.
The results were remarkable. ‘A Piece of Me’ became a platinum-certified cultural touchpoint, dominating charts and generating 242 million PR impressions. It also sparked a national movement, leading to a critical change in Dutch law, criminalizing the forwarding of intimate images without consent, and delivered an astounding $592 million in brand valuation growth, making KPN the most valuable domestic brand in the Netherlands (Kantar BrandZ, 2025), with a total brand value now exceeding $5.777 billion.
“This campaign is a testament to the power of brave creative work to drive meaningful change,” said Boris Nihom, CEO, Dentsu Benelux. “Dave Frauenfelder is a marketer with extraordinary vision and conviction. As skillful in navigating stakeholders as he is culturally connected, his courage, commitment, and leadership were essential to the success of ‘A Piece of Me,’ repeatedly saying yes when others said no.”
The campaign also leveraged unique insights from KPN’s TikTok TalkShow, where young people were invited to share their deeply personal stories in expertly moderated conversations, providing a platform for real voices and authentic dialogue that fueled both the creative and strategic direction of the work.
Following its profound impact, ‘A Piece of Me’ was re-recorded in English and set to the same powerful video, extending its reach to vulnerable teens worldwide and inspiring an industry to prioritize purpose alongside profit.
Quote Dave Frauenfelder:
“I feel incredibly honored to receive this award. It represents not just my efforts, but those of an incredible team at KPN, our creative partners at Dentsu Creative, and the social organizations we worked with. This shows what’s possible when you truly believe in the power of creativity for good. For brands and CMOs still questioning whether creativity can make a difference: we hope this stands as inspiration. Creativity is not a luxury—it’s a catalyst for growth, connection, and change. And yes, a message from the Netherlands really can reach the world.”
Quote Stephanie Shields Jacoby, Global SVP Vodkas, Diageo, juror for The One Show’s CMO Pencil award:
“Dave Frauenfelder’s work on “A Piece of Me” is the epitome of what is possible when remarkable creativity is guided by bold, brave leadership – building brands that touch hearts, change minds, and ultimately move people and the world forward.”
For Dentsu Creative, this campaign exemplifies the agency’s commitment to driving meaningful change through creativity. It’s a powerful reminder that when brands act boldly and authentically, they can connect commercial success with a higher purpose, transforming not just their business but also the world around them.
