Machine wins Best Internal Email at the 2025 You Mailed It Awards – for the second year running

“This campaign is a brilliant example of how creativity and purpose can come together to inspire action. It wasn’t just a message about Earth Hour – it showed us how small steps can add up to real environmental change,” says Inga Bosch-Cloete, senior manager: Group Internal Communications at Sanlam.

Machine’s Earth Hour Mailer turned a routine internal mailer into an interactive, energy-saving experience. By switching to dark mode and encouraging Sanlam employees to reflect on their daily energy habits, the email campaign went beyond awareness, it modelled change.

“When our team – Machine and the Sanlam Group – chose to switch to dark mode for our weekly internal mailer to raise awareness about Earth Hour, it was about more than just function. We wanted to show how small behavioural shifts can add up to meaningful sustainability gains. We’re proud to be recognised for our commitment to environmental awareness and to see Machine’s borderless creativity as content marketing specialists acknowledged and celebrated,” added Samantha Page, senior content officer at Machine.

Reaching Sanlam employees across 28 African countries, the campaign illustrated how creativity thinking – even in something as commonplace as a weekly internal email newsletter, can spark tangible impact.

“Winning this award two years in a row is a testament to our team’s dedication to pushing boundaries, even in spaces as overlooked as internal email. With Sanlam, we found a partner equally committed to doing more than just saying the right thing, but doing it too,” says Alex Forrester-Strydom, business unit director at Machine.

More about Machine_

Machine is a South African creative solutions agency, where fearless minds lead to borderless creativity. Our creativity is unrestricted by four borders and character limits. Because we believe ideas should live beyond mediums and in consumers’ minds. Visit thisismachine.co.za for more information.

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