LG Innotek holds college ad contest awards ceremony on physical AI theme

LG Innotek announced Tuesday that it held the awards ceremony for its 2026 College YouTube Short-Form Ad Contest and selected the final winning entries.

The company has run an annual advertising contest for college students since 2021, aimed at raising brand awareness and deepening engagement with future talent.

This year's contest was themed around physical AI, a field LG Innotek has identified as a key area for future business development. Participants were free to express through short-form video how the company's core technologies could shape the future.

A total of 43 entries were submitted for the contest, which opened in April. After incorporating online votes cast by LG Innotek employees, the company selected six final winners: one grand prize winner, one excellence award winner and four merit award winners.

The grand prize went to team "Cinemarco" (Park Sung-hyun), whose entry depicted a robot in a physical AI laboratory gradually learning to perceive, judge and move on its own, presented in the style of a short experimental log. The entry drew high marks for showing how LG Innotek's future technologies could transform everyday life.

LG Innotek plans to award prize money of 3 million won ($1,950) to the grand prize winner, 2 million won to the excellence award winner and 1 million won to each merit award winner. The winning entries and participant interview videos will also be released later through LG Innotek's official YouTube channel.

Park Sung-hyun, a student at Hankuk University of Foreign Studies who took the grand prize, said the team focused on making physical AI — a term that can feel somewhat daunting — easy for anyone to understand. "Through this contest, I had the experience of translating a future industry into content, and it was a great help in thinking about my career path," Park said.