What Happens When Ads Break the Internet? They End Up at the Webby Awards!
With so much clutter nowadays and ads blasting your way on the internet, we completely understand how it feels to be distracted and have too many messages blown at your face. With the amount of content being produced from web series, content influencers, creative applications, video games, internet personalities, and so much more, there seems to be an endless amount of iconic content that we can appreciate.
But fear not! We’re not here to add more to the massive pile. We want to highlight powerful content from our favorite category, advertising campaigns.
And who better than the Webby Awards to give us the rundown and select the best campaigns that ruled the internet during the last year?
About the Webby Awards
Established in 1996 during the web’s early stages, the Webbys are presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) — a 2000+ member judging body. The Academy comprises executive members — leading web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries, and creative celebrities — and associate members, who are former Webby winners, nominees, and other internet professionals. The awards show prides itself on being the leading international awards show honoring excellence and brilliance on the internet.
What’s fascinating about this award show is that YOU, the viewers, get to choose who takes home the trophy. Audience members have the chance to vote for their favorite selections in many different categories highlighting people, projects, social goods, music, movies, and, of course, advertisements.
Let’s take a look at last year’s groundbreaking campaigns:
Brand: Santander
Agency: Arnold Worldwide
Category: Individual Augmented Reality — Advertising, Media & PR
Did you know that 25% of the homeless population in America are actually employed? Yes. Homeless people actually working in real jobs but can’t afford a place to live. We quickly jump to assumptions when looking at certain people without knowing what they are going through. This is why Santander decided to show people how you can live a day in someone else’s shoes, specifically the working homeless.
Through the use of augmented reality where people can visualize an animated storytelling narrative of a homeless girl going through everyday struggles of being homeless, people really got immersed in this technologically enhanced AR narrative, and they took action by downloading the app and walking to help fund and support the working homeless. It’s a prime example of how technology can take storytelling further to reach people’s hearts and stimulate them to take action.
https://vimeo.com/user19053019/review/318489544/a6936f0068
RED FOR ED UNION IS GETTING STRONGER
Brand: National Education Association
Agency: Powell Tate
Category: Craft/Copywriting — Advertising, Media & PR
The power of words is as high as the power of visuals. Writing for digital media is a skill that should not be underestimated. We may be used to the visual aspect of digital content on YouTube, Facebook, or any other video-streaming platform. However, these videos would never have been created if it weren’t for… writing. Writing the script, the story, the actions. This is how it all starts and leads to a beautiful cinematic production.
That was the case for RED FOR ED, a social campaign empowering educators to uplift children in the academic system for a better world. What’s so crafty about this ad is the fact that they used words on screen to narrate the story, sentence after sentence, imposing a saddening and discouraged feel. But then, halfway through the video, the sentences start going backward, giving a positive message. Talk about plot twists!
Brand: Nike
Agency: Wieden+Kennedy Amsterdam
Category: Media Strategy — Advertising, Media & PR
Speaking of cinematic stories and productions, Nike just blew everyone’s mind on the internet (mostly soccer fans) with their new product launch. Agencies find great opportunities in navigating the internet and creating a buzz by targeting online communities that are worth engaging because of their clientele. To launch their latest PHANTOM football boot, as a means to scare people with a terrifying and very powerful entity, Nike created a mobile-first campaign unleashing this “monster” on the world in a horror/thriller mini-episode through Instagram, Snapchat, and Facebook. The online football community went insane when they saw some of their favorite players taking part in this mysterious happening. Then it escalated into WhatsApp texts, a YouTube video, and offline/ambient interactions, finally leading to the launch of the boots in the market. This campaign rocked the online community with Wieden+Kennedy’s successful unified media strategy that incorporated ONE strong idea that could be implemented through different channels.
Brand: CARSALES
Agency: CHE Proximity
Category: Best Use of Social Media — Advertising, Media & PR
It’s very true that brands do the most on social media, creating big productions and generating content to engage online users. But nothing beats the feeling of having YOUR content generating buzz with the help of major brands. If that’s not enough, imagine having your content sold to a wide audience on the internet. What more can one ask for?
CHE Proximity found great value in providing CARSALES, an Australian car-selling service, the opportunity to let their users sell their secondhand, normal, and average cars online. Instead of just having regular pictures of the cars posted online, CARSALES turned these pictures into high-end motion pictures and visually appealing car ads that grabbed viewers’ attention. And sellers did not need to do anything! They just post their ad and then CARSALES does all the “production” work to turn their ads into beautiful eye-catching commercials. Naturally, everyone on social media loved seeing their own cars being sold so effectively. Some of these ads were even featured on primetime television.
Don’t miss out on other amazing ads that broke the internet at the Webbys! Here’s the full list from the Advertising, Media and PR category.
Entries for the 24th Annual Webby Awards are now OPEN! Click here for more info.
