In a win that’s far greater than their recent acquisition by Facebook, popular photo-sharing app Instagram won the #Apps Shorty Award, presented by PepsiCo. Watch cofounders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger accept via video at the 4th Annual Shorty Awards.
About the Shorty Awards: The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media, recognizing the people and organizations producing real-time short form content across Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, YouTube, Foursquare, and the rest of the social Web.
Benefit Cosmetics’ Bazaarvoice Ratings & Reviews was awarded the Shorty Industry Award for Best Use of Twitter or Facebook for E-Commerce at the 3rd Annual Shorty Awards on Monday, March 28, 2011 in New York City.
Overview: Benefit Cosmetics, a global beauty brand based in San Francisco, uses Twitter and Facebook to encourage customers to review and promote its products. In April 2010, the company deployed a “Ratings & Reviews” application on its Facebook page created by technology company Bazaarvoice, which in social commerce applications. “Ratings & Reviews” lets fans rate and review products, share their own reviews with the Facebook friends and fellow Benefit Cosmetics fans. The application also places the reviews directly in the product page on Benefit Cosmetics’ website. Anyone who reads Benefit reviews on Facebook can click on the “buy now” button for a product, which goes directly to the product page on Benefit’s site. The company also added a Q&A section on its Facebook page so users can get answers to their cosmetics questions.
Impact: Benefit has collected 1,734 reviews submitted via “Ratings & Reviews” for Facebook, and an additional 1,862 reviews submitted through the company’s website. Benefit Cosmetics sees a 10‐times‐higher click‐through rate for the “buy now” button on Facebook than the average online ad. Benefit has more than 174,000 “likes” on Facebook and 32,000 followers on Twitter.
Threadless and Carnival Cruise Lines were awarded the Shorty Industry Award for Best Brand Presence on Facebook at the 3rd Annual Shorty Awards on Monday, March 28, 2011 in New York City.
Threadless Overview: Threadless is a community-focused online apparel store operated by the Chicago-based company skinnyCorp. The public can vote on new designs, and the best are sold online. Threadless approaches Facebook and all of its social media channels with the idea that Threadless should be like a friend you enjoy having in your stream: someone funny and interesting with cool stuff to share who likes you back and isn’t necessarily always trying to sell you something. Threadless poses questions to its Facebook fans, encouraging them to engage in conversation through comments. In order to make fans feel like part of the company, Threadless asked Facebook fans judge its office costume contest as well as the company’s pumpkin carving contest. Threadless also runs contest and sweepstakes promotions on Facebook. Public relations agency Attention PR assists Threadless with promotional efforts.
Impact: In 2010, Threadless received 150,000 new “likes” for the brand on Facebook. The retailer also put a customer support tab, made by Parature Inc., on its Facebook page so fans can access FAQ and submit new service-related questions. Company employees field the questions, and monitor key inquiry terms. By late fall 2010, the retailer had 180,000 Facebook fans.
Carnival Cruise Lines Overview: Carnival Cruise Lines owns 22 ships and operates three- to 16-day cruises in the U.S., Europe, Caribbean, and other destinations worldwide. The company partnered with Buddy Media to launch a Facebook presence for the company, part of a streamlined effort to personalize the cruise vacation planning experience. The goal was to encourage customers to discuss their Carnival Cruises before and after the trips, post questions, and interact with the Carnival Cruising community. In addition to facilitating fan dialogue, the Carnival Facebook page provides details about cruises and vacation experiences, including vacation poll results, videos, and photos of tropical trips, highlights of the crew on the ship, and photos of the ships. Using the “Carnival Magic” tab, fans can view videos, interact with Carnival Crew members, and post feedback, all while sharing their own experiences with Facebook friends. Both Carnival and Buddy Media maintain the Facebook page.
Impact: Carnival Cruise Line’s Facebook page has more than 570,000 fans, and users have posted more than 14,000 photos. The page has also allowed Carnival to showcase Web-based features that their competitors don’t have, including features such as online discussions and videos with crew members.
Chick-fil-A’s Spicy Chicken Sandwich campaign was awarded the Shorty Industry Award for Best Use of Facebook in a Marketing Campaign at the 3rd Annual Shorty Awards on Monday, March 28, 2011 in New York City.
Overview: On June 7, 2010, quick service restaurant chain Chick‐fil‐A introduced a new Spicy Chicken Sandwich, its first new sandwich and largest product introduction in 20 years. Marketing firm Engauge helped build awareness through Chick‐fil‐A’s Facebook page by allowing consumers to “reserve” a sandwich online. The campaign included a “Spicy Tab” on the Facebook page, which counted down the days to the launch and geo‐targeted wall posts to specific markets with lower reservation numbers in order to drive additional awareness. Fans were also offered the opportunity to try the Spicy Chicken Sandwich for free. The campaign targeted Chick‐fil‐A’s “raving fans,” who “liked” the chain on Facebook, followed it on Twitter, and chose to receive regular email updates. Many of these fans were willing to camp out outside at Chick‐fil‐A stores to receive free sandwiches. The campaign also included additional promotion through the “Cow Appreciation” Facebook tab and an e‐mail campaign.
Impact: Within 48 hours of launch, Chick‐fil‐A received 1.2 million online “reservations” for the new sandwich and that was even before the chain had announced the product through traditional marketing channels. That week, the promotions nearly doubled visitor activity on the Chick‐fil‐A Facebook page, and the initial wall post announcing premiere week generated more than 1.2 million impressions, more than 1,600 likes, and more than 1,400 comments. During the campaign, Chick‐fil‐A’s Facebook fans grew by over 58,000 or 3.8%, wall posts promoting the Spicy Chicken Sandwich generated more than 7 million impressions, and customers left 3,403 comments on these wall posts.
After Chick-fil-A’s acceptance, guest presenter Jim Gaffigan (@jimgaffigan) read us a telegram “from the Chick-fil-A people.”
The Real-Time Academy of Short Form Arts & Sciences Marketing Jury will determine the winners from among these finalists. The announcement will be made at the Shorty Awards Ceremony hosted by The Daily Show’s Aasif Mandvi on Monday, March 28th, 2011 at The TimesCenter in New York City.
Tickets are on sale now. Join our mailing list to find out how to enter in future.
Overview: Benefit Cosmetics, a global beauty brand based in San Francisco, uses Twitter and Facebook to encourage customers to review and promote its products. In April 2010, the company deployed a “Ratings & Reviews” application on its Facebook page created by technology company Bazaarvoice, which in social commerce applications. “Ratings & Reviews” lets fans rate and review products, share their own reviews with the Facebook friends and fellow Benefit Cosmetics fans. The application also places the reviews directly in the product page on Benefit Cosmetics’ website. Anyone who reads Benefit reviews on Facebook can click on the “buy now” button for a product, which goes directly to the product page on Benefit’s site. The company also added a Q&A section on its Facebook page so users can get answers to their cosmetics questions.
Impact: Benefit has collected 1,734 reviews submitted via “Ratings & Reviews” for Facebook, and an additional 1,862 reviews submitted through the company’s website. Benefit Cosmetics sees a 10‐times‐higher click‐through rate for the “buy now” button on Facebook than the average online ad. Benefit has more than 174,000 “likes” on Facebook and 32,000 followers on Twitter.
Overview: Fidipidi is a Facebook application developed by the Chicago‐based digital marketing company Acquity Group in 2010. Fidipidi allows users to create original greeting cards online or on their mobile phone, purchase them, and have them printed out and physically delivered via U.S. Postal Service to recipients. Each card costs $3.99 plus tax and first‐class postage. Each unique card is put into the mail system within 24 hours of the order time. The idea is to offer “hassle‐free thoughtfulness.” The application’s users can modify more than 250 exclusive greeting card templates. The application can be set up to alert users to upcoming Facebook friends’ birthdays, so they can send timely cards. The application also has user reviews and updates from the Fidipidi staff. When the application launched, Fidipidi general manager Don Dolan called it an entirely new way to monetize Facebook, built on the way social media is changing how consumers shop online.
