The submission process for the Shorty Industry Awards has been completely redesigned to make the process simpler, cleaner and shorter. Now you can enter in multiple categories at once, save your entry and complete it over time, and add a few tidbits of information along with a picture to your new public company profile.
And the golden nugget - you now have more time to try it out! The Industry Awards submissions deadline for brands and agencies has been extended to February 17th, 2012.
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.
Gillette’s Blade Change Challenge was awarded the Shorty Industry Award for Best Social Game at the 3rd Annual Shorty Awards on Monday, March 28, 2011 in New York City.
Overview: Razor company Gillette launched a new ad campaign in 2010 to get male customers to replace their worn razor blades on a more regular basis. Working with the firm Proximity Canada and the interactive game application E‐Axis, Gillette’s campaign utilized national television ads, online ads, a “razor repair” microsite, and a Facebook game. The interactive game, called “Gillette’s Blade Change Challenge,” invites users to shoot razor blades off a Gillette razor, aiming the blades at different items, and progressing through different levels of difficulty. Users gain points by successfully hitting objects in a virtual garage. The game also had a leaderboard displaying top‐ scoring players. Gillette gave away 1,000 free ProGlide blade samples through its Facebook page.
Impact: Gillette’s Facebook game had more than 20,000 monthly active users, while blade consumption increased by two cartridges per household annually, and the purchase rate went up 12%. Meanwhile, awareness of the indicator strip turning white while shaving is up more than 10 points, and awareness of the indicator strip turning white as the key sign to change the blade is up 14 points.
Lionsgate and The Visionaire Group’s The Last Exorcism’s Chatroulette Reactions was awarded the Shorty Industry Award for Best Viral Campaign at the 3rd Annual Shorty Awards on Monday, March 28, 2011 in New York City.
Overview: In 2010, Lionsgate film company teamed up with digital agency The Visionaire Group to promote the August 27 release of the horror film The Last Exorcism. The team creatively leveraged Chatroulette, a website that allowed random strangers around the world to video chat with each other. Usually the site is off‐limits to marketers due to its frequently graphic adult nature. The Last Exorcism Chatroulette reaction video campaign utilized an actress, a green screen, special effects editing, and special programming to swap out the webcam feed for a video loop. Users thought they were video chatting with a cute girl who was teasingly unbuttoning her blouse, but then she suddenly turn into a demonic presence. The Chatroulette users’ entertaining reactions of fear and surprise were captured and then disseminated on YouTube and other social networking sites.
Impact: A YouTube video showing the “best of” Chatroulette users’ reactions to the movie effect received more than 1 million views within 72 hours of being posted online.
HBO’s True Blood (@TrueBloodHBO) Season 3 Premiere was awarded the Shorty Industry Award for Best Use of Twitter in a Marketing Campaign at the 3rd Annual Shorty Awards on Monday, March 28, 2011 in New York City.
Overview: True Blood is an HBO drama series about vampires created by Alan Ball. For the Season 3 premiere in June, 2010, the show’s marketing team launched a digital media campaign centered on “The True Blood Ultimate Fan Experience.” A midnight screening event was held simultaneously in 50 movie theaters nationwide. The show’s Twitter account shared clues for which city would get tickets next. Fans got a free screening of the Season 2 finale, an exclusive Season 3 sneak peak, and a live simulcast Q&A with Ball and the cast. One of the only ways to get a ticket was through a Facebook application where fans “played” for local tickets overnight from 6:13 p.m. to 6:13 a.m., playing on the 6/13 premiere date. Fifty “Ultimate Truebie Sheriffs,” who are fan leaders to represent each city, were chosen through Twitter after answering the tweet, “Why should you be Sheriff in your city? Tell us in 140 characters or less.” The show’s blog, Bloodcopy.com, became a Twitter microsite where users could adjust the feed to display show‐ related Twitter lists. On finale night, True Blood invited two actors active on Twitter, Kristin Bauer Van Straten and Joe Manganiello, to host a live Twitter chat at Bloodcopy.com. On‐air promotion drove fans to the microsite to chat live with their favorite characters. True Blood won a Shorty Award for #entertainment last year.
Impact: The Season 3 premiere of True Blood pulled in more than 5 million viewers, up 1.3 million viewers from the Season 2 premiere. It also beat FOX and NBC in its time slot. A replay of the Sunday night premiere later in the night had an additional 1 million viewers.
