The Official Shorty Awards Blog

The Shorty Awards were at NYC’s Benchmark Conference yesterday!

The Shorty Awards were at the Benchmark conference yesterday in New York, moderating a panel on the Shorty Industry Awards! The panel was meant to highlight the the integration of social media with existing brands, for an optimized look at how brands can better use platforms like Twitter and Tumblr.

Shorty Awards founder Greg Galant introduced the winner of three Shorty Awards campaigns: Melle Hock, Michael Scogin, and Jack Daley. 

Hock is the Senior Account Supervisor at Edelman, and won Best Viral Campaign for BuzzFeed Schick Xtreme 3 Razorbombing. Scogin is the Vice President of Mobile for MTV, and won Best Use of Social Media for Live Television for VMA Twitter Tracker (the second time in a row). Daley is the Senior Director of Digital Marketing for Nickelodeon, and won Best Use of Game Mechanics (Gamification) in a Social Media Campaign for NICKELODEON’S ‘KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS 2011’. 

Hock, Scogin, Daley, and Galant discussed the potential of social media to further brands. For example, Scogin explained that the VMA Twitter Tracker enabled the 2011 Video Music Awards to become a worldwide trending topic in two minutes.

With industry professionals like these panelists, all brands could utilize the massive pull of social media to reach potential users and consumers!

Check out a synopsis of tweets from the event:

Our Shorty Industry panel @benchmarkNY w/ @gregory @jackeveryday @otherone @mellehnyc! Follow #bnchmrk to learn how they won @ShortyAwards!

— Shorty Awards (@shortyawards) May 9, 2012

Pic: Meet the brains behind 3 Shorty Industry winning campaigns! @jackeveryday @otherone @mellehnyc. #bnchmrk twitter.com/shortyawards/s…

— Shorty Awards (@shortyawards) May 9, 2012

“It drove about 17 million votes on Facebook alone…from a ratings perspective…best in over 25 yrs”. -@jackeveryday twitter.com/shortyawards/s…

— Shorty Awards (@shortyawards) May 9, 2012

“Being able to react quickly when you see something excited is essential.” -@mellehnyc on @schickxtreme3’s Shorty win! twitter.com/shortyawards/s…

— Shorty Awards (@shortyawards) May 9, 2012

“The hashtag became a worldwide trending topic in two minutes.” - @otherone on @mtv’s VMA Twitter Tracker Shorty win. twitter.com/shortyawards/s…

— Shorty Awards (@shortyawards) May 9, 2012

MTV’s VMA Twitter Tracker wins the Shorty Industry Award for Best Integration of Social Media with Live Television!

Breaking social media records by combining its Twitter and Tumblr presence, MTV had its most social Video Music Awards ever in 2011. Driving 76% more traffic than its previous year, the 2011 VMAs broke a Twitter record when Beyonce announced her pregnancy live on screen (resulting in 8,868 tweets per second). Twitter saw 10 million “@MTV” and “#VMA-related” tweets on August 28 in the East Coast airing of the show: the most tweets for an award show to date.

The integration of Twitter’s interactive live-chats in conjunction with live GIFs on MTV’s Tumblr brought 12.4 million viewers to participate in the biggest viewership for any show in the 30-year history of the cable channel. MTV’s VMAs served as an indicator that the incorporation of social media and live TV can result in reaching a larger and wider audience that is often sought after by the media, inspiring other awards shows to adopt similar methods for future events.

Watch Vice President of Mobile at MTV, Michael Scogin, and Executive Vice President of News and Production for MTV, Dave Sirulnick, accept the Shorty Award on behalf of VMA Twitter Tracker:

The Shorty Award for the Best Use of Social Media for News goes to CNN Worldwide!

The Shorty Award for the Best Use of Social Media for News goes to CNN Worldwide!

CNN is a worldwide leader in online news, it’s social media footprint coming out on top amongst other news organizations. Nearly six and a half million Twitter users around the globe follow @CNNBrk to gain access to news and information with accurate images, videos, and facts at breakneck speeds. Their account is the top news account on Twitter and ranks as one of the top 25 accounts on all of Twitter. 

Watch Susan Grant, Executive Vice President of CNN News Services, accept the Shorty Award below:

Shorty Awards Industry Winner panel today at Benchmark NYC!

The Shorty Awards team is gearing up to moderate a panel at today’s Benchmark conference in NYC! For this session, CEO of Sawhorse Media Greg Galant will be conversing with Shorty Industry Award winners to pull their insight on the way social media is being utilized at the agencies and brands they represent to give companies a “human touch”. 

The panel will include: 

• Jack Daley, Sr. Director of Digital Marketing for Nickelodeon, presenting on Best Use of Game Mechanics (Gamification) in a Social Media Campaign - NICKELODEON’S ‘KIDS’ CHOICE AWARDS 2011’. Nickelodeon also won for Best overall Brand Facebook Presence for Spongebob
• Melle Hock, Senior Account Supervisor at Edelman on behalf of Best Viral Campaign for BuzzFeed Schick Xtreme 3 Razorbombing
• Michael Scogin, Vice President of Mobile for MTV, on behalf of Best Use of Social Media for Live Television for VMA Twitter Tracker (This is the 2nd annual win for Twitter Tracker!)

Coming to Benchmark? Come say hello at 4PM this afternoon!

The Sims 3 win a Shorty Award in #Gaming!

After being a finalist in the #Gaming category two years in a row, The Sims 3 took home a Shorty Award this year! The Sims 3 official Twitter account posts tips for game play, news about the game, offers giveaways to followers and interacts with individual players.

See below for an acceptance speech from the people behind The Sims.