The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) announced the nominees for the 21st Annual Webby Awards. Among those recognized this year in the Advertising, Media & PR categories are The Great Snyder’s of Hanover "Andy Richter Twitter War" (Barton F. Graf), Lockheed Martin's "The Field Trip to Mars" (McCann New York), Ad Council's "We Are America" (R/GA), Hotels.com's "Captain Obvious Runs for President" (CP+B), Transport Accident Commission's "Meet Graham" (Clemenger BBDO Melbourne), and Be The Match's "Be the Guy" (space150).
All nominees are eligible to win two coveted Internet industry awards: The Webby Award, as selected by the Academy, and The Webby People’s Voice Award, voted on by the online public. Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards is open from now until Thursday, April 20, 2017, at 11:59 PM (PT).
With 13 Webby nominations, R/GA leads all agencies in nominations this year, and is joined by BBDO New York (10), Droga5 (9), Wieden+Kennedy (9), and McCann New York (8), in primary contention for Webby “Agency of the Year,” presented to the agency that performs best across all Webby Award categories.
Some of the most popular digital, guerilla, and viral marketing campaigns recognized this year include "Deadpool: A Unicorn-ucopia of Marketing Wins" (Fox Entertainment), "Thanks 2016. It’s Been Weird" (Spotify), "Super Bowl Babies" (Grey New York), and "Stress Tested for Women" (Wieden+Kennedy). Campaigns utilized online and social media in new and creative ways this year, as evidenced by nominees like "TacoBot" (Deutsch), "Game Changer" (Droga5), "Serena Williams’ Match Point" (TBWA/Chiat/Day LA), "Bud Light Dive Tour" (Wieden + Kennedy New York), and "Qantas Out of Office Travelogue" (The Monkeys).
As more traditional media companies have introduced in-house content studios and capabilities to better develop advertiser and partner content, we have seen standout branded work that continues to transform the way advertisers and media brands coexist. This collaborative creative approach is evident in Webby-nominated work like "The Myth of Orpheus and Eurydice" for Gucci (Conde Nast), "LifeAfter" for GE (Panoply), "The Optimist Index" for Oppenheimer Funds (T Brand Studios, The New York Times), and "Craft Services" for Old Spice (Viacom Velocity).
Perhaps this year more than ever, agencies relied on creativity to tackle complex social and political issues, ranging from gun violence and women’s rights to climate change and bullying. Some of the powerful advocacy and cause-related campaigns nominated this year include "Girls of Paradise" (McCann Paris), "#MoreThanMean – Women in Sports Face Online Harassment" (Just Not Sports), "Bullying in Virtual Reality" (McCann Stockholm), "Speechless" (john st), "Change Perspective (Narrative_), and Reword" (Leo Burnett Melbourne).
“This year’s Advertising, Media and PR Nominees had an added challenge of creating digital campaigns, advertising and content that would not only capture people’s attention in what was an unusually crowded–and contentious–media and advertising environment, but also potentially change perceptions,” said David-Michel Davies, executive director of The Webby Awards. “As always, our Nominees rose to the challenge and we’re honored to celebrate all of their incredibly thought-provoking, eye-opening and inspiring creative content.”
IADAS members including Barton F. Graf’s Gery Graf, Facebook’s Jill Applebaum, 72andSunny’s Glen Cole, Under Armour’s Attica Jaques, and Google’s Anna Patterson will select the Webby Winners, which will be announced on Tuesday April 25, 2017.
The role of virtual reality both in advertising and branded content continued to make an impact this year, with Nominees including Honda “Music From Every Angle” (m ss ng p eces), IKEA "Virtual Reality Showroom" (Demodern), Samsung "Bedtime Stories VR" (BBH), "BBC Home: A VR Spacewalk" (REWIND), "The People’s Hous" (Felix and Paul Studios), "Greenpeace: Journey to the Arctic" (Media Monks), and "Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR" (Framestore VR Studio). Overall, 2016 was an exceptional year for branded content, with standouts including "GIPHY Keys to Success" (GIPHY), "Say my name, say my name" (Jhpiego), "Undercover Lyft" (Lyft), and "Lemonade, Not Ice T" (The Martin Agency).
New this year are several categories across PR for Cause-Related Campaigns, Events, and Launches. Nominees in PR include Samsung’s "Human Drone" (Edelman), "Adios Amigo" (Havas New York), and "Finger Lickin’ Good" (Ogilvy + Mather Group HK).
This year’s Webby Awards received a record-setting 13,000 entries from all 50 states and 70 countries worldwide. From the thousands of global entries submitted to The Webby Awards, 9% were selected as nominees. Winners will be celebrated at a star-studded ceremony held at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, May 15.
The 21st Annual Webby Awards show will be available on demand at webbyawards.com the morning of Tuesday, May 16. The Webby Awards video channel will feature all the show highlights, including special performances and all the hallmark Winner 5-Word Speeches.
EY provides vote tabulation consulting for The Webby Awards. For a complete list of nominees and to vote for the People’s Voice Awards, please click here.
