Earlier this month, I led judging in the social media strategy category for the 4A’s 2010 Jay Chiat Awards. A couple years ago, I assembled a list of 300+ social media marketing examples with help from dozens of contributors. This time I requested the help of some friends to judge the fourteen entries: David Armano, Joseph Jaffe, and Jeremiah Owyang.
We decided on four award winners in our category. While the voting wasn’t unanimous, one thing we all did agree on was that even the best entries were reflective of campaigns rather than sustainable strategy. On the worst end, some entries were nothing more than a Facebook group or Twitter account.
Here are the winners and some brief notes on the entries.
Silver
- McKinney//Travelocity: “Gnome on Chatroulette” – a clever way to tie a brand into a timely cultural phenomenon. Over 40 days and nights, the Roaming Gnome generated 350,000 impressions on site, engaged in 40 conversations, and generated over 19 million total media impressions for the brand.
- Saatchi & Saatchi LA//Toyota Sienna: “How Mom & Dad Got Their Swagger Back” – although I’m in the target demographic (I think), I will still never buy a minivan…but I can respect the execution. The Swagger Wagon YouTube video has generated almost 7 million views and has successfully ignited consumer participation – only 3% of views have been driven by advertising.
Bronze
- Team Detroit//Ford Fiesta: “Fiesta Movement” – a campaign that most people in the social media industry have heard of, where 100 cars were loaned to 100 influencers for a year. The campaign was cited as part of Ford being named Ad Age’s Marketer of the Year. It created plenty of buzz: 31,000 pieces of original Fiesta content and 10,000 online vehicle reservations – but the jury’s still out on efficacy towards the end goal of increasing sales.
Honorable Mention
- RPA//Honda: “Friending Honda” – curious that three out of the four winning campaigns were for auto manufacturers. Honda launched an integrated media campaign supported by an interesting Facebook presence. The campaign increased fans from 15k to 422k, generating over 3,500 dealer quote requests. Clearly driven more by main brand idea than social strategy, but it worked.
Congratulations to these winners. Looking forward to tighter cross-channel integration, solid business goals, and meaningful measurement next year!
all great campaigns for sure but isn’t the travelocity gnome a PR campaign with a social media spark? obviously i have no background to the entry or the judging criteria but if i’ve read it correctly, the campaign performed averagely in the social media space and then got plenty of mainstream media buzz. 40 conversations in 960 hours of being online and having 350,000 chatrouletters fly past doesn’t seem great, no matter what the quality of conversation.
Well, the category was actually called “social media strategy.” And unlike other categories, we had no gold winners or grand prix nominees. As a group, we agreed that social has a long way to go. However, judging from some of the other campaigns there’s great work being done – social (and digital) just need more time to get there.
Was there no Gold winner Peter? BTW, it’s interesting that social media has not yet cracked the code on supporting a sustainable brand strategy. How ridiculous is that? Campaigns come and go…a powerful brand strategy is indelible. Steve@whatstheidea.com
No gold in our category, Steve. However they were awarded in others and the Grand Prix winner is worth investigating further, which was TBWA Chiat Day, Los Angeles—Gatorade: “Gatorade Replay: A Story of Second Chances.”
Peter, The swagger wagon video is SO funny, expecially as a parent who has recently considered purchasing a new auto. Also, thanks for pointing out this interesting distinction between social media campaign vs sustainable strategy.
Curiously, John Militello from Google was pointing out uses of their platforms for ad innovation at the festival. He showed some YouTube clips uploaded by users – it was interesting that one submission was a lipsync of the song where they vehicle was a…Ford Expedition! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hBAGlv5RqpM
Great stuff, Peter! Some interesting picks that wouldn’t have been on my radar at all. Mainly because I’m not sure mentions/posts/tweets qualify as an actual holistic social media strategy…And from what you’ve shared above, or what I know, the elements that came about were not actually a part of their strategy…but still neat examples, nonetheless.
On another, and perhaps more important note to me…
How do I get the EMC stuff updated on your listing of 300+ social media marketing examples? (Sorry to ask here, I couldn’t comment there, and gasped when I saw how old that stuff is — and innacurate, too) Dan hasn’t been with the company in a year now (and was never in charge of social media strategy at EMC), and lots of other great stuff going on there….gotta keep it fresh
Cheers,
Jamie
Hi Jamie! Unfortunately on the “full” lists – the ones with 500 items – Google Sites won’t allow editing. I need to get the data migrated to a different platform (Atlassian? Socialtext?) and then we’ll be able to make changes…