Social media marketing has, over the past few years, gone from something practiced by a few early adopters to a crucial part of most big advertising campaigns. For proof of that, you only have to look at the results of a recent Gartner survey, which showed that most people now see social as being nearly as important as a corporate website and more traditional forms of online advertising.
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It makes sense too. Research from eMarketer suggests that brands can profit dramatically from a well-executed social campaign and a 2012 study by research company Millward-Brown showed that there was a direct correlation between how successful a company is and how well it uses social media.
That goes a long way to explaining why it’s become such big business. Twitter alone is expected to rake in US$1-billion from ads next year and a large portion of the US$1.36-billion in revenue Facebook reported in Q1 of 2013 came from ads.
With that kind of spend comes serious incentive for innovation and The Bees Awards, a San Francisco-based award for the best use of social media, now in its fourth iteration aims to recognise the best examples of social media innovation.
The awards have just announced the nominees for the 2013 edition. While there is still a strong US presence, emerging market countries such as Brazil, Russia and China are increasingly evident among the nominees.
Among the more interesting campaigns from those nominees is one called “You are Blind” from the Hungry Boys agency in Russia, which aims to change the treatment of blind children by giving people insight into what they go through. The primary way of doing this was with a website that challenged people to navigate a character through a virtual city using only sound.
But the campaigns aren’t all hard-hitting and serious. For instance, one of the most popular campaigns this year, and a strong contender in the viral video category, is Bubba’s Hover from US agency Thinkmodo, which saw top golfer Bubba Watson riding around in a hovercraft modified to function as a golf cart.
The winners will be announced on 31 May. The full list of nominees follows below.
1. Best Use of Micro-Blogging Platform
| Discovery Channel – Moonshiners | OMD | United States |
| Metropole Tweetphony | Havas WorldWide Amsterdam | Netherlands |
| Curators of Sweden | Volontaire | Sweden |
| The Oreo Blackout Tweet | 360i | United States |
2. Best Use of Social Media Platform
| #friskissthlm | Volt | Sweden |
| The Social Home Tour | Artplan | Brazil |
| Frito-Lay Do Us a Flavor | OMD | United States |
| Skype: Say it with Skype | 1000heads | United Kingdom |
| Papermate World’s Most Stolen Pen | PHD | United States |
3. Best Use of Mobile
| #friskissthlm | Volt | Sweden |
| Discovery Channel – Gold Rush | OMD | United States |
| AMOURUGBY | FRED & FARID GROUP | France |
| Propel Kiip | OMD | United States |
4. Best Use of Alternative Tools
| Dunk Tank | Clear Channel Spectacolor | United States |
| GODIVA LOVE&HUG project | Saatchi and Saatchi Fallon Tokyo | Japan |
| The CW “Twitter in Print” | OMD | United States |
| Civil Rights Captcha | Prime | Sweden |
5. Best Use of Ad Banners on Social Media Platform
| Bugaboo’s 3 For 30 – Facebook Ads | Buzzsmith | United States |
| Rav4 – No Time to Waste! Banners | Saatchi & Saatchi LA | United States |
6. Best Use of Analytic Tools
| Agora Social Visualizer | 1000heads | United Kingdom |
| Top Voice | Cossette | Canada |
7. Best Engagement with Customers
| Discovery Channel – Moonshiners | OMD | United States |
| Revlon SuperLustrous Truth or Dare | VML Digital | Australia |
| Samsung Q470 product launch campaign | MSLGROUP Asia | China |
| Frito-Lay Do Us a Flavor | OMD | United States |
8. Best Relationship with Blogs
| MILRAM Blogger Cookbook | strg. GmbH | Germany |
| VO5 Express Yourself | Havas Worldwide London | United Kingdom |
| Cotton 24-Hour Runway Show | Jack Morton Worldwide | United States |
9. Best Reputation Management
| Tanks Of Thanks | Colle+McVoy | United States |
| Basil Hayden | Walton Isaacson | United States |
10. Best Crisis Management
| Making a Difference for a Sandy Hook Fam | Havas PR North America | United States |
11. Best Social CRM
| The Social Home Tour | Artplan | Brazil |
| Mitsubishi MyCover | Ampfy | Brazil |
12. Best Branded Viral Video
| Human Motorcycles: Behind the Scenes wit | i.d.e.a. | United States |
| Bubba’s Hover | Thinkmodo | United States |
| 100 Cars For Good “Click” | Saatchi & Saatchi LA | United States |
| Tundra Endeavour – The Ultimate Journey | Saatchi & Saatchi LA | United States |
13. Best Marketing Within Social Games
| Gatorade Bolt! Mobile Integration | OMD | United States |
| MyLowe’s Sims Social | OMD | United States |
| Intel Angry Birds | OMD | United States |
14. Best use of Geo-Location for Social Media Marketing
| The Great Beach CleanApp | INNOCEAN USA | United States |
| Hertz Foursquare | OMD | United States |
| Tag the Weather | Saatchi & Saatchi Stockholm | Sweden |
15. Best use of App for Social Media Marketing
| “A Year in the Like” | Edelman Digital | United States |
| Papermate World’s Most Stolen Pen | PHD | United States |
| Bradesco F.Banking | AG2 Publicis Modem | Brazil |
| Mitsubishi MyCover | Ampfy | Brazil |
16. Best Tool or Technology for Social Media Marketing
| The CW “Twitter in Print” | OMD | United States |
| The Cisco Learning Network | Learning@Cisco | United States |
| The Social Home Tour | Artplan | Brazil |
| Adaptive Canvas | Studiocom | United States |
17. Best Student Work
18. World Student Brief
| AFS Thai Sports | Media Design School | New Zealand |
| Round The World in 80 Seconds Media Design School | Media Design School | New Zealand |
| Snapchat with Chile | Media Design School | New Zealand |
| The Cushy App | Media Design School | New Zealand |
19. Best Social Media Marketing Theory
| Measuring What Matters | blueocean market intelligence | United States |
20. Best Innovation
| Blind | Hungry Boys | Russia |
| The CW “Twitter in Print” | OMD | United States |
| Discovery Channel – Moonshiners | OMD | United States |
| The Social Home Tour | Artplan | Brazil |
21. Best Copywriting
| Basil Hayden | Walton Isaacson | United States |
| Advertising Week Question Generator | Colle+McVoy | United States |
| 100 Cars For Good “Click” | Saatchi & Saatchi LA | United States |
22. Best Art Direction
| Samsung Make A Wish Campaign for Valentine’s Day | Havas Media | Hong Kong SAR China |
| Basil Hayden | Walton Isaacson | United States |
| GAME OF THRONES DRAGON SHADOW LAUNCH | PHD | United States |
| Prius Hum | Saatchi & Saatchi LA | United States |
23. Best Campaign
| THE COUNTRYWIDE JOKE | FRED & FARID GROUP | France |
| Adobe Marketing Cloud: Metrics, Not Myth | Edelman Digital | United States |
| SmartWool Fan Field Tester Program | Victors & Spoils | United States |
| The Great American Bacon Barter | 360i | United States |
| Civil Rights Captcha | Prime | Sweden |
| Tundra Endeavour Campaign | Saatchi & Saatchi LA | United States |
24. Agency of the Year
| 1000heads | 1000heads | United Kingdom |
| 360i | 360i | United States |
| OMD | OMD | United States |
| Edelman Digital | Edelman Digital | United States |
| MSLGROUP Asia | MSLGROUP Asia | China |
