Viacom Velocity and Ally Financial lead the pack for this year’s Digiday Content Marketing Awards finalists

Powerful storytelling was the theme among the finalists for the 2020 Digiday Content Marketing Awards.

Best Branded Podcast finalists include standouts from Dell Technologies, Mental Floss, PrettyLittleThing, Rogers & Cowan, Stack Overflow and Weber Shandwick, each using audio for unique messages. Rogers & Cowan in particular worked with Granity Studios to produce The Punies, a narrative podcast teaching life lessons for kids, created by the late Kobe Bryant.

The agency also garnered a nomination for Content Marketing Agency of the Year, along with SJR, Mahlab, Imprint and Glow. Other creative entries include Tinder’s Swipe Life platform — “documenting the journey of being single” — in the Best Brand Publication category, and The Content Collective’s powerful Holocaust Remembrance Collection for Ancestry.

Viacom Velocity and Ally Financial each earned several nominations across categories, including Best Use of Native Advertising, Best Agency Client Collaboration, Best Brand Influencer Collaboration and more.

See the full list of finalists below.

Best Experiential Marketing Campaign
Verizon and Momentum – Unlocking Romance
Lonely Whale, The Museum of Plastic, and Young Hero – “Question How You Hydrate
Ally Financial and Monopoly
Imagination and Ford – Mustang Mach-E Reveal
Live Nation and Revlon – Revlon Ultra Rollerama
United Entertainment Group and Edelman – The Bell: A Taco Bell Hotel and Resort

Best New Product or Launch Campaign
Samsung Canada – Samsung #PowerUp
Getty Images, Dove, and Girlgaze – Project #ShowUs
GSD&M and Popeyes – Chicken Wars
Zuru – Mini Brands
Verizon – Bring Back the Brick
Rogers and Cowan and Granity Studios – The Wizenard Series by Kobe Bryant

Best Influencer-Generated Content
H Code and TurboTax – #TaxMitos
Zuru – Mini Brands
TNT and Fullscreen – TNT’s I Am The Night
EvolveMKD and miraDry
Tinder
Viacom Velocity and Walmart – Walmart’s Black Friday #DealDropDance

Best Branded Content Series – B2B
Grant Thornton – Blockchain Podcast Series
Libris by PhotoShelter – Behind the Scenes with the Storytellers
Dell Technologies – Trailblazers
Quartz Media and Citrix – WX
Viacom Velocity and VAB – You Innovate. TV Elevates.”
The Wall Street Journal (Barron’s Group) and Honeywell – Tomorrow’s Solution Today

Best Branded Content Series – B2C
JBL and Sounds of the City
ACE Content, The North Face and REI’s – Rewind Nature
Viacom Velocity and Procter and Gamble – Aussie: She’s the B’Auss
MSP-C and General Mills
Made.com – #OwningIt
theSkimm and H&R Block – “Let’s Get Personal”

Best Use of Data
inPowered
KERV Interactive and Callaway Golf
WP BrandStudio and Mastercard – Data Makes a Difference
Quartz and Refinitiv
Reputation.com – Automotive Reputation Report
AmTrust Financial

Most Original Use of Social
Ally Financial and Monopoly
McKinney and Orion Pictures – Child’s Play
Airbnb and Amobee – Antarctic Sabbatical
Expedia Group Media Solutions and Kenya Tourism Board – Can You Kenya?
Verizon – Bring Back the Brick
Moving Image & Content and Girls Who Code – #MarchforSisterhood

Best Use of Video
Herbalife Nutrition – #GetActiveNow
IBM Originals – Code & Response
UM Studios and Johnson & Johnson – 5B
Minute Media and H&M – H vs M
Barkley and HARIBO – Chewy Channel
Ancestry, Great Big Story and The Content Collective – Records of Remembrance

Best Advertising Partner for Brands
INNOCEAN USA – The Art of the Stunt
STIHL and Imre

Best Use of Real-Time Streaming Video
Viral Nation and Twitch – Crunchtime
Verizon – Let Them Tweet Cake
Ally Financial and Cheddar
Verizon – Parade Reimagined
Herbalife Nutrition – Facebook Live Shake Challenge
160over90 and W Hotels – Wake Up Call Dubai

Best Use of Native Advertising/Sponsored Content
VG Partnerstudio and Bama – The Norwegian Championship of Guacamole
Atlantic Re:think and HBO –  Watchmen: The Massacre of Black Wall Street
Schibsted Brand Studio and Equinor
Viacom Velocity, The Daily Show and Hotels.com – Love to #HateLike
DBLTAP and 20th Century Fox – Alita: Battle Angel
Dotdash and Uber – “Moving You Forward”

Best User-Generated Content
Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill – Summer of Chipotle Challenges
Zuru – Mini Brands
MADE.com – Design Your Happy Place
Moving Image & Content and Girls Who Code – #MarchforSisterhood
Lamps Plus – “Light What You Love”
VG-lista and Manus – The Most Important Song of the Year

Most Effective/Measurable Campaign
VG Partnerstudio and Bama – The Norwegian Championship of Guacamole
The Content Collective, OMD and Viacom Velocity – “McDonald’s Wake Up Breakfast”
E! Entertainment – People’s Choice Awards
DEG and The Salvation Army – Giving Tuesday
Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill – Chipotle Rewards Program
Seen Connects and Very – The Very Network

Best Interactive Content Piece or Series
Primrose Schools and Jackson Spalding – #LetGuiltGo
Us Weekly and Crate and Barrel
Maxwell and Pacific Foods – Leftover Upgrade
Verizon – Parade Reimagined
eko – Cook Together By Walmart
eko, Walmart and Mattel – KidHQ

Most Innovative Use of Content
The Macallan and M Booth – The Macallan Edition No. 5
INNOCEAN USA and Genesis Motor America – Car Configurator
GLOW and Panera
Barkley and Haribo – Chewy Channel
WP BrandStudio and Mike’s Hard Lemonade – The Joy Experiment
Splunk – One Phish, Two Phish

Best Branded Podcast
Rogers & Cowan PMK and Granity Studios – The Punies
Weber Shandwick and Pedigree – The Dog That Changed Me
Mental Floss and iHeart Radio – History Vs
Social Chain and PrettyLittleThing – PLT: Behind Closed Doors
Dell Technologies – Trailblazers
Stack Overflow – The Stack Overflow Podcast

Best Branded Content Site – B2B
EMPLOYERS® – Small Business Resource Center
FreeWheel – FreeWheel Insights
Atlassian – Work Life
Salesforce and Mahlab
Digital Media Solutions
Shutterstock – 2020 Creative Trends Report

Best Branded Content Site – B2C
The Weather Channel – Forecast: Change
MADE.com – Ideas Hub
Jackson Spalding for Mattress Firm – The Daily Dose
Linkwell Health and Tivity Health – SilverSneakers Blog
The Foundry @ Meredith – Geico “The Complete Guide to Motorcycle Safety”
Exxon Mobil & SJR – Energy Factor

Best Brand Publication – Print and/or Digital
IBM Originals – Industrious
Mental Floss and Paper and Packaging Board – Mental Floss Magazine
The Well by Northwell – Revmade
Airbnb and Hearst – Airbnb Magazine
Tinder – Swipe Life
Mahlab and Engineers Australia – Create Digital

Best Agency/Client Collaboration
Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill
Viacom Velocity, CMT and Wendy’s – Wendy’s Block Party
GLOW and Showtime – The L Word: Generation Q
Rogers and Cowan PMK and Verizon Media
Ally Financial and Monopoly
Viacom Velocity and VAB – “You Innovate. TV Elevates.”

Best Brand/Influencer Collaboration
Ally – Moguls in the Making
The Thomas Collective and Culturelle
Samsung – #PowerUp
Viacom Velocity and Walmart – Black Friday #DealDropDance
Lamps Plus and Jennifer Farrell
1000heads and Google – #teampixel

Most Engaged Brand Community
Cisco – Cisco Live
Cvent
Slickdeals
GSD&M and Popeyes – Chicken Wars
Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill
Glow and Showtime

Best Multi-Channel Content Distribution Strategy
TNT and Fullscreen – TNT’s I Am The Night
TODAY and Citi
Schibsted Brand Studio and Equinor – Climate and Energy – Easily Explained
Brand Movers and Santander Consumer Bank Denmark
Engineers Australia and Mahlab – Create
ExxonMobil and SJR

Best In-House Content/Brand Studio
GIPHY Studios
National Public Media – NPM Creative
Meredith – The Foundry
Bustle Digital Group Studios
Refinery29
The Washington Post – WP BrandStudio

Content Marketing Agency of the Year
Rogers & Cowan PMK
Imprint
GLOW
SJR
Mahlab

https://digiday.com/?p=362435

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