American Express won the first every Digiday Award for most innovative brand in recognition of the work it has done to integrate social media as part of its business.
The awards, given last night at a ceremony in New York, also recognized Nike vp of digital sport Stefan Olander as most innovative person for his work in building Nike’s tech products as a key driver of the brand’s future. Huge was named most innovative agency, on account of its work in developing the HBO Go application and proving that agencies can be about making things that change businesses. Buzzfeed took the nod for most innovative publisher as it morphed from a site of aggregated viral content to a new model of publisher built for the social era.
Amex was recognized, in particular, for its Synch pioneering integrations with Twitter, Foursquare, and Facebook that created an entirely new way for brands to interact with consumers through social channels.
Other winners included OMD for best branding campaign for consumers, in recognition of its work for Gatorade. HBO Go won best branding platform and Say Media took the honors for best publishing platform for its Orion content management system.
The full list of winners is below.
Most Innovative Brand
American Express
Most Innovative Agency
Huge
Most Innovative Publisher
Buzzfeed
Most Innovative Person
Stefan Olander, Nike
Best Branding Campaign, Consumer
OMD, Gatorade
Best Branding Campaign, B-to-B
AOL Advertising, “Environment Matters”
Best Direct Response Campaign
Beeby Clark+Meyler, Marriott mobile app
Best Creative
Carmichael Lynch, Suburu “First Car”
Best Brand Platform
HBO, HBO GO
Best Publishing Platform
Say Media, Orion
More in Marketing
D+ Research: Brands expand creator marketing strategies
Many are partnering with creators to help drive seasonal campaigns, support product launches and, in some cases, even help develop products
Ad Tech Briefing: Google is morphing from media to tech, adland braces for impact
The entity formerly known as DoubleClick remains the runt of the Alphabet litter, while its cloud business continues to go from strength to strength.
OpenAI is already building the org chart of a mature ad business
Two job postings on its careers page suggest OpenAI wants third parties, not just its own sellers, to sell its inventory.