Hubbies 2014 Brand Awards Winners
Best Brand App of the Year 2014
Winner: Burson-Marsteller and Proof Integrated Communications and AIG
Campaign Name: AIG CyberEdge iPad Application
Cyber risk and exposure is becoming a major concern for companies worldwide in recent times, so AIG responded to industry needs and launched its own cyber risk product CyberEdge.
Facing competition from its rivals, the global insurance company then tasked Burson-Marsteller and Proof Integrated Communications with solidifying AIG’s status as the leading provider of cyber risk insurance.
After doing initial research on how AIG’s target audience of brokers, stakeholders, and decision-makers wanted to be informed about cyber security, the two firms created and launched an easy-to-use AIG CyberEdge iPad app that consolidates calculators, tools, videos, white papers, factsheets, interviews, daily news, and case studies into a user-friendly content repository.
They rolled out the app in two phases, first concentrating on internal education by introducing key messages and the app to internal stakeholders. The latter phase concentrated on external engagement, which included a launch event and traditional and social media outreach.
The app has been a resounding success. There have been more than 62,000 views of the CyberEdge iPad demonstration video on YouTube and the app has been downloaded thousands of times. More than 400 brokers attended meetings focused on educating them about CyberEdge’s new sales tools. The app’s launch garnered coverage in The Wall Street Journal and The American Banker.
Moreover, AIG achieved its primary business growth objective as CyberEdge sales grew 30% year over year and the company was positioned as a thought leader in the field.
“This was a well-executed campaign,”said one judge.“They really made the details count.”
Best Digital Agency 2014
Winner: Huge
Campaign Name: Huge in 2013: Defining the Future Agency Model
As some of the world’s largest companies shifted their strategies in 2013 to integrate marketing operations with technology, Huge lived up to its name as the agency helped some of the biggest brand marketers embrace digital tech.
In the past 12 months, the agency has partnered with 111 major brands on 500 digital business, marketing, and technology projects.
New business was signed at a rate of more than one major new account each week, including work with 15 of the world’s largest enterprises for the first time. Revenue grew exponentially, up by about 40% to $120 million in the US.
The majority of this revenue – 40% – is organic and comes from the company’s nine offices in New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Portland, Washington, DC, Atlanta, Rio, and the recently opened Barcelona outpost.
In 2013, the firm hired about 200 new staffers, bringing its global employee base to 725.
Huge has also continued to invest in a collection of new disciplines. Business consulting, planning, research and analytics, studio and content production, integrated marketing, social media management, and sitecore and CQ development all became a core part of its service offering.
Huge Labs, which is the firm’s own incubator, continued to evolve in 2013 into the marketplace’s first home for enterprise marketing-oriented software startups, including Honey and Togather.
With an eye on further growth, Huge has also continued to invest in training and education programs for its employees, clients, and the next generation of talent.
Best Digital Brand Team 2014
Winner: The Coca-Cola Co.
Campaign Name: Coca-Cola Journey
In 2012, Coca-Cola took a massive gamble as the soft drinks giant reimagined its traditional corporate website as a digital magazine, Coca-Cola Journey.
Recognizing a rapid shift in the digital landscape, a change driven by consumers wanting to engage, shape, and respond to companies via multiple digital channels, Coke decided emerging opportunities for two-way communication would be imperative to its relevance and success in the digital world.
The result was Coca-Cola Journey, which focuses on brand-created stories that matter and the principle that rich storytelling is the foundation of communications.
Journey’s editorial team is dedicated to publishing content about universally important topics, social causes, and company news that underscores Coke’s values and business goals.
Since the launch of the site, the team has published more than 1,200 articles from 350-plus different authors, launched nine content verticals and editorial packages, featured 6,800 videos driving over 330,000 views, and posted more than 11,000 images to help tell the brand’s story.
With KPIs focused on engagement and optimizing keywords, the newsroom publishes content based on what readers want to read, not just the story the company wants to tell.
The tactics clearly worked, as results are outstanding. Just over a year into the redesign, the site increased its visitors by 15% and video page views jumped by 140%.
Journey content is also syndicated through Coke’s corporate social networks, which are growing at greater than 100% year over year.
Best Integrated Campaign 2014
Winner: Weber Shandwick and Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP)
Campaign Name: Milk Tackles Breakfast at Super Bowl XLVII
The iconic ‘Got Milk?’ Campaign, driven by the Milk Processor Education Program (MilkPEP), has a longstanding history with the Super Bowl – developing milk mustache print ads featuring players from each team for the past 17 years.
But in 2013, the program unveiled a Super Bowl commercial featuring Hollywood actor and WWE wrestler Dwayne ‘The Rock’ Johnson to highlight the powerful role milk’s high-quality protein plays in the morning meal.
PR agency Weber Shandwick was tasked with raising protein awareness and consumer engagement, as well as increasing milk sales.
In the weeks prior to the big game, the team actively engaged fans in real time on Twitter, launched two activations, and joined Twitter’s #AdScrimmage competition, in which the campaign placed second in a consumer voting contest for best Super Bowl commercial.
Strategic partnerships were developed with Dairy Management, Fuel Up to Play 60, and parent influencer groups such as The Motherhood and Dad 2.0 conference, to further drive messaging on social channels.
This initiative managed to break through the Super Bowl clutter as Weber’s team successfully leveraged social media outreach to great effect.
With 440 million earned media impressions, this was the largest and most efficient MilkPEP program to date. Social results were terrific as the ad was viewed 2.1 million times online, and garnered more than 231 million social media impressions, 55,000 Facebook interactions, and about 3,000 mentions on Twitter.
Finally, and most importantly, the program resulted in 988,000 gallons of incremental milk sales
Best Real-Time Marketing Campaign 2014
Winner: MSLGroup, Procter & Gamble/Scope
Campaign Name: For Breath That Sizzles! Scope Bacon
Mouthwash brand Scope was struggling to connect with consumers and keep social media engagement high, so it charged MSLGroup with constructing a fresh campaign that would make the product top of mind for customers in that category.
The agency developed a campaign that leveraged April Fools’ Day and tapped into popular culture to drive awareness, engagement, and buzz around the brand.
Using a tight-knit strategy that involved key timing, media outreach, and a commercial promising that Scope Bacon would taste “just like bacon when you swish, but leave your mouth minty fresh,” the campaign launched on March 28 via the brand’s social media channels and other influencer networks.
Within hours, the conversation spread from Scope’s social media pages to traditional media outlets. In the first 72 hours, more than 50% of targeted traditional outlets – such as The Today Show and CNBC – shared information via their own social channels.
The firm also created Mr. Scope Bacon – a giant bacon character serving as the campaign symbol – who hit the road to tease the campaign, including visits to Times Square.
An April 1 exclusive with USA Today revealed that the new flavor was a hoax. Social channels further spread the word about the April Fools’ Day joke.
Overwhelming responses poured in with fans’ reactions ranging from disbelief to disappointment. Scope rewarded some fans with bacon-themed gift packages.
Results were hugely impressive. The effort garnered more than 1 billion impressions – 840 million of which were completely earned – and 125 million Facebook and Twitter impressions. In just one week, the brand had 7.5 million video views on YouTube, and Facebook followers increased 316%.
Best Social Media Presence 2014
Winner: Human Rights Campaign
Campaign Name: Turning the Internet Red
Judges loved this exceptionally strong campaign that achieved a very tangible outcome.
In December 2012, the United States Supreme Court decided to hear two landmark marriage equality cases that would determine the rights of same-sex couples to marry.
The Human Rights Campaign recognized this historic moment and developed and led a multifaceted national campaign aimed at elevating the conversation around marriage equality and changing hearts and minds to the side of equality.
The effort is best remembered for a stunningly simple visual as the organization produced a red and pink version of its iconic logo, which soon went viral as it was shared and adopted by users on social networks to show their support for same-sex marriage.
“What was most compelling was the campaign’s simplicity,”said one judge,“but that is the genius of this effort, which drove meaningful advocacy in support of marriage equality.”
Within 24 hours of the logo being uploaded on Facebook, the post received 189,177 shares, 95,725 likes, and 18 million newsfeed appearances.
The social media push led traffic back to the organization’s website. The result was an increase of 700,000 visitors in 24 hours and Facebook followers grew by more than 200,000.
Celebrities such as Ellen DeGeneres and Beyonce? led the way in adopting the logo on social channels and were soon followed by brands ranging from Bud Light to Marc Jacobs. Facebook recorded a 120% increase in profile photo updates and deemed it the most successful campaign in the site’s history.
Best Use of Brand Content 2014
Winner: MSLGroup and P&G/Bounty
Campaign Name: Ken Delmar – Paper Towel Picasso
Dubbed “fun and creative for a product category that is usually quite dull”by one judge, this campaign leveraged a curious story that appeared in a local daily newspaper and helped breathe new life into Bounty, a P&G paper towel brand.
The article ran in the Stamford Advocate about a little-known painter – Ken Delmar – who discovered the absorbent properties of his paper towels were literally sucking the paint off his brushes, which led MSLGroup to select Delmar as a brand advocate for naturally articulating the product’s benefits. The agency later christened him the ‘Paper Towel Picasso.’
Delmar – who had 60 years’ experience in his field – never gained the recognition he felt he deserved, but the agency changed all that as it helped him stage his first New York City exhibition on September 5, 2013 at the famed George Billis Gallery in Manhattan’s Chelsea district.
After a two-week run where the art community was introduced to Delmar’s work, the firm further recognized the potential of the artist and followed up by shooting a short documentary about him, which received widespread consumer and industry acclaim. Comments about the piece were overwhelmingly positive.
The video garnered more than 750,000 views. In addition to being selected as a Vimeo staff pick, high-profile social influencer Guy Kawasaki shared the video across his channels, commenting, “Best ad I’ve seen on YouTube. I watched the whole thing.”
Best Use of Gamification 2014
Winner: The Coca-Cola Company and Bunchball
Campaign Name: My Coke Rewards
Soft-drinks giant Coca-Cola has 20 million lifetime members in its My Coke Rewards loyalty program. However, it realized loyalty models have changed, and more traditional programs are becoming less relevant.
To serve its business goals, grow the program, and increase engagement – especially with Millennials and teens – the company wanted to engage users in new ways and reach consumers who love the brand, but also want to connect and show their loyalty in other ways.
To do this, Coke engaged R/GA to guide their strategy and turned to gamification, powered by Bunchball.
Coke used gamification as a powerful tool to change its loyalty program from a transactional activity to one that was inherently personal, social, and engaging, and would help the brand connect with new, younger consumers at scale.
Leveraging its‘Open Happiness’ mantra, Coke wanted to ensure its loyalty program conveyed happiness to site visitors, helped drive repeat visits, and encouraged users to share content with their networks and grow the community.
The brand expanded its definition of rewards to include extrinsic elements such as exclusive and advance access, and intrinsic rewards such as badges and experiences.
The new platform allows My Coke Rewards to reward social and interactional loyalty, but not just on a transactional basis – and early figures for membership and social engagement have exceeded expectations.
“Coca-Cola continues to experiment with success,”said one judge.“Leveraging new and emerging social engagement and networking tools to build a deeper relationship with customers was really impressive.”
Best Use of Video 2014
Winner: PMK-BNC and Audi of America
Campaign Name: Audi of America: The Challenge
In a highly competitive sector such as the automotive market, you have to truly produce something special to stand out. Audi of America and agency partner PMK- BNC certainly did that when it leveraged iconic TV and movie series Star Trek to produce a commercial for the new Audi S7.
Auto brands traditionally try to prove their makes and models are better than the competition by way of a car comparison. The problem is, these comparisons typically only resonate with niche audiences and don’t reach mass consumer markets.
Audi shifted the paradigm by tying an Audi S7 and Mercedes-Benz CLS550 comparison to a blockbuster movie release, taking its appeal into the mainstream.
The ad focused around what would happen when old school took on new school as actor Leonard Nimoy – who originally played Spock in the popular series – got into his Mercedes-Benz to go head to head with Zachary Quinto [the new Spock] in his new Audi S7 in a battle of speed and wits.
On its release, the video soon went viral, receiving 5 million YouTube views in just five days as auto experts and general consumers loved the movie tie-in. It was the most- viewed video on YouTube in 56 regions across the US, ranked number one on Reddit’s homepage, and attracted more than 401 million media impressions.
Coverage appeared in several top-tier outlets, including Good Morning America, Conan, and HLN.
“I love how they used humor to highlight the differences between the Audi A7 and Mercedes-Benz CLS550,” one judge said. “It was very creative and a smart way to communicate the differences beyond niche auto brands.”
Courageous Client Award 2014
Winner: Chapman Cubine Adams & Hussey and City of Hope
Campaign Name: “I am a Cancer Survivor”
On a miniscule budget, this campaign delivered huge results.
City of Hope is an independent biomedical research, treatment, and education institution that is a leader in the fight to conquer cancer, diabetes, HIV/AIDS, and other life-threatening diseases.
As one of only 41 National Cancer Institute-designated comprehensive cancer centers nationwide, the facility relies on supporters and former patients as its most passionate advocates.
An email campaign called ‘I am a Cancer Survivor’ was designed and implemented to convince thousands of former patients to become City of Hope supporters.
The first email – a holiday-themed eCard with no fundraising asks – was sent out to engage people and remind them they are still part of the City of Hope.
Michelle Gearhart-Pash, a former City of Hope patient and cancer survivor, wrote the two cards that followed. In her heartfelt messages, she relayed the story of her own treatment at the facility and expressed how grateful she was for the care that saved her life. She also encouraged the audience to become supporters.
Her story certainly resonated with patients and helped convert them into donors. The effort was so successful it significantly outperformed City of Hope’s average email performance for 2012.
It had a stunning average gift amount of $190.48, a significant improvement over the previous figure of $159.87. Previously, the average gross per thousand via email was $69.86, while this campaign produced a whopping $246.29.
“The willingness of individuals to share their stories in the hope of drawing more supporters to the City of Hope is truly courageous,” said one judge. “This is a true courage of life award.”
Influencer of the Year 2014 – Brand
Winner: The Coca-Cola Company
Campaign Name: Coca-Cola Journey
The decision to tear down its corporate website and rebrand it as a digital magazine was an enormous risk, but one that has paid huge dividends for Coca-Cola.
In 2012, the soft-drinks giant recognized a sudden shift in the digital landscape as consumers searched for ways to engage companies via digital platforms.
Coke spotted this gap in the market and went about transforming it’s old-school corporate website into a modern-day, engaging digital magazine filled with brand-created stories that resonate with audiences and compelling, shareable news that underscored Coke’s values and business goals.
Since its launch in late 2012, Coca-Cola Journey‘s editorial team has published more than 1,200 articles from over 350 different authors, launched nine content verticals and editorial packages, featured 6,800 videos driving more than 330,000 views, and posted more than 11,000 images to help tell Coke’s story.
The new site has been a major hit with consumers as data shows readers voted for more Coke-focused stories than unbranded content and gravitated to stories that focused on the company’s rich heritage, innovation, careers, and marketing programs.
Results have been staggering. The website recorded a 15% increase in unique visitors and a 140% uptick in video page views.
By listening to consumer responses, the website has also been updated and the team recently launched The Opener, an exclusive, invite-only contributor network that brings the best food, culture, and innovation writing to the site.
Social results have also been impressive. Journey content is syndicated through Coke’s corporate social networks, which are growing at greater than 100% year over year.
To download the complete list of winners from The Hubbies 2014, click here.
