Comedy Central Digital, VH1 and Johnson & Johnson top this year’s Digiday Video and TV Awards shortlist

By Melissa Hayes

In a year like no other, the finalists for the Digiday Video and TV Awards broke new ground. They made big bets across channels to create and deliver outstanding content despite incredible production constraints.

In the first year that Digiday has expanded this awards program to include TV alongside other video formats, finalists include remarkable entries from Comedy Central Digital, VH1 and Johnson & Johnson. Each of these contenders turned to content libraries, innovative formats and the topics of the time to ensure a constant stream of inventive and immediately relevant programming.

Comedy Central Digital was on the envelope of change as remote production became the new necessary. With ‘The Daily Show’ becoming the first late-night show to pivot to the process, the studio also tapped its deeply resourced content library to reformat, verticalize and maximize the promotion of a variety of material for its quarantined audiences. It reached them online and on social — and the results drove watch time.

Also leveraging the potential of social channels and extracting new value from every episode of content, VH1 went behind the scenes, deep into YouTube and doubled down on short-form across social in general — from TikTok to Instagram to Facebook and Twitter. With its tentpole ‘RuPaul’s Drag Race RuVeal’ event, the wide-ranging and deep-dive approach drove expansive awareness and engagement.

And then, there was the nature of the times in which we found ourselves. In response to people’s acute need for information and access to resources about the pandemic, Johnson & Johnson unveiled a weekly news show. In an unusual move for a regulated corporation, the broadcast of ‘The Road to a Vaccine’ educated, promoted facts and kept a quarantined world abreast of the ever-changing scenario.

See the full list of finalists below.

Best Brand Film – Single
Haymarket Automotive Studio and Toyota GAZOO Racing – Road To Monte Carlo
HP Inc. and Redglass Pictures – Dear Future Me
Dove Men+Care – Dads
Coronation Street Digital & Production, Twitter Labs and GUUD – Corrie 60th: Race to the Rovers
Freeform – #StayTheFFHome Do’s and Don’ts
360i and OREO – Proud Parent

Best Brand Film – Series
RT – War: Kids’ Drawings in VR
DAZN – Saturday Fight Live
Tastemade and Realtor.com – Beyond the Block
EA and m/SIX – FIFA2020 Changes the Game
Tastemade and Hyundai – The Un-Adventurers

Best Ad
LiftMaster and SCC – “Oh Yeah”
ViacomCBS Velocity and Hershey’s – Hershey’s Kisses Story Time
Dotdash and Ford
Advocate Aurora Health
MasterClass
distillery, Arden and Gifflar Cinnamon Buns – Every busy parent’s little helper

Best Live Moment
ESPN
Dotdash and Byrdie – Byrdie Beauty Lab
Barkley and Planet Fitness – United We Move
Univision’s Uforia, La X 96.3 and Bad Bunny
Johnson & Johnson – The Road to a Vaccine

Best Social Video Campaign
USA TODAY’s Humankind and Chime
VH1’s RuPaul’s Drag Race – Season 13 Cast RuVeal
Comedy Central Digital …read more

Source:: Digiday