Barkley, MiQ & iProspect, PinkNews, Chewy and NBC News Custom Productions are among this year’s Digiday Video and TV Awards shortlist nominees

By Digiday Awards

The interest in short-form video content across social media platforms has grown exponentially, with most companies now maximizing engagement through multi-channel means.

This year’s Digiday Video and TV Awards finalists focused on diversity and representation, with efforts to accurately and respectfully depict diverse communities in media. They also showed heavy investment in ad tech innovations, the top-performing category by a landslide.

Another key throughline is how interactive content allows viewers to shape stories and experiences through their choices — paving the way for new shoppable content innovations.

The first on the shortlist is Barkley, in five categories (the most of any entrant). One of those categories is Best Brand Film – Series for the ‘Pets Stay Free’ campaign with Motel 6. This campaign highlighted that Motel 6 is a welcoming place for all family members, including the furry ones. Barkley and Motel 6 did this through a “choose-your-own-ADventure” on Hulu that targeted pet owners with the question, “are you a cat or a dog person?” The ‘Pets Stay Free’ campaign was a success, receiving over one billion earned impressions, widespread national outreach and earned media. All of this led to an increase in year-over-year sales for Motel 6.

This year’s most-entered category was Best Ad Tech Innovation, in which one finalist’s project is striving to make a difference in the DEI space. MiQ and iProspect worked together on Hilton’s audience awareness campaign, which sought to reach current hotel stayers and LGBTQ+ and Black travelers by leaning into their motivations for travel. Through this ‘It Matters Where You Stay’ campaign, Hilton, MiQ and iProspect demonstrated how impactful care and comfort are on hotel stays. Users exposed to MiQ’s media ended up booking 37 days in advance — 19% higher than organic traffic to the site.

PinkNews is a finalist for both Snapchat-oriented categories, with the most popular one being Best Snapchat Show. PinkNews saw a gap in the available content on Snap and aimed to fill that with its show, ‘Closet Critic.’ This fast-paced, snappy program details the fashion evolution of some of Gen Z’s favorite celebrities and their impact on the world, from Zendaya and Kim Kardashian to Jojo Siwa. The series combined PinkNews’ audiences’ love of fashion, celebrity and news content to create a premium viewing experience with viable sponsorship opportunities. Since its launch in December 2021, PinkNews has published 70 episodes, amassed 500,000 subscribers and reached 50 million unique users.

For Best Multi-Platform Video Campaign, Chewy is a standout finalist with its ‘Chatty Pets’ campaign, capturing the world exclusively through the eyes, actions and humorous inner monologues of real animals. This campaign gave a voice to the universal excitement pets feel as they anticipate a Chewy delivery. The inspiration behind ‘Chatty Pets’ was from pet parents believing each pet has a distinct personality and people’s love for personifying their pets. The campaign resonated strongly with pet parents, generating the most organic video views of any video on Chewy’s YouTube channel at about 700,000 organic …read more

Source:: Digiday