Warc names social prize shortlist

Posted by Warc News on 12 March 2014

LONDON: Warc has unveiled a shortlist of 37 case studies for the Warc Prize for Social Strategy, a global competition with a prize fund of $10,000 recognising campaigns that use social ideas to drive business results.

The 37 cases, from a total of 130 entries, reflect a wide mix of social and 'earned media' marketing ideas from around the world, with 14 different markets represented.

The US was the lead market with eight shortlisted entries, followed by India and the UK (seven and six shortlisted entries respectively). The full shortlist can be viewed on the Prize website, which includes details about the full judging panel, and Warc subscribers can additionally view the shortlisted papers via the same link.

The winner will be awarded a $5,000 Grand Prix. Five Special Awards of $1,000 each will be awarded for excellence in certain areas, and there will be Gold, Silver and Bronze awards for other high-scoring case studies.

The Prize was set up to be channel-neutral, defining social strategy as any marketing designed to drive conversation, sharing, participation or advocacy. Entrants were asked to show how the strategy had delivered credible business results.

In praise of those campaigns that made it onto the shortlist, David Tiltman, Warc's content development director, revealed that several of the judges had been "blown away" by the range of ideas and the quality of the thinking.

"These case studies show that smart social strategy is not confined to particular markets, nor is it the preserve of particular marketing disciplines," he said.

Social media, not surprisingly, emerged as the most frequently used channel among the shortlisted campaigns.

It was used in almost all (97%) of shortlisted entries, although TV was still used by 43% while just over half (54%) used online video and roughly two-thirds used PR or online microsites (65% and 68% respectively).

Data sourced from Warc

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