Shots.net announces ViralAward nominees

Shots.net reports about the upcoming viral awards and lists the nominees here. I think I might be having a few ad deja vus.....

The Trojan Games released in 2003 won not only a cyberlion 2004 (google cache link) but also the 2004 Creative showcase Viral awards, yet here it is again nominated for Best Campaign, this is getting a bit like the award-sweep done by the Honda Cogs march all over the award-world - where year-later respect can be explained by entry "air-dates" requirement.

In this viral award case it's explained by their entry requirements: "All work must have been completed since July 1st 2002". To win a 2005 award? Weird.

In the Word of Mouth category Obey the suit is nominated which was released in 2003 as well.
Napsters (#1, #2, #3) animated series is nominated in Best Art Direction & Design, and again was released in 2003.
Mazda 2 Smooth Parking is nominated in Most Creative Use of Technology, though BrandRepublic announced the campaign way back in April 2003.
I'm beginning to think this is rather funny....

In the category Best Charity Viral my money is on Red Cells Alien invasion, but ooops, that too was in 2003! Didn't people do anything last year? In the same category is IFAW 'blood on your hands ad.

In recent related viral news, Lavoie Leads Art Directors Club Jury where a new category "Hybrid" will accept entries that don't fit the traditional Viral or Press&Poster type categories, and a typical Paul category called "Playground," will honor ads created for a client that never ran.

Nominated in the Most Creative Use of Technology category of the Viral Awards are Crispin Porter + Bogusky, you can read up on most of the stunts created by them here where Jeff Benjamin, CP+B's Interactive Head tells all about the Mini Robot, The subservient Chicken and other camapigns.

Really, what is viral? It's just a successful ad. That should be the goal for anyone doing interactive. It's so good, you're just going to pass it on