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
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What's the relationship between Maverick and the Viral Awards and the so-called Viral Chart ?
They are the most nominated company on the Viral Awards and the only company to have work featured on the Viral Chart, which doesn't make it much of a chart.
Maverick have been nominated for 7 'Viral Awards':
2 for the Mazda - Smooth Parking, which was created in conjunction with DMC, as acknowledged by Campaign Mag when they awarded it the best Viral Campaign of 2003.
1 for IFAW - Blood on your hands, which as IFAW point out on their web site was an idea developed by their advertising agency Velocity Advertising with the final edit created by Lateral
4 awards fro BSM - Cruise and Pot Noodles - Precious, which are test ads therefore can't really be considered viral.
I freely admit to never having been a big fan of these awards ever since they were launched together with the Viral Chart by Asa Bailey as what can only be describe as a glorified wet t-shirt competition (see here).
So it's been quite amazing to see the list of people sign up to be judges and sponsors for these awards, not least given that it's the users who are judge, jury and often executioners of viral material. As such the opinion of industry 'experts' is by and larger, if not completely, irrelevant.
However, if someone is going to be issuing awards for viral campaigns they could at least make sure that the material was actually viral and also give credit where it
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PermalinkTrojan ads were also on the top list of 10 Ads America Won't See by Adage.com for 2004. Even more amusing, most of those ads are viewable on here. *grin*
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PermalinkWell, sounds like they have grown up. From a glorified wet T-shirt contest to nominating themselves and everyone on the jury just like the real old established awards. Catch on fast don't they? ;) Jeff Benjamin is right on the money with that quote.
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PermalinkEven though the 2005 awards are technically 2004 awards (since D-Day is in January) the extremely long 'air-date' leeway is a bit much, I mean 2002 for crying out loud? Aug/Sept 2003 wouldn't have been odd at all, but here it's like they're asking for old stuff. So Pot Noodle and BSM - Cruise are test commercials? Shouldn't that be a specific category like Pauls "playground"? ;) Or is this like Cannes, where ads that never ran can take home gold? :P [sorry Cannes lovers]
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PermalinkWell, I spoke to Alex West at the Viral Awards and it seems like
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