The Shorty Awards has partnered with We Are Social this year to turn its annual award gala into an entirely digital, live-stream event, exclusively for social. The new Meta Shorty Awards ceremony will take place on Sunday, May 3, featuring influencers, musical performances, hashtag challenges, real-time commentary, and an overarching social good goal to match the event’s theme of making the world a healthier, safer place.
The ceremony will have two main broadcast channels on Periscope and YouTube from 7pm (EST).
We Are Social’s New York office will be responsible for managing the activation and broadcast across The Shorty Awards’ global social media channels, supported by specialist simulcast production partner, True Film Production.
As part of the launch campaign, The Shorty Awards will promote a TikTok hashtag challenge, #ShortyBreak, giving creatives of all levels the chance to produce commercials for made-up brands. The best ads will then be used as breaks during the ceremony broadcast, with one lucky winner receiving an award for Best Shorty Break.
Before the ceremony, a creative brief will also be shared with a number of agencies globally, giving them the chance to create a social good campaign that raises awareness for a specific cause, chosen by The Shorty Awards team. The winning agency will be recognised at the end of the live show and will officially be awarded the business, with the understanding that they will be forgoing their creative development fee to aid the charitable cause.
Rob Schlissel, marketing and partnerships senior director and senior producer, The Shorty Awards, stated, “This is an important moment for the team at The Shorty Awards, as we look to take a long-established global event and transition it online for the first time. Not only because we have to – due to the current global crisis – but also because the move upholds the innovative reputation of the ceremony and continues the tradition of celebrating the world’s best in entertainment, media, branding and creativity. The whole team, along with our partners at We Are Social, have worked to turn this concept into a reality in an incredibly short space of time, while working in challenging circumstances, but we’re very excited to see it go live.”
Benjamin Arnold, managing director, New York, We Are Social, added, “As brands and organisations around the world work tirelessly to pivot their marketing efforts to reflect this current state of isolation, working with The Shorty Awards has been an incredible opportunity to showcase just how a large-scale, real-life production can transition into a purely social one – and generate the same, if not more, engagement.
“As the world looks to what’s next and how we can utilize the latest in digital technologies to rethink our marketing activations, it is our hope that innovative events such as this will be a shining example of the true value of social.”
Credits
Agency: We Are Social
Managing Director: Benjamin Arnold
Creative Directors: Casey De Pont & Ryan Engelbert
Strategist: Matthew Friedman
Account Director: Jas Dhami
Paid Media Manager: Wah-De Dennis
Senior Project Manager: Heather Crombie
Account Executive: Jack Lewis
Client: The Shorty Awards
CEO of Sawhorse Media: Greg Galant
Marketing & Partnerships Senior Director & Senior Producer: Rob Schlissel
Creative Producer: Ian Antonoff
Brand & Partnerships Manager: Carley Schumann
Marketing & Partnerships Manager: Christina Waterman
Production: True Film Production
Creative Director: Robert Lester
Head of Partnerships & Accounts: Caitlin Oliver-Gans
