Integration of emerging technology, audience engagement, unique content formats, branding and cross-promotion emerged as significant themes among this year’s Digiday Media Awards shortlist. With publishers and brands looking to reinforce their positions as industry leaders, they are also emphasizing quantifiable metrics and real-world impact to highlight the success of their initiatives.
In the Best Use of Emerging Technology category, the NFL and Nickelodeon earned a nomination for their Roblox campaigns supporting Super Bowl LVIII. Ahead of the first Super Bowl alt-cast airing on Nickelodeon, both brands partnered with metaverse game developer and strategist Gamefam to launch a cross-game campaign on Roblox. The partners brought endless Nickelodeon and NFL-themed content, including immersive gameplay, quests and trivia, to Roblox’s more than 70 million daily users across a 29-day brand experience. It became the top brand event on Roblox, with more than 75 million total visits. It also helped drive family audiences to the NFL’s Christmas Day broadcast on Nick and the channel’s Super Bowl alt-cast.
Among the Best Use of Social category finalists is Food Network, which strives to balance its status as a trusted food brand with a quirky, trend-driven approach to its social content strategy. The compelling content shared across Food Network’s platforms includes clips and memes from TV shows, bespoke recipes and tips, behind-the-scenes looks at restaurants and spotlights on the most-visual user-submitted food content on the internet. In addition to featuring Food Network’s all-star chefs, its social platforms also introduce fans to new and up-and-coming culinary talent. Food Network Social has nearly 73 million followers across platforms like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube and TikTok.
Harvard Business Review was shortlisted for several categories, including the new Best Design category. The publisher challenges itself to use a variety of multimedia and visual techniques to create an immersive story experience for readers. The design goal in all of HBR’s immersive stories is to show the various pieces of a connected story experience, signal that these are a deeper read than a traditional story, provide multiple media elements and supporting material that enhance the story, and then manage the design of all of those elements so that they don’t overwhelm the reader and interrupt the reading experience.
Altogether, the work the judges nominated in 2024 demonstrated that brands are leveraging emerging technologies and media to offer interactive and engaging experiences to many audiences.
See the complete list of finalists below.
Best Ad Tech Platform
AdTheorent
Dstillery – ID-free®
Flight Control: Advanced Ad Serving & Workflow Automation
Premion: CTV Innovations Driving Advertiser Outcomes
PulsePoint – An Integrated Health Marketing Platform
Rembrand – Organic Video Advertising Generated by AI
Best Brand Partnership – B2C
AT Media’s Dorm Therapy in partnership with Shop with Google
Doing Things & Conagra Brands: Full-Year Partnership
Dotdash Meredith and Command™ Brand – Command Your Space
Gear Patrol x GMC: Mettle Work
Maren Morris x Visible – Dancing with Myself
The Weather Channel Television Network
Best Branded Content Program – B2B
Salesforce & Fortune Brand Studio present THE ECOPRENEURS
3M & WP Creative Group – Earthland
Best Branded Content Program – B2C
Recess Therapy & Cheez-It Introduce Puff’d Talks Series
Salesforce & Fortune Brand Studio present THE ECOPRENEURS
SPH Media x Rolex: We The Earth
Streamlabs Unleash Your Live
The Foundry @ DDM & Campbell’s – Meal Culture Engine
The Foundry @ DDM, Starbucks & SPARK – PSL 20th Birthday
Best Commerce Strategy
Attain: Drive Results With Commerce Data
Agital & Solly Baby’s Custom Strategy Drives Revenue & ROAS
Carhartt + January Digital, Record eComm Holiday
Kendra Scott + January Digital, Unprecedented Ecomm Growth
Firework & LAWLESS Bring Online Cosmetics Shopping to Life
theSkimm’s Industry-Leading Commerce Business
Best Contextual Targeting Offering
AccuWeather & John Frieda – Fight The Frizz
DailyMail.com Welcomes You To Their World of Connections
Mars and Adlook branding campaign success
Seedtag
Best Custom Advertising
Maren Morris x Visible – Dancing with Myself
Moloco
The Hershey Company & Chalice – Sweet Success
Best Design – NEW
Harvard Business Review’s 2023 Design
SIDEARM Sports – Powering the College Athletics Experience
The Outlaw Ocean Project – China: The Superpower of Seafood
Best Digital Product Innovation
SmartFrame Image-Streaming Technology for Sports Brands
The Hershey Company & Chalice – Sweet Success
The Weather Channel en Español
The Weather Channel Television Network
Vodafone CreativeX collaboration to improve creative quality
WellSaid Labs Collaborated on First AI Voice Radio Editorial
Best Editorial Package
Fortune Media – “Inside Elon’s Universe”
Microsoft WorkLab / AI at Work
Best Event
Apartment Therapy’s Small/Cool NYC 2023
Best Event – NYLON at Art Basel
PEOPLE x Recording Academy x Sephora – Women In The Mix
REVOLT WORLD
The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival 2023
We’re Back
Best First-Party Data Strategy
AccuWeather x Lowe’s Feels Like Spring
Condé Nast’s First-Party Data Mastery: Lakehouse & Snowplow
DailyMail.com Welcomes You To Their World of Connections
Grow by Mediavine, The Identity Solution Protecting Privacy
La Presse’s Optable-Powered Transformation
The Sky’s the Limit for Spirit’s Data-Driven Co-Op
Best Newsletter
AI-powered “Best of” Newsletters at Germany’s WELT
Boardroom: HeadlineToGo
Crunchyroll – SVOD Gamification Campaign – Chainsaw Man
Nik Sharma’s DTC Newsletter
The Brazilian Report – Latam Weekly, Brazil Weekly, Daily
Best Podcast
HBR IdeaCast
IllumiNative – American Genocide Podcast
Sequoia x Vox Creative: Crucible Moments Season 1
StrollerCoaster: A Parenting Podcast – Season Three
The Brazilian Report – Explaining Brazil
The Mina Kimes Show
Best Story
Harvard Business Review – Beware a Culture of Busyness
Harvard Business Review – The Rise of the Meta City
The Brazilian Report – Hacking the chief electoral justice
Best Subscription or Membership Product
New Scientist app, powered by Pugpig
Punchbowl News & Subtext SMS Campaign
Pvolve x Jennifer Aniston – A Strength that Sets You Free
Best Use of AI-Generated Content -NEW
Astrology.com.com’s Spiritual AI
The Famous Group – AI Photo Magic
Best Use of Audience Insights
Premion: CTV Outcomes with Unmatched Audience Insights
The New American Consumer and the Marketing Divide
VML & Tennessee Tourism – Tennessee Playcation
Best Use of Emerging Tech
Altitude, Havas & Gamefam – Promoting Talk to Me on Fortnite
“From the Ground Up”: A Hybrid-Multiverse Experience
Monday Night Football with Peyton and Eli: AR Table
NFL, Nickelodeon & Gamefam Reel in Football Fans on Roblox
The House of Music at iHeartRadio Music Festival
Best Use of Livestreaming – NEW
Agital Livestream
January 8: Brazil’s Capitol Riot
Met Gala Livestream 2023
Nightcap
Tastemade on Amazon Live
Best Use of Social
A CLEANING DAY AT ESPARK SHOPPING CENTER
Aki’s M&M’S® Chatbot and Influencer Campaign
DailyMail.com – The Largest News Publisher on TikTok
ESPARK SHOPPING CENTER CGI INNOVATIVE VIDEO
Food Network Social Platforms
Turkish Airlines & Forward Media – A Country of Wonders
Best Use of TikTok – NEW
Club Shay Shay
DailyMail.com – The Largest News Publisher on TikTok
mSix & Fossil – Made for TikTok Shopping
OLAPLEX OLADUPÉ Campaign
Best Use of Video
GearJunkie & Columbia Sportswear’s Sea To Source
Just Women’s Sports – The 91st Presented By Adobe
Turkish Airlines & Forward Media – A Country of Wonders
We’re Back
Best Video Platform
EX.CO Online Video Platform (OVP) for 1XL
Best Website – NEW
Food Network Website
HBR.org
Content Studio of the Year
Apartment Therapy Media’s Homemade Studios
Donut Media
Red Border by TIME
SPH Content Lab
The Foundry @ Dotdash Meredith
The Trust, studio for Custom Content From WSJ
Editorial Team of the Year
Futurism
Punchbowl News – The Source for Power, People and Politics
Media Brand of the Year
Boardroom
El Diario
Everyday Health
The Krazy Coupon Lady
TIME
REVOLT
Media Company of the Year
Omaha Productions
Raptive: The Creator Media Company
Reinventing OOH planning & placement for the performance age
The Volume
VERO
Most Committed to Sustainability – NEW
Business Insider paves the way for a more sustainable future
Mediavine’s Commitment to Sustainability
Pattrn
The Wall Street Journal’s Future of Everything Festival
Vodafone Sustainable Media
Most Engaged Community
Bob Does Sports (Doing Things)
First Media Brands – Blossom, So Yummy, Blusher & Babyfirst
Future Games: A Highly Engaged, Global Community of Gamers
The HBR Community
The Krazy Coupon Lady
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