This one... I don't really know what to make of it.
Twitter has announced that they'll be hosting their own, platform-specific awards to:
"...recognize the advertisers that have really stood out over the past year. Because, let's face it, when you look at the current advertising landscape, there are so many innovative, imaginative, and impactful things happening on Twitter."
Prizes, bragging rights & more: enter the 1st annual #TwitterAwards https://t.co/w5JrFyrpkb pic.twitter.com/eZu7UnSMAu
- Twitter Advertising (@TwitterAds) August 1, 2016
I mean, I guess it's kind of interesting - every platform has its own way of recognizing the best creative ad execution, though most don't go to the extent of an actual awards process.
Twitter will recognize work in six categories, awarding one gold, two silvers, and three bronze prizes for each.
Those categories are:
- The #Live award recognizes the campaigns that best used Twitter to connect with people live during events, television, and global moments. Because everyone wants to talk about what's happening now.
- The #Impact award is basically the big money award, recognizing those campaigns that rode their thoughtful strategies all the way to sweet ROI results.
- The #Creativity award recognizes the boundless creativity and shoot-for-the-moon innovation that flourishes on Twitter.
- The #Scale award celebrates the campaigns that generated worldwide awareness and engagement, and had major cultural impact. In other words, the campaigns that rocked the globe.
- The #Customer award celebrates businesses that excelled at using Twitter for customer service and made loyal friends for life by treating their customers like, well, family
- The #Growth award recognizes small businesses that used Twitter Ads to grow, expand, and spread their wings.
Prizes in the first annual Twitter Awards range from being recognized in Twitter's official marketing guidelines and documents to a "special digital presence at Twitter headquarters" - whatever that might be. Winners will also get actual Twitter trophies to display, so that's something too.
And while I may be playing it down a little, no doubt the Twitter awards will prove popular - any additional recognition brands can get for their efforts is always helpful, and it'll be a good way for other businesses to get some more ideas on what works and what they can use in their own campaigns to improve their reach and response.
And given the competitive spirit of the Olympics will be lingering in the air, now's probably the best time to launch such an initiative.
Oh, and one other note - if you want to enter, you need to also summarize the campaign into a 140 character description.
Submissions for the Twitter Awards are open till September 23rd, 2016, with winners announced on November 10th.