This past week ePrize sponsored the 3rd Annual Interactive Promotions Summit which was held in Las Vegas. I was invited back this year and was planning on going, (I even have it still listed on the sidebar of this blog that I would be blogging from it), but unfortunately I wasn't able to make it this year. Even though I had my reservations booked at the Wynn Hotel (at the conference rate) and was really looking forward to staying there for the first time, I just had too many things going on right now to fly all the way out to Vegas for just two days. I went to the event last year and it was great. Oh well, hopefully I'll be able to swing it next year.
On Thursday afternoon, May 1st, they announced the winners of the 3rd Annual Interactive Marketing Awards which is sponsored by PROMO Magazine. I found the info on PROMO's website so I thought I'd share it here with you. A record 131 entries, 13% more than last year's competition, were received. PROMO said that "Nearly half of this year's winners were sequels to successful campaigns. A few tweaks here and there, but basically MyCokeRewards.com (twice winners in '08, once in '07), and the Gap Casting Call were new spins on the tried and true."
The Best in Show was awarded to the Everyone's a Simpson website which I'm assuming is the official movie website. I recently wrote this post on the Simpson's Movie when 7-Eleven won the Supper Reggie Award at PMA's Annual Integrated Marketing Conference for their tie-in promotion they developed around it's release. I also wrote a post back in July called "Promotions Have a Cow with The Simpsons Movie" that reviewed the many brands and promotions that partnered up with 20th Century Fox for entertainment marketing opportunities. So again, Holy Cow, it's just a Simpson's kind of year.
The DVD for the movie was recently released, so the movie website is still live but I have to admit that I still haven't watched it. The website is great though. You can take a tour through Springfield, play various games, create your own Simpsons Avatar, download wallpapers, icons, screen savers, ringtones, and easily embed video clips to MySpace, your iPod or you blog.
Burger King also was a promotional partner of the movie release and created a microsite called SimpsonizeMe.com that allows consumers to turn digital photos into animated, yellow versions of themselves and had over 32 million hits when I reported on it back in July. The site was supported by TV ads as part of Burger King's overall promotion for the movie which also included talking Simpsons figurines with the purchase of a Kids Meal, in-restaurant displays, custom packaging and two other TV spots.
So, I'm not sure if the Burger King site or the official movie site won the award. Perhaps one of my readers that was at the event could confirm for us.
Anyhow, here's a list of all the winners (a couple had ties) from the different award categories:
- BEST IN SHOW/Best Promotional Website: Everyone's a Simpson
- SMS/MMS Mobile Marketing: Taste Test
- Viral Promotion: T-Shirt Beacon
- E-mail Marketing: Instant Database
- Internet-based Trial Recruitment: (Tied) Parental Pride; Pack up the SUV
- Internet-based Loyalty: Rewarding Redemption
- New Media: (Tied) Cyber Barbie; Buzz Pick-Up
- Search Engine Marketing: Finding Coke Drinkers
Since the only other information PROMO provided on the category winners was the mentions to MyCokeRewards.com and the Gap Casting Call, I can only assume that the SEM and mobile marketing categories were for Coke but I can't figure out the other. Since I wasn't there I can't tell you much more. You know the saying, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas!
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