Battle of the brands at the Digiday Video Awards, Pepsi vs. Purina Friskies

With more than 18 million views, “Dear Kitten” — produced by Buzzfeed and Nestlé Purina’s Friskies –has already become Buzzfeed’s most popular video of 2014. In it, a house cat wryly gives advice to the youngest addition to the household, proving brand lift is achievable without inundating the content with the product or logo throughout the video.

OMD and Pepsi Max teamed up for “Test Drive 2,” which isn’t far behind “Dear Kitten” with over 17 million views. Aimed at their “haters,” the video is a sequel of sorts. Race car champion Jeff Gordon pulled a hilarious prank on an unsuspecting automotive journalist who had questioned the authenticity of the original “Test Drive” video — by kidnapping him for the ride of his life. Once again we see the positive impact of lifting a brands awareness without pushing the product creating content that the entertains and engages the consumer.

TEN is a finalist for Best Consumer Video Campaign for “Lexus Presents: Chasing Light – Inspired by Ansel Adams.” It’s hard to make a car ad stand out, so TEN took a new approach. For the luxury auto brand, revisted the locations where Adams, of one of the greatest landscape photographers, shot his most acclaimed work. They seamlessly integrated Lexus into the short film that was more about art than cars.

The three common elements we see from these video campaigns are emotion, identity, and information emphasizes the ability to tell a story about the product than showing us.

This year we’ve added a “Best Branded Vine Video” award. The full list of finalists is available on the Digiday Video Awards site and listed below. Check out a few of the finalist entries listed below.

2014 Digiday Video Awards Finalists

Best In-Banner Video Ad
Mixpo, Triad Retail Media, SaatchiX for Gillette Fusion ProGlide Razor
Lexus and Team One

Best In-Stream Video Ad
Eyeview and Lowe’s
Microsoft, Mixpo, Team One for Lexus F Series
CBS Interactive, Mixpo, Slingsho for Texas Tourism

Best Video Campaign – Consumer
INNOCEAN USA andHyundai Motor America for Blind Test Drive
MRY for Adobe – “Make It With Creative Cloud”
TEN: The Enthusiast Network for Lexus Presents: Chasing Light – Inspired by Ansel Adams

Best Video Campaign – BtoB
Beam Suntory and Starcom MediaVest Group for LiquidThread
Bradley and Montgomery for Microsoft Exchange (MEC, Microsoft Exchange Conference)
Cardlytics for Cardlytics, Card-Linked Marketing

Best Video Creative
BuzzFeed & Purina’s Dear Kitten
MRY for Visa – “Michael Sam”
OMD & Pepsi Max Test Drive 2.0

Best Mobile Video Advertising
Tremor Video and MGSCOMM for HBO Latino
20th Century Fox, Moxie and Rovio
Horizon Media & AdColony for Jack in the Box, “Late Night Slot Machine”

Best Social Video Advertising
INNOCEAN USA and Hyundai Motor America 0-60 In Less Than A Vine
MRY for Visa “Olympics”
Virool for “Go Beyond the View”

Best Cross Video Offline to Online Campaign
INNOCEAN USA for Hyundai Motor America, The College Football Loyalty Integrated Campaign
Deep Focus Lay’s Do Us A Flavor

Best Branded Video Web Series
Chefs Feed for Bad Reviews and”Elevated”
MEC for Culinary Beats presented by the Citi ThankYou Preferred Card
Reingold for Explore VA

Best Brand Use of Video for Entertainment
INNOCEAN USA for The Walking Dead Chop Shop “Forgot About That”
OMD & Pepsi Max Test Drive 2.0
The New York Times T Brand Studio for Netflix

Best Branded Vine Video
Deep Focus for Tombstone Pizza – Bites of Fright
MRY for Visa – “Olympics”
Weber Shandwick Chicago for M&M’S Brand Chocolate Candies

Best Brand Video Destination
INNOCEAN USA andHyundai Motor America for Blind Test Drive
Lexus and Team One
The New York Times T Brand Studio for Netflix

Best Brand Use of Video for Information
Fullscreen for GE
NBCUniversal & Xerox present: :30 Seconds to Know
INNOCEAN USA andHyundai Motor America for Blind Test Drive

Best Video Technology Innovation
SapientNitro for Chrysler 200 America’s Import Online Video Player
AdColony for Instant-Feed HD Video
Wochit

Best Video Distribution/Syndication Platform
Virool for “Go Beyond the View”
Rovio for Rovio ToonsTV
AOL Inc. for The AOL On Network

Best Original Non-Scripted Video Show/Series
AOL Originals for “Park Bench with Steve Buscemi”
City Ballet – Produced by Zero Point Zero Production and Pretty Matches Productions for AOL Studios
The Huffington Post for HuffPost Live