Viacom Velocity and Ally Financial lead the pack for this year’s Digiday Content Marketing Awards finalists
Powerful storytelling was the theme among the finalists for the 2020 Digiday Content Marketing Awards.
Best Branded Podcast finalists include standouts from Dell Technologies, Mental Floss, PrettyLittleThing, Rogers & Cowan, Stack Overflow and Weber Shandwick, each using audio for unique messages. Rogers & Cowan in particular worked with Granity Studios to produce The Punies, a narrative podcast teaching life lessons for kids, created by the late Kobe Bryant.
The agency also garnered a nomination for Content Marketing Agency of the Year, along with SJR, Mahlab, Imprint and Glow. Other creative entries include Tinder’s Swipe Life platform — “documenting the journey of being single” — in the Best Brand Publication category, and The Content Collective’s powerful Holocaust Remembrance Collection for Ancestry.
Viacom Velocity and Ally Financial each earned several nominations across categories, including Best Use of Native Advertising, Best Agency Client Collaboration, Best Brand Influencer Collaboration and more.
See the full list of finalists below.
Best Experiential Marketing Campaign
 Verizon and Momentum – Unlocking Romance
 Lonely Whale, The Museum of Plastic, and Young Hero – “Question How You Hydrate”
 Ally Financial and Monopoly
 Imagination and Ford – Mustang Mach-E Reveal
 Live Nation and Revlon – Revlon Ultra Rollerama
 United Entertainment Group and Edelman – The Bell: A Taco Bell Hotel and Resort
Best New Product or Launch Campaign
 Samsung Canada – Samsung #PowerUp
 Getty Images, Dove, and Girlgaze – Project #ShowUs
 GSD&M and Popeyes – Chicken Wars
 Zuru – Mini Brands 
 Verizon – Bring Back the Brick
 Rogers and Cowan and Granity Studios – The Wizenard Series by Kobe Bryant
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Best Influencer-Generated Content
 H Code and TurboTax – #TaxMitos
 Zuru – Mini Brands 
 TNT and Fullscreen – TNT’s I Am The Night
 EvolveMKD and miraDry
 Tinder
 Viacom Velocity and Walmart – Walmart’s Black Friday #DealDropDance
Best Branded Content Series – B2B
 Grant Thornton – Blockchain Podcast Series
 Libris by PhotoShelter – Behind the Scenes with the Storytellers
 Dell Technologies – Trailblazers
 Quartz Media and Citrix – WX
 Viacom Velocity and VAB – You Innovate. TV Elevates.”
 The Wall Street Journal (Barron’s Group) and Honeywell – Tomorrow’s Solution Today
Best Branded Content Series – B2C
 JBL and Sounds of the City
 ACE Content, The North Face and REI’s – Rewind Nature
 Viacom Velocity and Procter and Gamble – Aussie: She’s the B’Auss
 MSP-C and General Mills
 Made.com – #OwningIt
 theSkimm and H&R Block – “Let’s Get Personal”
Best Use of Data
 inPowered
 KERV Interactive and Callaway Golf
 WP BrandStudio and Mastercard – Data Makes a Difference
 Quartz and Refinitiv
 Reputation.com – Automotive Reputation Report
 AmTrust Financial
Most Original Use of Social
 Ally Financial and Monopoly
 McKinney and Orion Pictures – Child’s Play
 Airbnb and Amobee – Antarctic Sabbatical
 Expedia Group Media Solutions and Kenya Tourism Board – Can You Kenya?
 Verizon – Bring Back the Brick
 Moving Image & Content and Girls Who Code – #MarchforSisterhood
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Best Use of Video
 Herbalife Nutrition – #GetActiveNow
 IBM Originals – Code & Response
 UM Studios and Johnson & Johnson – 5B
 Minute Media and H&M – H vs M
 Barkley and HARIBO – Chewy Channel
 Ancestry, Great Big Story and The Content Collective – Records of Remembrance
Best Advertising Partner for Brands
 INNOCEAN USA – The Art of the Stunt
 STIHL and Imre
Best Use of Real-Time Streaming Video
 Viral Nation and Twitch – Crunchtime
 Verizon – Let Them Tweet Cake
 Ally Financial and Cheddar
 Verizon – Parade Reimagined
 Herbalife Nutrition – Facebook Live Shake Challenge
 160over90 and W Hotels – Wake Up Call Dubai
Best Use of Native Advertising/Sponsored Content
 VG Partnerstudio and Bama – The Norwegian Championship of Guacamole
 Atlantic Re:think and HBO –  Watchmen: The Massacre of Black Wall Street
 Schibsted Brand Studio and Equinor
 Viacom Velocity, The Daily Show and Hotels.com – Love to #HateLike
 DBLTAP and 20th Century Fox – Alita: Battle Angel
 Dotdash and Uber – “Moving You Forward”
Best User-Generated Content
 Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill – Summer of Chipotle Challenges
Zuru – Mini Brands 
 MADE.com – Design Your Happy Place
 Moving Image & Content and Girls Who Code – #MarchforSisterhood
 Lamps Plus – “Light What You Love”
 VG-lista and Manus – The Most Important Song of the Year
Most Effective/Measurable Campaign
 VG Partnerstudio and Bama – The Norwegian Championship of Guacamole
 The Content Collective, OMD and Viacom Velocity – “McDonald’s Wake Up Breakfast”
 E! Entertainment – People’s Choice Awards
 DEG and The Salvation Army – Giving Tuesday
 Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill – Chipotle Rewards Program
 Seen Connects and Very – The Very Network
Best Interactive Content Piece or Series
 Primrose Schools and Jackson Spalding – #LetGuiltGo
 Us Weekly and Crate and Barrel
 Maxwell and Pacific Foods – Leftover Upgrade
 Verizon – Parade Reimagined
 eko – Cook Together By Walmart
 eko, Walmart and Mattel – KidHQ
Most Innovative Use of Content
 The Macallan and M Booth – The Macallan Edition No. 5
 INNOCEAN USA and Genesis Motor America – Car Configurator
 GLOW and Panera
 Barkley and Haribo – Chewy Channel
 WP BrandStudio and Mike’s Hard Lemonade – The Joy Experiment
 Splunk – One Phish, Two Phish
Best Branded Podcast
 Rogers & Cowan PMK and Granity Studios – The Punies
 Weber Shandwick and Pedigree – The Dog That Changed Me
 Mental Floss and iHeart Radio – History Vs
 Social Chain and PrettyLittleThing – PLT: Behind Closed Doors
 Dell Technologies – Trailblazers
 Stack Overflow – The Stack Overflow Podcast 
Best Branded Content Site – B2B
 EMPLOYERS® – Small Business Resource Center
 FreeWheel – FreeWheel Insights
 Atlassian – Work Life
 Salesforce and Mahlab
 Digital Media Solutions
 Shutterstock – 2020 Creative Trends Report
Best Branded Content Site – B2C
The Weather Channel – Forecast: Change
MADE.com – Ideas Hub 
Jackson Spalding for Mattress Firm – The Daily Dose
Linkwell Health and Tivity Health – SilverSneakers Blog
The Foundry @ Meredith – Geico “The Complete Guide to Motorcycle Safety”
Exxon Mobil & SJR – Energy Factor
Best Brand Publication – Print and/or Digital
 IBM Originals – Industrious
 Mental Floss and Paper and Packaging Board – Mental Floss Magazine
 The Well by Northwell – Revmade
 Airbnb and Hearst – Airbnb Magazine
 Tinder – Swipe Life
 Mahlab and Engineers Australia – Create Digital
Best Agency/Client Collaboration
 Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill
 Viacom Velocity, CMT and Wendy’s – Wendy’s Block Party
 GLOW and Showtime – The L Word: Generation Q
 Rogers and Cowan PMK and Verizon Media
 Ally Financial and Monopoly
 Viacom Velocity and VAB – “You Innovate. TV Elevates.”
Best Brand/Influencer Collaboration
 Ally – Moguls in the Making
 The Thomas Collective and Culturelle
 Samsung – #PowerUp
 Viacom Velocity and Walmart – Black Friday #DealDropDance
 Lamps Plus and Jennifer Farrell
 1000heads and Google – #teampixel
Most Engaged Brand Community
 Cisco – Cisco Live
 Cvent
 Slickdeals
 GSD&M and Popeyes – Chicken Wars
 Day One Agency and Chipotle Mexican Grill
 Glow and Showtime
Best Multi-Channel Content Distribution Strategy
 TNT and Fullscreen – TNT’s I Am The Night
 TODAY and Citi
 Schibsted Brand Studio and Equinor – Climate and Energy – Easily Explained
 Brand Movers and Santander Consumer Bank Denmark
 Engineers Australia and Mahlab – Create
 ExxonMobil and SJR
Best In-House Content/Brand Studio
 GIPHY Studios
 National Public Media – NPM Creative
 Meredith – The Foundry
 Bustle Digital Group Studios
 Refinery29
 The Washington Post – WP BrandStudio
Content Marketing Agency of the Year
 Rogers & Cowan PMK
 Imprint
 GLOW
 SJR
 Mahlab
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