In Twitter’s latest move to gain advertisers, the Silicon Valley giant has announced its new annual Twitter Awards.
Joel Lunenfeld, the company’s VP of global brand strategy, made the announcement Monday via a blog post. It comes on the heels of Twitter’s 10-year anniversary, which, unfortunately for the social media giant, marked a stalled user base at about 300 million users, fairly recent layoffs, an extremely public CEO firing, and a first-quarter stock price of $22—which is considerably lower than the near $45 price at its 2013 IPO debut.
Still, the Twitter Awards is a move that’s likely to draw some attention not just from advertisers, but also from direct marketers who are weaving social media into their messaging and campaigns. “We’ve seen some incredible campaigns over the last decade, and want to acknowledge those who continue to influence marketing on our platform,” Lunenfeld said in his blog post.
Lunenfeld noted that Twitter wants to acknowledge those who “#GoLive best” and will consider campaigns that are tweeted from January 1 through August 28 this year. The winners will be announced in late September and early October.
There are seven categories, each with a unique hashtag and requirements that mirror the goals and strategies of most direct marketers:
#Culture: Recognizes campaigns that highlight the greatest global awareness, engagement, and cultural impact.
#Creativity: Recognizes creativity unique to Twitter through engaging campaigns, compelling ad formats, and new uses.
#Growth: Recognizes small businesses that use Twitter Ads to grow their presence and drive tangible business results.
#Impact: Recognizes thoughtful strategy, business-driven results, and strong campaign ROI.
#Live: Recognizes campaigns that best exemplify and bring to life Twitter’s live connection.
#Response: Recognizes businesses that go above and beyond in customer service, participation, and valued customer connections through Twitter.
#Promote: Recognizes Twitter’s registered Ads API partners, agencies, and developers who create and innovate in designing and building advertising tools.
The winner of the #Promote category will receive $250,000—an incentive for companies to use Twitter’s advertising offerings. Right now, only entrants in the #Promote categories can submit campaigns; the other categories will open later.
The award program’s recognition of direct marketing fundamentals inspired us to share recent social campaigns we think are notable. Scroll below the related articles to read about several brand marketers featured on DMN who have used social media as part of a bigger strategy to impact business, target a specific base, drive consumer awareness, and generate demand.
