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Missing Richard Simmons, 2 Dope Queens, Trumpcast, Women of the Hour, Homecoming, FiveThirtyEight, and In the Dark Among Inaugural Webby Award Podcast Nominees

Voting for People’s Voice Awards Kicks Off Today at http://vote.webbyawards.com

NEW YORK, April 4, 2017 – The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) today announced the Nominees for the 21st Annual Webby Awards, including Stranger Things, Google, ellentube, Pokémon Go, Spotify, and Quartz, as well as some of the year’s most talked-about personalities, including Beyoncé, Malcolm Gladwell, Residente, Grimes, Serena Williams, Michael Phelps, Coldplay, Grace Helbig, and Pharrell Williams.

All Nominees are eligible to win the Internet industry’s two most prestigious awards: The Webby Award, as selected by the Academy, and The Webby People’s Voice Award, voted on by the online public at http://vote.webbyawards.com. Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards is open from now until Thursday, April 20, 2017, at 11:59 PM (PT).

IADAS members including Jimmy Kimmel, Making a Murderer’s Laura Ricciardi and Moira Demos, Gimlet Media’s Alex Blumberg, Instagram’s Eva Chen, Questlove, Internet inventor Vint Cerf, Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian, and Black Lives Matter Co-Founder Opal Tometi will select the Webby Winners, which will be announced on Tuesday April 25th, 2017.

This year, Nominees addressed complex social issues, including gun violence, free speech, homelessness, women’s rights, cancer, climate change, domestic abuse, human trafficking, bullying, workplace discrimination, and the global refugee crisis, through powerful campaigns like #MoreThanMean, 25M2Syria, Girls of Paradise, Women’s Footprint in History, and Free the Speech.

“Webby Nominees are using the Internet in incredible ways to bring people together through humor, emotion, innovation, empathy, passion, optimism, and eccentricity—all of the elements that make for truly great Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of the Webby Awards. “In a year marked by so much discord and divisiveness, The Webby Awards is honored to recognize the work and efforts of our Nominees as they explore new ways to use the Internet to inform our world and bring people together.”

In the midst of a highly contentious election year, it is no surprise that politics dominated the Internet in 2016 and this year’s Webby Nominees certainly reflect that, with The Washington Post, The Young Turks, The Guardian, The Messy Truth, Univision, Voter Information Project, The Axe Files, and Vice President Joe Biden recognized for their contributions.

The Webby Awards recognized several standouts this year across 10 new categories in Podcasts & Digital Audio, celebrating what has quickly become one of the most popular—and profitable—content and advertising media on the Internet. Inaugural Webby Nominees in Podcasts & Digital Audio include Women of the Hour, In the Dark, Modern Love, The Hilarious World of Depression, FiveThirtyEight, Science Vs, and My Dad Wrote a Porno.

A record number of media companies were recognized this year for their critical role in developing new content platforms and dynamic online experiences to bring to life the stories that captivated our hearts, minds, and attention. Media Nominees across a variety of categories include BuzzFeed, VICE Media, Teen Vogue, The New York Times, CNN, The Guardian, HBO, National Geographic, WIRED, The Hollywood Reporter, The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, TIME, BBC, ESPN, Bloomberg, PBS, Quartz, Fatherly, Refinery29, and The Intercept.

With humor and levity as a unifying platform, some of the most entertaining viral videos and online series on the Internet were recognized as Webby Nominees this year, including Beyonce – “Formation,” Between Two Ferns with Zach Galifianakis: Hillary Clinton, Jimmy Kimmel Live’s Mean Tweets, Undercover Lyft, A Year in Space, Lebron: the Musical, Pentatonix & Dolly Parton – “Jolene,” Chef’s Table, and Marty McFly & Doc Brown Visit Jimmy Kimmel Live. Noting the growing popularity of video consumption on social media channels, The Webby Awards launched a new category this year to celebrate the best in Social Video, recognizing Nominees including CNN Election 2016, The Best of Late Late Show Snapchat, Deep Instagram, 60 Second Docs, The Met 360 Project, Ask a Muslim Girl, and Rockets are Cool.

Many of the Online Ads nominated in the Advertising, Media & PR category received millions of YouTube views and social media shares, including AT&T’s The Unseen (BBDO New York), TacoBot (Deutsch), Field Trip to Mars (McCann New York), We Are America (R/GA), V Skills (TKT Sydney), SlowDown GPS (Forsman & Bodenfors), and Project Muze (Stinkdigital). Virtual reality (VR) also continues to grow in popularity as people look for new ways to experience and engage with content online. Nominees across the VR categories this year include IKEA Virtual Reality Showroom, Samsung Bedtime Stories VR, BBC Home: A VR Spacewalk, The People’s House, and Greenpeace: A Journey to the Arctic.

This year’s Webby Awards received a record-setting 13,000 entries from all 50 states and 70 countries worldwide. From the thousands of global entries submitted to The Webby Awards, fewer than 9% were selected as Nominees. The organizations earning the highest number of nominations this year include: Google (16), Vice Media (15), Conde Nast (14), BBC (12), National Geographic (12), HBO (10), Washington Post (9), ESPN (9), New York Times (9), Airbnb (9), Squarespace (7), Buzzfeed (7), Intel (5), CollegeHumor (5), Spotify (5), GIPHY (4), and The Onion (4).

Winners will be celebrated at a star-studded ceremony held at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, May 15, 2017. This year’s show will be available on demand at webbyawards.com the morning of Tuesday, May 16. The Webby Awards video channel will feature all the show highlights, including special performances and all the hallmark 5-Word Speeches from the night’s big Winners.

EY provides vote tabulation consulting for The Webby Awards. For a complete list of nominees and to vote for the People’s Voice Awards, please visit http://vote.webbyawards.com

21st Annual Webby Nominee Highlights:

Best Branded Editorial Experience (Advertising, Media & PR)
– Pitchfork + Spotify – Inside Discovery
– Gordon 24Ever
– 1800 Tequila & Billboard “Back to the Block”
– Loewe 001
– The Making of a Cult – Hulu’s The Path

Best Cause-Related Campaign (Advertising, Media & PR)
– Girls of Paradise
– #MoreThanMean – Women in Sports ‘Face’ Online Harassment
– Be The Guy
– Bullying in Virtual Reality
– Speechless

Best Event (Advertising, Media & PR)
– Google Escape
– Finger Licking Good
– 29Rooms
– Art The Throne
– A Table to End Hunger

Best Host (Podcasts & Digital Audio)
– Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People
– 99% Invisible
– Mike Pesca for Best Host: “A Former Breitbart Star Takes On Steve Bannon”
– See Something Say Something
– The Axe Files

Best Overall Social Presence (Social)
– National Geographic’s Social Presence
– NASA’s Cassini Mission Social Media
– The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon / Social Experience
– Game of Thrones
– Old Spice Social

Best Use of Mobile Media (Advertising, Media & PR)
– Can’t Stop
– ReMumber
– Like my addiction
– Homeless 360
– Hashtags for life

Best Web Personality/Host (Film & Video)
– Joe Hanson – It’s Okay to be Smart
– Good Mythical Morning
– Kid President
– Not Too Deep with Grace Helbig
– Teaching Shane Dawson How to Make a Musical.ly

Best Writing (Podcasts & Digital Audio)
– How to Be a Girl
– The Gist with Mike Pesca: “Vote Jabba” (starts at 15:36, ends at 20:35)
– Stuff You Missed in History Class
– In the Dark
– Accused: The Unsolved Murder of Elizabeth Andes

Celebrity/Fan (Websites)
– Residente
– Vanity Fair’s Vanities
– PharrellWilliams.com
– Leon Bridges Website
– Stranger Things Type Generator

Comedy: Individual Short or Episode (Film & Video)
– The New iPhone is Just Worse
– Tinder: The Superhero Movie
– The Simpsons – 3 a.m.
– Casual Sketch – Woke Bois, “White Male Feminist”
– Epic Rap Battles of History: Wonder Woman vs. Stevie Wonder

Comedy (Podcasts & Digital Audio)
– The Hilarious World of Depression
– My Dad Wrote A Porno
– 2 Dope Queens
– The Carson Podcast
– The Last Podcast On The Left

Documentary (Podcasts & Digital Audio)
– The man inside: Four months as a prison guard
– In the Dark
– The Kitchen Sisters Present
– Missing & Murdered: Who Killed Alberta Williams?
– Missing Richard Simmons

Entertainment (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– Fandango App
– Star Wars App
– Laugh.ly
– YEAY
– Sully: The 208 Seconds Experience

Experience Marketing (Advertising, Media & PR)
– Nike Unlimited Stadium
– “On the Go” – The New Yorker’s Innovators Issue Comes to Life in an Augmented-Reality – Experience
– The Field Trip to Mars
– Meet Graham
– The Sweet Jesus Confessional

Events (Social)
– CNN Election Night 2016
– Meeting the Moment > Real Madrid Champions League Final Campaign
– 2015-16 NBA All-Star Week
– Sherlock Live
– 24 Hours of Le Forza

Fashion & Beauty (Social)
– Feels
– Glossier (Instagram)
– J.Crew Men’s Instagram
– Revelist Beauty & Style Vertical
– Real Time Fashion Trends

Games (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– Pokémon GO
– Dots & Co
– NBA LIVE Mobile
– The Walking Dead No Man’s Land Mobile Game
– Star Wars Arcade

Humor (Websites)
– The Onion
– Cracked
– CollegeHumor
– The Daily Show: Black Trump – “They Love Me”
– Funny Or Die

Interview/Talk Show (Podcasts & Digital Audio)
– Another Round
– The Gist with Mike Pesca: “Jesse Eisenberg, Part 2” (starts at 6:13, ends at 21:02)
– The Axe Files
– In The Thick
– FiveThirtyEight Politics Podcast

Music (Websites)
– Residente
– Pandora
– Vevo
– Eye of the Stormers
– 20FT Radio

News (Websites)
– The New York Times
– BuzzFeed News
– Quartz
– The Washington Post
– BBC Newstream

Public Service & Activism (Social)
– Gifgoat.party
– Invisible Stories
– Brutal Cut
– Untasty Dishes
– Genderless Nipples

Sports (Social)
– #EverestNoFilter
– WWE WrestleMania 32
– NBA All-Star Coverage
– NFL Thursday Night Football Live Stream on Twitter
– World Surf League Social

Travel (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– The New Airbnb App
– HotelTonight
– Skyscanner app
– Hopper
– Detour

Virtual Reality: Gaming, Interactive, or Real-Time (Film & Video)
– The Field Trip to Mars
– Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them VR
– GUERLAIN – ‘DRESS ME UP’ VR FILM
– Halcyon
– VR Power Trainer

Weird (Websites)
– OMGYES *Note for Judges: May Contain Explicit Content*
– Museum of Hotel Keys
– Emoji Book
– The Big Draw: Selling the Soviet Past
– Napflix I Siesta Video Platform

Find The Webby Awards Online:
Website: webbyawards.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/TheWebbyAwards
Twitter: @TheWebbyAwards
Instagram: @TheWebbyAwards
Snapchat: TheWebbyAwards
YouTube: youtube.com/webby

About The Webby Awards:

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international awards organization honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Film & Video, Advertising, Media & PR, Mobile Sites & Apps, Social, and Podcasts & Digital Audio. Established in 1996, The Webby Awards received 13,000 entries from all 50 states and 70 countries worldwide this year. The Webby Awards is presented by the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). Sponsors and Partners of The Webby Awards include: Google, Vitamin T, EY, YouTube, WP Engine, Advertising Age, Billboard, Creativepool, Daily Pnut, Digiday, FITC, General Assembly, It’s Nice That, Mashable, Northside Festival, NUMA, Protein, RGD, Social Media Week, SoDA, Springwise, Sysomos, Taste Talks, The Hollywood Reporter, TubeFilter, WeRSM, WNYC.