FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Damiano DeMonte
212-691-2800
webby@sunshinesachs
Snapchat, Netflix, Slack, Hotline Bling and WhatsApp are nominated for People’s Special Achievement Webby
Voting for People’s Voice Awards Begins Today at http://pv.webbyawards.com
NEW YORK, April 5, 2016 – The International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences (IADAS) today announced the Nominees for the 20th Annual Webby Awards, including Google Cardboard, Polyvore, Two Dots, and The Intercept as well as some of the year’s most talked about celebrities like Beyoncé, The Weeknd, One Direction, John Oliver, First Lady Michelle Obama, Tracy Morgan and Carmelo Anthony.
The public has a chance to cast their votes for their pick of the best of the Internet at http://pv.webbyawards.com. Voting for the Webby People’s Voice Awards is open from now until Thursday, April 21, 2016 at 11:59 PM (PT).
IADAS members, including Jimmy Kimmel, Reddit co-founder Alexis Ohanian, Instagram’s Eva Chen, Questlove, Internet inventor Vint Cerf and Crisis Text Line Founder Nancy Lublin will select The Webby Awards Winners, which will be announced Tuesday, April 26, 2016.
From its earliest days honoring the likes of Napster, Kozmo and HOTorNot to spotting future successes like The Onion, the Internet Movie Database (IMDb) and Amazon.com before the masses discovered them, The Webby Awards has been the gold standard for celebrating the most noteworthy trends and advancements on the Internet since the Awards Show was established in 1996. As in years past, this year’s Nominees reflect the creativity and emerging technologies that are shaping the world we live in today.
The Nominees include several historical standouts who have withstood the test of not just time, but Internet time. PBS, The Onion and Smithsonian were each nominated at the first Annual Webby Awards in 1997 and have also been recognized this year as Nominees in the 20th Annual Show.
“Since its inception in 1997, The Webby Awards has celebrated inspiring talent and visionary innovation on the Internet,” said David-Michel Davies, Executive Director of The Webby Awards. “This class of 20th Annual Webby Nominees, both veterans and newcomers alike, continues to challenge convention and transform the world in ways we could have only imagined in 1997.”
With virtual reality (VR) tools like Occulus Rift and Google Cardboard reshaping the way people experience and interact with dynamic content online and on their mobile devices, this year’s Webby Awards will recognize excellence and originality in VR across several new categories for the first time. Nominees in these new VR-related categories include The New York Times’ VR series The Displaced, CNN’s VR at the Democratic Debate, Stella Artois’ Buy a Lady a Drink and VRSE’s Walking New York.
From streaming video to podcasts to cutting-edge mobile experiences, 2016 was a banner year for on-the-go content of all kinds. Nominees like the podcasts 99% Invisible, Kara Swisher’s Re/Code Decode and Gimlet Media’s Reply All, along with streaming media platforms like Netflix, Spotify, Pandora, CNNGo and HBO GO, have established new ways to deliver always-on content to consumers who not only crave it, but demand it.
Webby Nominees include some of the world’s most entertaining and viral videos and online series to hit the Internet this year, including Mashable’s Fight Club for Kids, Funny or Die’s Dennis Quaid’s On-Set Freak Out, R/GA’s Tracy Morgan in a Christmas Video, Jimmy Kimmel’s I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy and The Late Late Show’s wildly popular Carpool Karaoke.
This year’s Nominees also highlight the age-old tug-of-war between old media and new media, with legacy standard-bearers like The New York Times, National Geographic, 60 Minutes and The New Yorker going to head-to-head with newer media platforms like VICE Media, Quartz, Refinery29, Mic Network and Well+Good, vying for the best websites, mobile apps and online videos.
Many of the Online ads nominated in the Interactive Advertising and Media category received millions of YouTube views and social media shares, including Love Has No Labels (R/GA), Netflix Socks (Deeplocal), Kids Read Mean Tweets (john st.) and Straight Outta (R/GA).
This year’s Webby Awards received nearly 13,000 entries from all 50 U.S. states and more than 70 countries worldwide. From the thousands of global entries submitted to The Webby Awards, less than 8% were selected as Nominees. The organizations that earned the highest number of nominations this year include VICE Media (16), National Geographic (14), VRSE.Works (12), Google (11), HBO (10), The New York Times (10), Refinery29 (8), Guardian News & Media (8), CNN (7), PBS (7), CBS Interactive (6), CollegeHumor (6), Onion, Inc (6) and Team COCO Digital (5).
Winners will be celebrated at a special ceremony held at Cipriani Wall Street on Monday, May 16, 2016. This year’s show will be available on demand at webbyawards.com the morning of Tuesday, May 17 and 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.
Deloitte 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://pv.webbyawards.com.
20th Annual Webby Nominee Highlights:
Animals (Social)
– Catstacam
– Doug the Pug
– Goats of Anarchy
– Jimmy the Bull
– National Geographic Social Media
Best Overall Social Presence (Social)
– CNN’s Social Media
– Game of Thrones
– Mashable
– NASA Social Media
– The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon
Best Podcast (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– Reply All
– Stuff You Should Know
– 99% Invisible
– The New Yorker’s Podcasts
– Re/code Decode with Kara Swisher
Best Use of Mobile Camera (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– GIPHY CAM
– musical.ly
– Splice
– Heads Up!
– Layout
Best Web Personality/Host (Online Film & Video)
– Tyler Oakley
– Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
– The Slow Mo Guys
– Kid President
– Carmelo Anthony
Celebrity/Fan (Websites)
– U2.com
– One Direction: Made in the A.M.
– Team Coco
– ellentv.com
– Kendall Jenner
Comedy: Individual Short or Episode (Online Film & Video)
– Anaconda – The Education Version (with Nicki Minaj)
– Go to College Music Video (with First Lady Michelle Obama)
– Dennis Quaid’s On-Set Freak Out: The Full Video
– Fight Club for Kids (with Chuck Palahniuk)
– Trumptastic Voyage (The Simpsons)
Comedy: Long Form or Series (Online Film & Video)
– If Google Was a Guy
– Comedians in Cars Getting Coffee
– Billy on the Street with First Lady Michelle Obama
– Celebrities Read Mean Tweets #9 (Jimmy Kimmel Live)
– Epic Rap Battles of History
Culture & Lifestyle (Social)
– Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s Instagram Account
– MoMA Instagram
– Refinery29 Facebook
– Tastemade Snapchat Discover
– The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s Instagram Account
Entertainment (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– Star Wars app
– Marvel Unlimited
– Saturday Night Live app
– The A-Z of YouTube: Celebrating 10 Years
– Phallania
Events (Social)
– Coders vs. Cancer
– #RugbyBattle
– Instaconcert
– The 69th Annual Tony Awards: An Integrated Digital Experience
– The 16th Annual Latin GRAMMY Awards – Social Media Celebration
Fashion & Beauty (Social)
– #MINDFCUK
– Madewell Social Media
– Kiehl’s Act Any Age
– Lilly Pulitzer for Target
– W Magazine
Games (Mobile Sites & Apps)
– You Must Build a Boat
– Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes
– Vainglory
– Her Story
– Two Dots
Humor (Websites)
– Cracked.com
– Funny or Die
– John Oliver – Leap Second
– ClickHole
– The Onion
Media Streaming (Websites)
– 92Y On Demand
– TED
– HBO NOW
– PBS.org
– Pluto TV
Music (Websites)
– triple j Hottest 100
– Inside Abbey Road
– Pitchfork
– Spotify – Year in Music 2015
– Beyoncé – Official Site
News (Websites)
– CNN.com
– The Guardian
– Quartz
– The Intercept
– NYTimes.com
Public Service & Activism (Social)
– Hurts Me Too
– I Am A Witness
– Kids Read Mean Tweets
– #nofilter campaign
– MTV’s Look Different campaign
Sports (Social)
– Wall of Jordan
– NHL #MyPlayoffsMoment
– #SendBadLuck
– Wimbledon 2015: Sharing the Moments that Matter
– Gamedayplus
Virtual Reality: Gaming, Interactive or Real-Time (Online Film & Video)
– Cardboard Crash VR for Google Cardboard
– Insidious Chapter 3: Into the Further
– House on Hallow Hill
– William Hill: Get in the Race
– The Neymar Jr. Effect
Weird (Websites)
– Adventure Cats
– Emoji Party
– Run Wars
– 2 Kinds of People
– National Corndog Day
Find The Webby Awards Online:
Website: www.webbyawards.com
Facebook: Facebook.com/TheWebbyAwards
Snapchat: TheWebbyAwards
Twitter: @TheWebbyAwards
YouTube: www.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 award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, Advertising & Media, Online Film & Video, Mobile Sites & Apps and Social. Established in 1996, The Webby Awards received nearly 13,000 entries from all 50 states and over 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: Xfinity, Google, Vitamin T, YouTube, Adformatie, Advertising Age, Code and Theory, Cool Hunting, Creativepool, Digiday, FITC, Internet Week New York, It’s Nice That, Mashable, Mobile Marketing Association, Moleskine, Ninja Marketing, Northside Festival, NUMA, Social Media Week, SoDA, Springwise, Taste Talks, The Drum, The Guardian News Media, The Hollywood Reporter, Tube Filter and VentureBeat.