The Summary

Media: Photos only
Winners Chosen By: Public, Panel of VIP Judges

The Oly Awards were created by Adhack, to celebrate the best of brand advertising during the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games. A Flickr group, several photowalks near the Olympic venues and a Strutta photo contest comprised the low-cost, highly interactive campaign.

The Execution

From February 12 to 28, The Oly Awards collected crowdsourced photo submissions of advertising associated with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympic Games (from official Olympic partners, and "unofficial" advertisers as well) on the popular photo-sharing website Flickr.

Adhack CEO James Sherrett wanted to guage the interest in the idea before proceeding with a contest. They met and exceeded the targets that they set for themselves: 50 photographers and over 500 photographs in just over a week. In the end, more than 85 photographers contributed 800+ photos of Olympic-related advertising campaigns.

The second phase involved using Strutta to determine the public and VIP panel of judges' picks for the best advertising execution at the Olympics. Marketing representative Janis Behan led several photowalks in Vancouver, and rallied photographers to submit photos.

The Adhack team also set goals for the photo contest. They wanted to have over 100 of the best photgraphs entered in the contest before the start of judging, and once again they met their targets in a very short time.

A "Pro" Strutta account was used, and Adhack provided their own design and administration.

The end of the campaign was an awards "show" featuring Behan and Sherrett:

The End Game

The contest was designed to measure a number of different metrics that are relevant to Adhack and its community. First, the level of participation around the Olympic advertising and Flickr photo group was measured and considered before proceeding with the contest. During the contest, the number of submissions, votes, comments and feedback were considered. Judges were also given an extensive evaluation form, where they rated the leading brands selected during the public voting round.

The contest was a success on several levels. Adhack community participation numbers were way up, and the Adhack concept was exposed to a large number of new creatives and ad agencies by way of the campaign. Adhack even received thanks and feedback from many of the brands they were evaluating: both official Olympic partners, as well as some of the "unofficial" advertisers as well.

The Analysis

By setting specific goals for the campaign, the Adhack outlined a plan for themselves, and stuck to it. It's important to note that the success of this campaign did not happen automatically. In a testament to the effectiveness of (properly executed) social media and online engagement, Janis rallied community members at every turn - planning photowalks, conversing on Twitter, reaching out and commenting on Flickr, and along with Sherrett publishing several blog posts and videos during the 17 day campaign.

Additionally, Adhack was anything but shy about letting people know what the campaign was about. As a footer to most of the blog posts and campaign announcements, they ran this call to action:

Want to talk about how crowdsourcing and creativity can help your brand?

AdHack works with agencies and brands big and small to put crowdsourcing to work for them.

• Call us: 1-877-477-5697
• Email us: sales@adhack.com
• Get the full AdHack contact details.

Do get in touch now and we’ll find the right fit for you.

The Numbers

To boost the awareness of Adhack among the advertising agencies working on the Olympics, the local advertisers trying to ebenfit from Games-related exposure and among creatives, Sherrett decided that by setting goals from the outset, they would drive the success of the campaign. It worked, and introduced Adhack to a number of new prospects, while garnering them plenty of online attention in the process.

Flickr photo pool of Olympic advertising: 88 members, 837 photos to date
Strutta photo contest: 115 photo entries and over 4000 unique views

The Winners

With the help of their expert panel of judges, Adhack selected an overall brand winner, as well as a "Best Photgraph" from among the submissions. Both were presented with a prize of an original piece of artwork from Vancouver artist Rachael Ashe. And the winners are:

Best Brand: Coca-Cola

Best Photograph: Kim Werker

Hudson's Bay Co. Downtown Covered in Its Own Ads - kpwerker on Flickr

If you have questions about running your own photo or video contest, contact us and we'd be happy to help you get started. 1-877-477-5717

Local news cameraman David Newcomb and his brother recently put the finishing touches on this breathtaking time lapse HD video of Vancouver. It features the song "Vancouver City" by Linda Vanzini.

Click here to buy a copy from the production team.

This is the first episode of a new show that we plan to air every Wednesday. FTW will feature some of the newest and greatest contests on Strutta, and will include tips on contest building in future episodes. Episode 1 features our very own Tina and highlights 25at25.ca and WhatAreYouMadeOf.ca.

And it starts with some not-so-timeless dating footage from yesteryear: