Best Advertising Innovation by a Publisher
WINNER: The Weather Company and Digitas for The Weather Channel mobile, table, online and desktop platforms
-CraveOnline for Evolve Media Corp. and Universal McCann LA/Sony for Resident Evil Retribution Theatrical Release
-AdExcite.com and ChaCha for vSlider
Best Branded Content Integration by a Publisher
-The Weather Company for My Friends’ Weather on weather.com
WINNER: Huffington Post Media Group for Cisco Impact
-Buzzfeed and Horizon for Rdio
Best Editorial Achievement by a Publisher
-AOL for TechCrunch: Mark Zuckerberg’s First Interview Post IPO
WINNER: AOL, for Makers.com
-The Weather Company for The Weather Channel Apps for Mobile and Tablet
Best Content Marketing Program
-Alloy Digital and Starcom MediaVest for Chasing with Steve Aoki
-AOL and Invoke for AOL’s Homepage for Heroes
WINNER: IBM, The Digital Influence Group and Skyword for The Midsize Insider
Best Design
-Mashable
WINNER: Quartz
-The Huffington Post for Huffington magazine iPad app
Monetization Technology for a Publisher
-Appssavvy’s Adtivity Platform
-GumGum for Publishers
WINNER: LiveRail Video Private Exchange
Best Publishing Technology Innovation
– JumpTime by OpenX
WINNER: Tynt by 33Across
-Operative and Shift Communications for Operative.One
Best Use of a iPad/Tablet by a Publisher
WINNER: TED Conferences
-The Economist
-Huffington Post Live iPad app
-WebMD Magazine App for Tablet
Best Use of Mobile by a Publisher
WINNER: AOL for Moviefone iPhone
-AccuWeather and Amobee for AccuWeather mobile apps; Amobee Pulse for Publishers
-MedPage Today / Everyday Health Mobile App
-Conduit for Sweet Relief
Best Use of Social Media by a Publisher
-A&E and R/GA for Duck Dynasty
WINNER: BlogHer, Inc. on Pinterest
-XO Group Inc.’s The Knot.com for Hurricane Sandy Facebook Page
Best Use of Video by a Publisher
WINNER: AOL for Makers.com
-Break Media for MadeMan Movember Video
-TED Conferences
Most Disruptive Publishing Technology
WINNER: Adobe for Adobe Digital Publishing Suite
-Gravity
-Quartz, an Atlantic Media publication
Publisher of the Year (Judges’ Choice)
The Atlantic Media Co.
The Atlantic Media Co. has transformed its traditional business to become a digital powerhouse. Indeed, the company saw more than half (59 percent) of its advertising revenue come from digital last year. Beyond taking its flagship magazine, The Atlantic, to new digital heights, the company also dived head-first into mobile publishing with the launch of Quartz, a new business publication aimed at the traveling executive. The media company also develops custom content and believes that its “native” approach is the correct course for the foreseeable future.
WINNER: Vox Media
Vox Media, owners of SB Nation, The Verge and Polygon, brings sports, technology and gaming content under one umbrella. Beefing up its editorial staff on all three sites – -bringing in Rob Neyer, Joshua Topolosky and others — the company is doubling-down on content. Additionally, Vox believes that content should play a starring role in advertising, which is why it’s one of the few media companies that put editorial in its creative services team.
BuzzFeed
BuzzFeed, once the home of cute-animal lists, made a big move to reinvent the publishing model over the past year. It brought in major editorial talent — Politico’s Ben Smith, for example — and recently secured $15.5 million in funding to expand. What’s more, BuzzFeed is pioneering new advertising by eschewing typical ad banners in favor of sponsored content. It’s effect on the industry can be seen far and wide with how many others are copying elements of the BuzzFeed approach.
