The Mobi Awards 2011 winners, with videos and case studies

Mobi Awards

• Founded: 2009
• Organized by: DIGIDAY
• Deadline for entries: July 29, 2011.
• Early-bird deadline: June 30, 2011.
• Entry fee: US $195 if you submit by June 30, thereafter US $295.
• Finalists announced: August 24, 2011… They are all below, with video case studies.
• Winners announced: September 21, 2011, at the Mobi Awards Gala in New York City.
• mobiThinking verdict: The Mobi Awards attracts a good caliber of participant. In common with many mobile awards, entries tend to be dominated by smartphone apps, often only for the iPhone/iPad platform.
There’s an in-depth report on each of the winners and finalists – as good as those provided at Cannes – but these are only available for a limited time to non-subscribers. All awards should provide details of each campaign – not only do such reports provide excellent publicity for the winners/finalists, and help educate the rest of us to the DNA of an award-winning campaign, but also adds to the authenticity of the competition – i.e. you can judge for yourself if they are worthy winners.

Message to the finalists: Congratulations. Please send us a link to a video, case study or other details of your campaign or service to: editor (at) mobiThinking.com.

Guide to mobile awards: MMA Global AwardsWorld Summit Mobile AwardsCannes LionsEMMAs.
How to create an award-winning mobile campaign – with top tips from mobile awards judges.

The 2011 Mobi Awards Winners and Finalists

Best in show
Winner: HBO GO multi-platform TV on demand / Huge • News • Details of entry
Facing stiff competition from streaming video providers Netflix and Hulu, HBO approached HUGE to plan and bring to market a suite of applications that would allow users access to the complete library of acclaimed HBO content through an interface that delivered the feel of the HBO experience. HBO had previously developed HBO Go as an on demand service that existed solely on HBOGO.com. HUGE’s development of the HBO Go app aimed to harness the vibrant content of HBO to deliver a truly unique and seamless digital experience on the iPad, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android.

Best Mobile/Social-Integrated Campaign
Winner: Top Chef / Bravo • App • Details of entry
For the latest season of Top Chef, Bravo used social TV to drive engagement and on-air viewing. It was Top Chef All Stars, with the favorite chefs from previous seasons coming back to compete to take home the ultimate title of Top Chef. This was a fully Transmedia play – with the storytelling being driven across multiple platforms and rewards and sponsorship integrated throughout.
Runner up: Century 21 We City campaign / Appssavvy / Mullen • Details of entry
Runner up: Bravo / Real Housewives • Details of entry

Best Location-Based Campaign
Winner: The Expendables Foursquare campaign (Lionsgate) / Initiative • Details of entry
Using the popular mobile geo-location platform Foursquare, Initiative created a mobile campaign to engage Expendables fans on a local platform around “bad ass” places to go in cities domestically.
Runner up: Kimberly-Clark Disney Pixar Cars 2 campaign at Walmart / CheckPoints • Details of entry
Runner up: Arby’s campaign / CheckPoints / Initiative • Details of entry

Best-Integrated Mobile/Cross-Media Campaign
Winner: GOL Airlines / Grupo.Mobi / AlmapBBDO • Case study • Video • Details of entry • Agency profile
Gol Airlines needed to communicate a new service. Now passengers can make earlier check-in via iPhone or cellphone. Grupo.Mobi created an ad that gives you a flying experience on the web. You had to type in your cellphone number on the banner. Then you received a call and a voice gave you the flight instructions. To control Gol’s airplane, you use the numbers on your cellphone as a remote control. You could fly over the company destinations making maneuvers like dives and loops while you checked tickets and special rates. The ad remained on air for 5 days and had an average of 2,500 calls per day.
Runner up: Rolling Stone (Sprint Street to Stage Campaign) / Kargo • Mobile site • Case study • Details of entry
Runner up: Criss Angel: Mindfreak (A&E) / Vibes Media • Case study • Video • Details of entry

Best Mobile Branding Campaign
Winner: Volvo s60 on MLB / Mobext / Media Contacts • Details of entry • Agency profile
Volvo’s sponsorship of the MLB app was a first-of-its kind execution for both brands. At the start of the baseball season and through the month of April, Volvo sponsored a free trial to MLB.TV, one of the top Apple Paid Apps. This allowed users to try out and watch every game live on their device for a month – a service that required a subscription fee of $14.99 per month or $160 for the season. By offering users a sneak preview, Volvo provided real and tangible value to its core audience. And, as a premiere sponsor, Volvo secured premium placement within MLB’s iPhone, iPad and mobile web properties throughout the season.
Runner up: Discovery Channel Storm Chasers / PHD / Medialets • Video • Details of entry
Runner up: Jackass 3D (Paramount) global mobile media campaign / MEC / Millennial Media • video • Details of entry

Best Mobile Creative
Winner: Bing and Decide / Point Reach • Case study • Details of entry
Runner up: Nissan Leaf / TBWA • Video case study • Details of entry
Runner up: Nissan Juke mobile ad / TBWA • Video case study • Details of entry

Best Mobile Website
Winner: Fandango / Trilibis Mobile • Mobile site • Case study • Details of entry
With millions of consumers using the mobile web daily, Fandango wanted to upgrade its mobile Web presence. One of the main goals was to provide an app-like, next-generation user experience to millions of moviegoers who accessed its mobile site on their smartphones. At the same time, Fandango knew that even though it was 2011, not all of its customers have migrated to smartphones, and wanted to offer a consistent, rich and visually appealing user experience to those customers, as well. One of the most popular features is GoNow, which shows what movies are playing nearby within the next hour, with just one click. Another new feature is the paperless Mobile Ticket – a 2D barcode is generated during the mobile checkout, which is scanned by the ticket taker to allow immediate entry to the movie.
Runner up: Asos/ Usablenet • Mobile site • Details of entry
Runner up: Brooks Brothers / Digby • Mobile-optimized site • Case study • Details of entry

Best Location Based Mobile Website
Winner: Expedia / Usablenet • Mobile site • Details of entry
Expedia’s HTML5 enabled mobile site pushes location-aware to the next level by not just showing hotels near a user’s location, but also leverages the phone’s internal GPS to offer travelers the ability to search for hotels with same day vacancies near their physical location. Overall, Expedia’s optimized mobile site is able to leverage location-aware features to deliver more relevant airfare results and hotel information to travelers researching and booking trips on their mobile devices. The mobile site also includes a new photo viewer for hotel images, another crucial addition, as people find the ability to view photos of a hotel very important when deciding which hotel to book. The image gallery is an HTML5 feature that allows people to view images in a very user-friendly way — enabling them to “tap tap zoom”, scroll, and swipe. Other location-based features included in the mobile optimized Expedia.com include push notifications that push offers, recommendations, and other relevant information to the user’s phone based on their location.

Best Mobile Platform Innovation
Winner: Grey’s Anatomy Sync / Team One • Video • Details of entry
Grey’s Anatomy Sync for iPad bridges the gap between the TV and the living room opening up new opportunities for content producers and advertisers to engage with viewers. Built on the Media-Sync content identification and distribution platform, the application utilizes digital watermarks embedded within the audio of a TV program to automatically synchronize a 2nd screen experience on the iPad with the events unfolding on the TV screen.
Runner up: Conduit • Details of entry
Runner up: Mobile.messaging.solutions / Watchpoints • Details of entry

Best Mobile Direct Response Campaign
Winner: PennyTalk Mobile (IDT Telecom) / Mella Media • App • Details of entry
The PennyTalk Mobile campaign combined unique opportunities, high profile sponsorships, and premium inventory with vast amounts of negotiated CPC media. So during the 2010 World Cup, PennyTalk was featured on ESPN’s custom apps and mobile sites alongside only a handful of the biggest brands in the world, including Sony and Coke. The month-long takeover of CNN Mobile’s entire International Section increased the brand’s presence with a targeted audience. Additionally, the PennyTalk brand launched the iAd platform itself in three countries, and implemented some of the most advanced profile-matched targeting to deliver higher-usage consumers. And while PennyTalk’s budgets are healthy, they were not the multiple millions of dollars paid by the largest brands.
Runner up: Waiting for Superman (Participant Media TakePart) / Waterfall Mobile • Case study • Details of entry
Runner up: EBay Mobile / Point Reach • Case study • Details of entry

Best Mobile Promotion for a Product Launch
Winner: HBO GO / PHD • Details of entry
PHD developed a four week mobile campaign with a ubiquitous “Call-to-App” download message. This included placing mobile banners in Ji-Wire’s WiFi finder application and full-page ads in The Daily. Business travelers were targeted at US airports in partnership with JiWire with banners encouraging them to “Watch HBO on You Flight” and a situational ad messaging partnership with Sojern delivered campaign messaging on traveler’s e-tickets prior to their trips. “Entertainment Junkies” were targeted with CPC based mobile banners in entertainment apps via AdMob’s network, together with premium advertising on YouTube, EW.com, ESPN, CBS Sports, and IMDb. After only one week, the HBO GO app recorded over 1MM downloads from iTunes and Android platforms instantly becoming the #1 Entertainment app in iTunes. After four weeks (e.g. the end of the paid portion of our mobile campaign) the GO app had been downloaded over 3MM times.
Runner up: Volvo s60 Sedan / Mobext • Details of entry
Runner up: Microsoft Bing / Point Reach • Case study • Details of entry

iPad / Tablet Advertising Campaign
Winner: White Collar HTML5 campaign (USA Network) / Glow Interactive • Case study • Video • Details of entry
While there has been a lot of buzz about in-app advertising on the iPad for a while now, Glow Interactive was shocked that no one to that point had taken advantage of the number one app out there, the Safari browser. Glow believes that browser-based, rich media on the iPad offers a massive opportunity for advertisers who want to extend dynamic display media into the hands of mobile users on a device that has now reached mass market saturation with over 14 million units sold.
Runner up: Ultimate problem solver (Qwest) ad on Wired (Condé Nast) / McKinney Bowen • Video case study • Details of entry
Runner up: Starbucks What’s Your Signature MTV ad / PHD / Celtra • Details of entry

Best Mobile Agency
Joint winner: Mobext • Agency profile
Joint winner: PHD
Runner up: Hipcricket

Best Mobile Ad Network
Winner: InMobi • Agency profile
Runner up: Greystripe • Agency profile
Runner up: Mojiva • Agency profile

Best Mobile App for Editorial Content
Winner: Diario de Noticias / Controlinveste • App • Video • Details of entry
Diário de Notícias is the oldest newspaper in Portugal, founded 1864. In 2011 we launched the new mobile site, Andrtoid, iPhone, and iPad apps. The app is free to use and download. It’s a news app with breaking news, multimedia galleries (sound, video), related news, news search, as well as weather forecasts, cinemas, pharmacies among other services. All news are sharable to Facebook and Twittter.
Runner up: Bloomberg Businessweek • App • Details of entry
Runner up: 50 Greatest Photographs / National Geographic • App • Details of entry

Best Mobile App for E-commerce / Retail
Winner: Target / Ubermind • App • Details of entry
Runner up: Cabela’s / Digby • App • Details of entry
Runner up: Pao de Acucar Delivery / Grupo.Mobi • Video • Details of entry • Agency profile

Best Mobile App for Advertising/Marketing
Winner: Purina Petometer (Nestlé) / Triad Retail Media • App • Details of entry
In 2011, Nestlé Purina tasked Triad with developing a mobile app to be featured and distributed on their Brand Showcase on Walmart.com (www.walmart.com/purina). The free Petometer mobile app offered pet lovers multi-faceted functions they could use while exercising with their canine friends. By downloading an educational introduction to the app, users were encouraged to try it and continue using it.
Runner up: Bing – Angry Birds / Point Reach • Case Study • Video • Details of entry
Runner up: Nikita: Spy Training / CBS Interactive • App • Video • Details of entry

Best Mobile App for Branded Content
Winner: Ultimate Dinopedia / National Geographic • App • Video • Details of entry
Based on the award-winning NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC KIDS ULTIMATE DINOPEDIA: The Most Complete Dinosaur Reference Ever, this app goes beyond any dinosaur encyclopedia you’ve ever seen.
Runner up: HBO Go / Huge • App • Details of entry
Runner up: Bravo Now • App • Details of entry

Best Mobile App for Social Media
Winner: Bravo / Bravo Now • App • Details of entry
Bravo Now is a first-of-its-kind second screen companion viewing app for mobile and tablets that pushed bonus content sync’d to the program while concurrently encouraging fans to engage with Bravo’lebrities and other fans using Facebook and Twitter. Bravo was the first to launch a co-viewing application and ensured it’s success by cross promoting this latest innovation on-air, online, on mobile and across social media and has been featured in top apps on iTunes several times.
Runner up: 53rd Annual Grammys, Katy Perry Music Mapper / TBWAChiatDay • Case study • Details of entry

Best Location Based App
Winner: National Geographic Society / National Park Maps HD • App • Details of entry
Explore 15 of the top US National Parks with the best collection of trail maps available. National Geographic – THE place for maps – has opened up their best-selling, detailed Trails Illustrated National Parks Maps for download to your favorite Apple device. Plan your trip by browsing the maps and marking places you’d like to see. When visiting, use your iPhone or iPad to help you find your way around the park. A great gift app for your favorite outdoor adventurer, family trip planner or armchair explorer!
Runner up: Imano / Harrods

Best Mobile App OCR, Imaging, Camera
Winner: ScanBiz Mobile Solutions L.P. • App • Details of entry
ScanBizCards Business Card Reader has been described as the Porsche of its category. It is the most accurate scanner on the market – with support for the most languages (22) – but doesn’t just stop at scanning and saving to the address book.
Runner up: ABUKAI • App • Details of entry

Best Mobile App OCR, Imaging, Camera for Marketing/Advertising
Winner: WINNER: Intel 2010 Core Processor Family / Ansible, OMD • Details of entry The campaign evoked the audiences’ competitive nature by presenting them with an iPhone-based scavenger hunt that challenged them to find all of the campaign’s paid and owned media assets in exchange for points, bragging rights, and prizes including a fully loaded Intel laptop. In the first 6 weeks, over 122,000 users registered and launched over 5,000 sessions daily that generated over 16,000 image submissions.

Best Mobile Video
Winner: TV.com / CBS Interactive • App • Details of entry
Runner up: E! News Now / E! Entertainment • App • Details of entry

Best Branded Mobile Game
Winner: Katy Perry Revenge by Bing / Point Reach • Case study • Details of entry
Leveraging the appeal and popularity of Katy Perry and Disney’s Tap Tap Revenge mobile game, Bing sponsored Katy Perry Revenge by Bing. The Bing sponsorship made this normally paid for app available to users for free. The app allowed players to choose from four different Katy Perry inspired themes and gave them advance access to “Firework”, the single off Perry’s No. 1 album, one week prior to its radio debut. The Bing integration allowed users to search for Katy Perry lyrics within the app. Lastly there was a promotional tie-in, where one of the first 1,000 downloaders could win a $1,000 cash prize.


Runners up videos:


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