Burning Down the House: The Webbies

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by Mallory Dash

We’re a little late on this, but I’m going to try to make up for it with blazingly insightful commentary and the occasional Talking Heads reference. (My God, what have I done?)

Here we go- some of the more notable Webby winners and what we can all learn from them:

• Wired: Best Copy/Writing. Can’t argue with that- And the important thing to take away here (besides hiring brilliant PR people to get you INTO Wired) is that its the content that matters. Wired is renowned for not only its flashy covers, but their great writing and relevant features.
• PostSecret: Best Blog: Cultural/Personal. PS exemplifies the beauty of the web, and the raison-d’etre behind so many personal blogs. People LOVE to overshare (even when they’re Psycho Killers- qu’est-ce que c’est?), and they love to do it anonymously. There is a lesson here: Building a great blog for your business with emotions and real people behind it is the best way to find the human in your customer.
• HEMA: Best Viral Campaign. All’s I gotta say is- if this isn’t the coolest thing you ever saw, then I don’t know what is. If you can build your company an online-based Rube Goldberg machine, have at it. I don’t speak Dutch (Russian? German?) but if I did, I’d be looking for whatever that site was selling.
• TED: Best Podcast. This goes back to the human element of communications- people go to TED to HEAR people tell them important, thought-provoking and inspiring things. Consider teaming up with a prominent podcaster (or better yet, vlogger) to get your product/spokesperson/thought leadership in the eyes AND ears of your target market.
• CNN Mobile: People’s Voice Winner for Best Mobile News. You can’t avoid it anymore- mobile marketing and content delivery are definitely here to stay. If you are lucky strategic enough to get on CNN, then good for you. This just means your content will reach more people in new ways. But in the meantime, and this goes back to marketing via Twitter- you need to perfect your message to a short enough one-liner that will stick with mobile viewers. For an example, check out the “TwitRelease” here.
• Yahoo! Sports: Best Sports Site. This has nothing to do with digital marketing, but I whole-heartedly agree, especially in the fantasy arena. Just saying.
• And of course, the Webby Lifetime Achievement Award went to David Byrne. Apparently Byrne “serves as a vivid role model for musicians and artists of the future on how to merge culture with technology.” That and he’s a total badass.

More on Webby Award winner Stephen Colbert later. While the Webbies ain’t no disco, or CBGB, they certainly were a party.