From strength to strength: looking back on 2018
2018 has been another year of firsts here at We Are Social. We celebrated our first decade in business. Launched our first two dedicated divisions – We Are Social Sport in London and We Are Social Studios, now in four offices across Europe. And we even welcomed Dubai-based Socialize to the family through our first-ever acquisition.
We also opened our first office in Spain with the launch of We Are Social Madrid, and extended our offering in China to now include We Are Social Hong Kong. To top it all off, we’ve even managed to pick up a few new accolades along the way ?
In Milan, the team won a Silver at the Clio Sport Awards earlier this year for their ‘Tender Mr. #NOGOOD’ campaign for Juventus. They also scooped a collective six awards at the ADCI Awards for projects for IKEA, MINI and Lavazza. They also received an Epica Award for the ‘Campaign That Doesn’t Exist’ for Netflix Italy, which aimed to support the political struggles of LGBT+ families around Milan Pride 2018.
Following on the Netflix theme, our team in Sydney also picked up a Bronze Award in the Digital Influencer/Talent category at the Spikes Asia Awards this September for their campaign,’Calling All Will Smiths’.
In New York, the team have taken home a Shorty (Brand Redesign – with audience honours), a Webby (Social Media Campaigns category) and a Gold at the Clios (Use of Social Media to Promote a Program or Series, and Social Media Series or Live Digital Video Content) awards for their ‘Goodbye Spike’ campaign for Paramount Network.
In Munich, the team’s ‘Tower Crane World’ campaign for Liebherr was awarded a Deutschen Preis für Onlinekommunikation – a German Award for Online Communication 2018 – in the Metal and Machines category.
Our team in Paris also had another stellar year, taking home two awards for their ‘Musiciens du Métro’ campaign for RATP, a Grand Prix Stratégies du Brand Content Award as well as a Grand Prix Stratégies du Digital. The team also won three Instahits Awards for RATP’s ‘Printemps de la Poésie’, ‘Axa’s ‘Next Stop’ and ‘Mercure Local Stories’ for Accor and two Grand Prix Stratégies du Brand Content Awards for their work for WWF’s ‘Stop Montagne d’Or’ and FIDH’s ‘I leave Burundi’. The team picked up a Grand Prix Stratégies de l’engagement client for Crédit Agricole’s ‘Trip Choices’ and was awarded by Twitter with a ‘Best of Tweets’ for BNP Paribas ‘Jeu, Set & Gif’.
And finally, in London, our Audi team picked up a Silver Audi Communication Awards – for the second year in a row – for the 2017 film, ‘Believe in the Future of Driving’, at the annual two-day Audi Marketing Conference.
The We Are Social Sport team also scooped three Digiday Content Marketing Awards at the start of the year for ‘Pogba x Stormzy’ (Best Brand/Influencer Collaboration and Best Use of Video) and ‘Tango Squad’ (Most Innovative Use of Content). The team’s ‘ULTRABoost Xeno’ work for adidas Running also won a BIMA Award for ‘Communications and Content: Innovation’ and a Drum Social Buzz Award for ‘Best Retail/E-commerce social media campaign/strategy’.
2018 has been an incredible year. We’ve grown into a family of over 750 across the globe, continued to address how we put diversity and inclusion at the heart of everything we do, and continued to deliver award-winning work which connects brands and people in meaningful ways.
We’re gearing up for what we hope will be an even better 2019, but in the meantime, have a great Christmas and a Happy New Year!
Robin Grant is Global Chairman and Co-Founder of We Are Social
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