Influencer Marketing Campaigns Recognized in REGGIE Awards

April 2, 2018

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This year, we added Influencer Marketing as the newest category in the REGGIE Awards, recognizing its importance within total brand activation. The discipline represents approximately $130 billion of the estimated $600 billion in total Brand Activation spending (Source: PQ Media), and growing. Recognizing its importance, the ANA recently acquired WOMMA, an association devoted to word-of-mouth and influencer marketing, with plans to bring even more products, services, and thought leadership to marketers in this area.

Marketers also see the importance and impact, reflected in the fact that the Influencer category was one of the most entered and hotly contested in this year's awards. Entries ranged from working with big name celebrities to micro-influencers to social media networks, demonstrating the various types of influencers that can impact a brand. As in successful campaigns leveraging other brand activation disciplines, there's no simple formula for success. The key is to understand your brand and your target and find the right types and mix of influencers that will motivate your consumers to act and grow your brand.

Among the group of entries, three finalists rose to the top after our first two rounds of judging. In alphabetical order by program name:

Interestingly, unlike almost every other category, these winning submissions were not from big, traditional CPG brands. Some of the entries came from that vertical, but this category had one of the most diverse groups of companies and industries among all 24 categories, showing again how key influencer marketing is across the entire industry.

Congrats to Soap & Glory, WestJet, and Comcast, and all the finalists. One of these finalists will be named the Gold winner at the 35th annual REGGIE Award Gala at the ANA Brand Activation Conference, April 16–18 in Chicago, and be eligible for the Super REGGIE award among all Gold winners. I look forward to seeing who comes out on top.

Mike Kaufman is the SVP of the brand activation division at the ANA.

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