We have been receiving various inquires of what types of entries are being submitted to The Bees Awards. Social media is still an emerging market and there are a lot of questions and curiosities revolving around this new medium.

Companies who have submitted entries have the opportunity to have their campaigns be presented as case studies. As you know, it is our goal to set industry standards, and what better way of inspiring you then sharing with you what people are doing!

Our first case study is from 777interactive, an interactive agency based in Tokyo. This is a good example of interaction with the real world and great results for the client. Please note that only the Bees Awards International Jury will have a say on the nominations. 

We invite you to read the campaign below and submit your own work to The Bees Awards - 1st international social media competition for PR, advertising and marketing professionals.  Deadline of entry: October 1, 2010. 

Client:    Lupin Steal Japan Project

Agency: SANKO Partners Inc. / 777interactive (Tokyo, Japan) 

Lupin III - Famous Japan Animation 

Challenge:

Lupin III, the world’s greatest thief, is a popular Japan Animation character created almost 40 years ago. The agency was asked to renew interest and increase recognition of the character, as well as achieving sales goals of Lupin III products.

Strategy:

The client wanted to create buzz. The agency wanted to facilitate the buzz through guerilla advertising on the street by getting fans in existing SNS anime communities involved. News media reporting would then spread the campaign content into regular blogs. At the same time, concurrent as-it-is-happening reporting on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr would spread the word further still.

Fans would recommend which objects to steal in the city. Above, a 3 ton famous statue was announced and stolen by the world's greatest thief. More to see here.

Entry Description:

Phase 1: A website would ask the fan base what to steal in Japan. Phase 2: Lupin III executed the steals (A famous statue, a popular mascot doll, all products in a store, websites, a billboard of Sapporo building, and more). Every steal was announced in advance on late night TV commercial, electronic billboards and reported on social media platforms: YouTube, Mixi, Twitter, Flickr.

Results:

Despite a tiny budget, the campaign created massive information exposure on news channels with 777interactive's crime design and linked PR strategy. 

The result was a viral phenomenon that achieved: 

• Over 40 reports on news media and Yahoo! News. 
• A total of over 3 million official site page views by 700,000 unique users. 
• Over 5,000 downloads of official blog parts
• Over 800 write-ups on regular blogs 
• Over 2,000 comments on SNSs 
• Over 70,000 views of related videos on YouTube.
• TV show rates increased from 12% to 17,6%
• Product sales reached quota

Link for viewing:

http://www.777interactive.jp/awards/2010/lupin/e/index.html

Submit your own work:

Join the celebration and submit your own work to The Bees Awards - 1st international social media competition for PR, advertising and marketing professionals. Deadline of entry: October 1, 2010. 

Submit Entry or Visit Site

Awarding Criteria:

• 3 points for Strategy: Respects and proves clear understanding of the challenge. Provides an efficient and interesting way to respond.
• 3 points for Creativity: Demonstrates innovation, originality, or great elegance in the entry or the campaign.
• 3 points for Fabulous Results: Brings quantitative results (ex: increase of 10% of sales, decrease of customers' complaints by 15%, has 10,000 registrations, etc.) or qualitative results (ex: customers comments, new partnerships, new products, etc). Results will be evaluated considering the size of the market (ex: a successful result in Denmark can show smaller number than an average campaign in the USA).
• 1 point for “Royal Jelly": Ability to inspire the profession.

Other case studies at:

http://beesfeed.posterous.com/63-of-entries-coming-from-large-brands-for-th