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 third case study is from Ressac Media, an agency specialized in social media marketing based in Montreal, Canada. This campaign shows well how the agency was able to leverage relationships with bloggers to maximize the 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:    One Drop (Cirque du Soleil, non-profit foundation)

Agency: Ressac Media (Montreal, Canada) 

Challenge: 

One Drop raises awareness around water issues worldwide. In September 2009, Cirque du Soleil and ONE DROP founder, Guy Laliberté, became Canada’s first private astronaut and went into space to raise awareness of water-related issues and build notoriety for One Drop Foundation.

Strategy: 

Social networks were used to build attention around Laliberté’s space mission and raise support for ONE DROP by engaging with media, brand ambassadors, and audiences on Twitter, Facebook and Youtube. Blogger ambassadors were given exclusive backstage access to the event’s preparation and asked to share their insider’s look online. On D-Day, the agency organized a social media war room to harnessed the excitement online and engage with world audiences in real-time on Twitter and Facebook.

Entry Description:

Agency's community managers engaged with supporters worldwide across multiple platforms such as a customized Youtube brand channel, Twitter feed, Fan Page, mission log blog and a Facebook Live Feed directly integrated to One Drop’s live webcast event. Audiences were also engaged across One Drop Twitter ribbon program, and an international blogger ambassador and PR program deployed through 14 cities across the globe.

Results: 

Overall campaign:

• According to Influence Communication, the media coverage was evaluated at half a billion dollars. 
• One Drop’s mission and global event generated more than three hundred thousand search results on Google alone.
• 878.8 million people may have been exposed to the news in 71 countries. 
• Bloggers where enrolled in 14 international cities as brand ambassadors and embedded journalists during the event. 
• Public relations propelled by social media earned the mission visibility on CNN, Huffington Post, and numerous newspapers, blogs and media across the world. 

During the live webcast: 

• 1 tweet every second
• 1 Facebook update every 2 seconds
• 123 000 simultaneous live streams for 156 countries. 
• Event video generated close to 48 thousand views on Youtube. 

Links for viewing:

• http://www.cnn.com/video/data/2.0/video/tech/2009/10/08/nr.levs.stars.space.clown.cnn.html
• http://communities.canada.com/montrealgazette/blogs/metropolitannews/archive/2009/11/03/35-million-space-journey-parlayed-into-half-billion-dollar-bonanza-lalibert-233.aspx
• http://www.facebook.com/ONE.DROP.Foundation?v=app_7146470109&ref=ts
• http://www.onedrop.org/en/avatar.aspx

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