23red and Fully Focused win big at The Drum Content Awards 2018

To highlight danger of high voltage overhead wires, Network Rail created the short film, ‘18’. Through facilitated school workshops, teens helped develop the film so that the final product was one that resonated with the intended audience.

The judging panel selected Network Rail campaign for its brilliant over all campaign. They said: “From the insights, to the strategy and co-creation with their target teen audience, the storyline succeeded in raising awareness of a serious problem – teen injuries on electrified tracks – in a clever, engaging way.”

Along with being highly commended in the Best Branded Content Campaign category, Oath and Mindshare were presented the Chair Award for their work with Crowne Plaza, selected by this year’s chair of the judging panel, David Abraham, chief executive officer of Wonderhood Studios.

The campaign, Downtime: A Comedic Series of Mocumentaries, showed how mixing honesty, empathy and comedy could shift brand perception. Abraham expressed that the campaign pushed the creative boundaries further than any other piece of branded entertainment entered. “Its scope was hugely ambitious hiring top talent and world class writers”, he explained.

“Crucially, the brand played a central and clear role in the communication, a factor that is often lost in branded content. The campaign has performed exceptionally well, with the series generating over 20 million views and a very high dwell time.”

Fever and Now TV got The Walking Dead fans excited about season 8 by bringing the world of walkers and grime music together, which for The Content Awards judging panel, was just the trick to win Best Branded Content Campaign.

Now TV enlisted the help from MC Bugzy Malone to rework the iconic show’s soundtrack, celebrating memorable characters and plot lines to drive fans to the streaming service.

Judge and senior director of enterprise marketing at Adobe, John Watton said that this campaign demonstrated a clever twist on influencer marketing. “Using a musician to construct a new piece of music, instead of straight product endorsement, that was also a recognisable brand extension was smart,” he lauded. “The judges were even more impressed by the audience insights used to drive the campaign strategy. And of course, by the outstanding results.”

The award for Best B2B Content Marketing Strategy/Campaign went to The Health Foundation for The Empathy Museum’s A Mile in My Shoes. This campaign was an immersive experience developed by The Empathy Museum and the Health Foundation, allowing people to step into the shoes of people working in health and social care.

Chairwoman of the Branded Content Marketing Association and member of the judging panel, Patricia Weiss believes that the greatest challenge of the century is to provoke empathy in people.

“This is an original, authentic and meaningful project,” said Weiss. “A rich territory of experiences that amplify the brand values being fully oriented by what is important to the audience and the society.

“Content and experiences like that represents the perfect intersection between the brand purpose and what is really relevant to people. This is what happens when a brand could represent the society and also be a catalyst of a broader conversation that is more people-oriented and less product-oriented, because great stories and experiences are bigger than products and therefore humanize brands.”

Other winners include: Raw London and War Child UK for Best Creative Content Idea Using Video, Drum OMG for Content Marketing Agency of the Year, ESI Media & Kronenbourg 1664 for Best Use of a Content Marketing Platform and Drum OMG and McDonald's for Best Use of Content on a Social Platform.

A full list of the winners can be found here. The awards ceremony took place on November 6 at the Marriott Grosvenor Square Hotel, London. To register your interest for the awards in 2019, click here.

These awards are sponsored by Tubular Labs, UGCA and partnered with BCMA