Since 1996, The Webby Awards has honored excellence in websites, interactive advertising, online film & video, and mobile & apps. After receiving many emails and requests from the Internet community, we added two new awards for the 16^th Annual Webby Awards to specifically recognize websites and interactive advertising campaigns for best practices in Corporate Social Responsibility.

CSR speaks to the ability of a company to encourage community growth and development, documenting activities and programs that have a positive impact on the environment, consumers, employees and the public sphere. 

We’ve noticed some really great work in Corporate Social Responsibility in recent years, and we featured this concept in our 2010 Webby Talks. There are many brands and companies doing great work in this space, with some very innovative stuff coming from charities.

One we love is Nike’s “Chalkbot” from 2009. The Chalkbot campaign was done for Lance Armstrong’s Livestrong Foundation during the Tour de France. The Nike Chalkbot was a purpose-built machine that took messages from spectators around the world via text messages and Tweets, and sprayed them in yellow chalk on the French roads of the Tour for all to see. The reason why this campaign was so successful is because Nike aligned itself with Livestrong Foundation’s captivating message around beating cancer. They built technology to personalize the experience for fans and engaged them in making content that had deep meaning.

Another great example is the partnership between Crate & Barrel and DonorsChoose.org, the customer loyalty program of choice for Crate & Barrel since 2006.  Buy merchandise and simultaneously donate to the charity of your choice.  Crate & Barrel engaged their customers around something meaningful, using DonorsChoose.org to personalize the standard “10% goes to charity” (Crate & Barrel increased customer satisfaction by nearly 15%). To date, Crate & Barrel has distributed more than 1.1 million co-branded gift cards to customers across the U.S., resulting in 14,500 funded projects benefiting 347,000 students. They have introduced over 36,000 new donors to DonorsChoose.org, with thousands of these individuals returning to the site and collectively giving $434,000 to support classroom projects.

What’s most interesting here is that charities don’t have big media budgets, and never have.  But what they have always had is a great message that people can relate to and care about.  And they have always been good storytellers. When you couple a good story with the power of the Internet, and a relatively low-cost and easy to implement technology, charities find their sweet spot, and that’s where all that great work comes into play.

Brands, too are experimenting in this space. They’re realizing that talking about promotions and selling their products in social media just isn’t interesting enough. What works on TV doesn’t always translate to the Web (because people need more to interact with online). They want to talk about things they care about.

Pepsi’s Refresh Campaign is one of the biggest and most well-known social good campaigns out there. Refresh is a great example of a brand aligning with a bigger message and not relying on just their products to have conversations and interactions with consumers. Suddenly Pepsi‘s talking about enabling blind children to play soccer (and what that could mean for the blind), instead of about soda.

Established in 1996 during the web's infancy, the Webby Awards are presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 1000+ member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals. The final deadline to enter work for consideration in the 16^th Annual Webby Awards is Friday, January 27, 2012. For more information or submit, please visit www.webbyawards.com.

The Webby Awards

The Webby Awards

The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet. Established in 1996 during the Web's infancy, The Webbys is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences, which includes an Executive 1,000-member body of leading Web experts, business figures, luminaries, visionaries and creative celebrities, and Associate Members who are former Webby Award Winners and Nominees and other Internet professionals.

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