The inaugural Influencer Marketing Awards (IMAs) welcomed over 270 representatives from leading brands, agencies and tech platforms under one roof at the Sheraton Grand London Park Lane to reward the very best influencer marketing campaigns, tech, and agencies and celebrate creativity, innovation, strategic thinking and success across all sectors of the influencer marketing industry.
The esteemed judges were astounded by the quality of entries from across the globe, which was recognised in the standard of the winning campaigns last night. Only when deserved, a Bronze, Silver and the all-important Gold were rewarded for each of the 24 categories.
The full list of 2019 winners can be viewed in the official IMA Book of the Night but here are some highlights.
Performance marketing entering the influencer space
“What was very clear is that whilst influencer marketing works well for reach, it’s also increasingly being adopted as part of a grown-up, joined-up, integrated marketing campaign,” said Matthew Wood, founder of the Influencer Marketing Awards, in the event’s welcome speech.
It was also clear from the high-quality award entries that more performance marketers are entering the influencer space, with the likes of CJ Affiliate by Conversant, Rakuten Marketing and Awin all putting forward their campaigns this year.
Who won gold?
The Vertical Awards covered the best campaigns with categories such as Food & Drink, Travel, Telecoms, Health and Beauty, to name a few. Ogilvy claimed three awards, two for its work with MediaCom for Boots Beauty Festival, winning Best Beauty Campaign and Best Integrated Influencer Marketing Campaign (multi-channel), and a third for its work with ŠKODA for their ‘#ThisIsOurTime’ campaign.
MSL UK scored a hat trick for its ‘#BehindCarDoors’ campaign with Renault, taking home Best Family & Parenting Campaign and Most Effective Collaboration or Partnership, in addition to the final award of the night – the coveted Grand Prix. This is awarded by the judges to the ‘best of the best’, the ‘crème de la crème’ of the influencer marketing space, with one judge expressing that “running a year-long marketing campaign to change consumers’ perspective is probably one of the most genius ideas I’ve seen executed.”
Later on, Kairos Esports for KFC Gaming, UK Launch was crowned Most Effective Campaign for ROI, whilst Pfizer Vaccines UK & BCW collected the Best Use of Data trophy for their work on the ‘#24YouHaveThePower’ campaign.
The awards also celebrated the best technology behind these campaigns as well as the agencies themselves. Traackr secured two Technology awards for Best Campaign Planning & Management Tool and Best Influencer Discovery Tool. Takumi was awarded Best Relationship Management Tool. Meanwhile, on the agency side, Viral Talent won Best Talent Agency, Reach Agency was named Best Boutique Influencer Marketing, and Viral Nation scooped Best Large Influencer Marketing Agency.
Towards the end of the night, the much-anticipated industry-voted rising star and industry choice of technology or SaaS were announced. Tagger was a worthy winner of the Industry Choice of Technology or SaaS, having transformed the way traditional influencer marketing campaigns are run, with voters impressed with its “extensive database” of more than 2.5 million global influencers. The Goat Agency’s Alex Burgess sealed the Rising Star victory, following praise from his colleagues as he “goes beyond challenging traditional media buyers to new realms influencer marketing possibilities.”
To learn why the winners won, and how to claim gold next year, download the official Book of the Night.
Enjoyed the IMAs?
“I would like to say a huge congratulations to all of our finalists and winners on the night, and we look forward to welcoming you all to the Influencer Marketing Show in October,” Wood continued.
If you enjoyed the Influencer Marketing Awards, you’ll most likely want to be at the Influencer Marketing Show in October, which will see the IMA winners and industry elite gather for two days of insightful discussions from expert speakers, network with the best in the industry and take actionable insights back to the office.