THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

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From the 8th Annual Shorty Awards

MSNBC Digital Decision 2014 and 2016

Entered in News

Objectives

For MSNBC's audience of political junkies, election season is akin to the the NFL playoffs and an election day itself, the Super Bowl. With that in mind, MSNBC makes a priority of building exciting, interactive digital campaigns to inform, engage, and empower MSNBC's loyal community of passionate progressives.

During the 2014 midterm elections and leading up to the 2016 election, we utilized our digital and social media platforms and proprietary MSNBC.com community tools to offer our community resources to inform, to speak out and share their opinions, and to have our audiences voices heard both online and on air.

http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/shorty-awards-msnbc-digital-decision-2014-and-2016

Strategy and Execution

To engage the audience through third party platforms and MSNBC.com owned community products multiple approaches were employed.

Please click HERE for complete outline of campaigns and strategy details.

A brief review below:

Digital Decision 2014

- Live stream web exclusive programming on MSNBC.com with live audience participation through Twitter Q&A utilizing #MSNBCVote and LIVE hashtag voting with realtime results (through Spredfast display)

-#MSNBCVote campaign asked users to activate and share their voting stories of why they were voting

-Election Twitter Chat Series, connecting audience with MSNBC talent and topic experts in lead up to voting day (participants included Chris Matthews, Chris Hayes, Melissa Harris-Perry, Lawrence O'Donnell, and more)

-Election Twitter Data Dashboard, up to the moment data display showcasing geolocated social media trends and volume data tied to state specific races

-Polls and Quiz series on MSNBC.com, using proprietary product polls and quizzes invited the community to share their opinion in a non threatening setting and test their knowledge

Digital Decision 2016

- Live web stream providing co-viewing "watch party" for first debate of the primary season with live audience participation through Twitter Q&A utilizing #ShiftTheDebate

-BINGO play along cards, digital boards released through MSNBC.com and promoted across social media platforms encouraging audience to play along with Live Stream hosts to highlight notable moments from the debate stage

-LUCKY 7 Debate challenge, tied to first Democratic primary debate in Las Vegas, the game capitalized on the casino favorite challenging the audience to listen for patterns of three in the debate rhetoric.

-Snapchat Challenge, a live scavenger hunt on the Winthrop University campus giving clues away to local participants offering chance to win tickets to the First in the South Democratic Candidates Forum upon successful completion of the challenge. Watch the full challenge.



Results

Please click HERE for complete details.

Over the course of MSNBC's Digital Decision Activations between 2014 and 2015, MSNBC.com saw 24% YOY increase in avg monthly social referral traffic and

Quizzes in the Digital Decision Series received over 42,000 votes

Polls in the Digital Decision Series received over 73,000 votes

The Snapchat challenge was the first of its kind in giving away tickets to an MSNBC moderated election event. Local press coverage:

http://www.heraldonline.com/news/local/article42959409.html

http://www.ibtimes.com/democratic-presidential-candidates-forum-msnbc-how-win-tickets-south-carolina-event-2171805

Students were thrilled at the opportunity to win tickets to the Forum which had sold out nearly immediately when tickets were initial released. While MSNBC had guaranteed only 5 winners, prizes were awarded to 21 students who had accurately completed the scavenger hunt.

Media

Video for MSNBC Digital Decision 2014 and 2016

Entrant Company / Organization Name

MSNBC

Links

Entry Credits