Facebook Gives Top Creative Awards To Ice Bucket Challenge, Always’ “Like a Girl” Campaigns

Facebook announced its fourth annual creative awards today, giving top honors to two campaigns that didn’t seem like advertising.

The ALS Ice Bucket Challenge and the Always “Like a Girl” campaign each received Facebook’s highest creative honor, the Blue Award. The Ice Bucket Challenge won the Blue for Good award for charitable and nonprofit organizations, after reaching more people than any Facebook event other than the 2014 FIFA World Cup and raising more than $220 million for ALS-related charities. The Always campaign, produced by Leo Burnett, drove home the point that doing something “like a girl” shouldn’t be considered an insult; in fact, sometimes it’s an advantage.

Neither were traditional advertising, which is the point Facebook is emphasizing with its annual creativity awards, timed to coincide with next week’s Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity. The message: the most effective advertising on Facebook and Instagram is unique.

“The way brands build on Facebook and Instagram has evolved from last year, because people have evolved,” Facebook chief creative officer Mark D’Arcy said in a Facebook blog post. “We are building for where people are, not for where they were.”

The winning entries were picked by jury of 18 Facebook and advertising industry executives from a pool of 2,700 submissions from 160 countries. That’s nearly 50% more entries from twice as many countries in years past, Facebook said. And befitting the surge of Facebook video, 70% of the entries were video based.

Here’s the full list of award winners:

Facebook Awards Winners – Blue

• “Like a Girl” — Leo Burnett Toronto, Chicago, London/Holler and Procter & Gamble (USA)
• Ice Bucket Challenge — The ALS Association (USA)

Facebook Awards Winners – Gold

• “Love Has No Labels” Ad Council (R/GA)
• “I Will Want I Want” Under Armour (Droga5)
• KAFA (Leo Burnett Beirut)
• “KissaLot Under the Misletoe” LOT Polish Airlines (DDB&tribal Warszawa)
• “GT Ride – Viral Gaming for Kia” Kia Motors Europe GmbH (LA Red)

Facebook Awards Winners – Silver

• “Band of Brands” Newcastle Brown Ale/Heineken USA (Droga5)
• “New Friend Requests” Kraft Foods (CP+B)
• “Build a GLA on Instagram” Mercedes-Benz USA (Razorfish)
• “Buds for Buds” Anheuser-Busch (Gratafy)
• “Keep Walking Lebanon” Johnnie Walker (Leo Burnett Beirut)

Facebook Awards Winners – Bronze

• “If We Won” Newcastle Brown Ale/Heineken USA (Droga 5)
• “Photoshop Halloween Murder Mystery” Adobe (Edelman Digital)
• Inspirational Business Choir” GoDaddy.com (Barton F. Graf 9000)
• “Hypermade” Lowe’s (BBDO New York)
• “Facebook 1000 to 1” Lexus (Team One USA)
• “Against the Sun” American Film Company (DigitasLBi New York)
• “The Red Cross Connection” Singapore Red Cross (MRM/ MCCANN Singapore)
• “Share it to end it” Cabcy (JWT Singapore/Mirum)
• “The First Post in Braille” Union Nacional de Ciegos del Peru (McCann Lima)
• “Found in Guanabara” Menos 1 Lixo (Staff Brasil)
• “Ghita The Social Shepherd” Vodafone Romania (McCann Erickson Romania)
• “Language of Football” Nike (Razorfish)
• “Fly With Us” Avinor (Creuna AS)