When the onset of COVID shut down the award season, we helped the Andys find a way to let people vote for the “Pop Choice” Award by hacking their Facebook and Instagram accounts.

Before “work from home” was a thing, over the course of 10 days, we found a way to generate excitement using Instagram Stories, stickers, posts, page headers, landing pages, and enlisted the help of influential Jurors to promote the first ever award decided on Instagram Stories.
And it worked.

the Andy Awards "The Pop Choice Andy".
A black check mark arrow pointing downward on a white background.
Screenshots of a mobile app and social media posts related to the ANDYs Awards, including voting instructions, a voting reminder, and a promotional video with a child.

First, we announced the award and the finalists

A black circle with a white wrench icon in the center and the word "NEXT" written in orange below the icon.

We promoted the Pop Choice with organic posts, paid ads and a little help from influential industry peeps.

A woman with short dark hair, green eyes, wearing a white top and red patterned scarf, standing near a window with a cityscape in the background.
A man taking a selfie in front of a mural with a voting sign that includes options 'YES' and 'HELL YES!'
Jayanta Jenkins Andys Pop Choice Award
An Instagram story promoting voting for The Pop Choice Andy, with a gold award statue on a black pedestal, and text indicating voting is on April 24th only on Instagram stories.
Screenshots of a voting app. The first screen shows a pop culture award statue and the text "The pop culture award with the tagline "The time has come: Ready, set... Vote!" The second screen displays a poll with options A through E, including a child wearing headphones, a hiker, a burger, a pair of ceramic animal figurines, and a group of women, with the question "Who wins the Pop Choice ANDY? Vote: A B C D E."

Lastly, we hacked the functionality of the Instagram Stories poll sticker, to create a mechanism for people to vote. Votes were tracked and tabulated by hand, and we announced the winner the next day.

(Take that, AI…)

THE RESULT:

Delivered 367% over the voting goal

Increased reach 271%
over previous year

Drove 1.8m impressions

Press coverage

Screenshot of a news article from Campaign website titled 'Ad Club pulls off Andy Awards in midst of coronavirus crisis' by Lindsay Stein, published on April 13, 2020. The article discusses the Andy Awards event.