What a night…On March 26, the first-ever Influencer Marketing Awards (IMAs) went out with a bang, as over 270 representatives from leading brands, agencies and tech platforms flowed through the doors of Sheraton Grand London Park Lane to celebrate the excellence of the industry’s growth and reward those who are striving to push the industry forward. As a global awards ceremony with no borders, the quality and variety of entries impressed the esteemed judges. This year was the first IMAs and it didn’t disappoint. A night of delicious dining, dancing, networking and all-round celebrations left everyone feeling inspired. Quick-witted, charming and straight-talking comedian Kerry Godliman hosted the evening, bringing plenty of fun and laughter to the table. A welcome speech from Matthew Wood, founder of the Influencer Marketing Awards, kicked the evening off. As the lights went down, the trophies came out. Only when deserved, a Bronze, Silver and the all-important Gold were rewarded for each of the 24 categories.

With the full breakdown of the 2019 winners now revealed and available to view in the Book of the Night, here are some of the highlights.
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Vertical Awards

Competing for titles such as Best Travel Campaign, Best Telecoms, and Best Best Beauty Campaign, the Vertical Awards kicked off the proceedings in a flurry.

The

Best Food & Drink Campaign

was up first. Five entries were shortlisted for but

Pegasus

scooped the award for their work with

Holland and Barrett

on theWonder of Manuka Campaign that reached millions and was a shining example of how influencers can spark change and educate new audiences. Campaigns that mixed integration and creativity with long-term influencer partnerships is a theme that continued throughout the evening and is evidence of the kind of partnerships the industry has been seeing this year.

Pegasus

returned once more to the stage to win

Best Health Campaign

for their work on the Benenox Sleep Campaign. Extensive research and industry insights played a vital role in this efficient campaign, which undertook a clear multi-pronged approach to help build brand recognition and credibility among consumers.  
When it came round to

Best Travel Campaign,

it was a surprise win for

Eindhoven365: AnOther City Trip 2018

. Eindhoven365 tapped into the world of influencers to reach new audiences for the first time to reinvent influencer marketing for urban explorers. By challenging the idea of influencer marketing as we know it, the team created ambassadors by heart and not by contract. This refreshing, fun and interesting campaign took risks but exceeded goals by allowing creativity to excel.Meanwhile,

MSL UK

scooped

Best Family & Parenting Campaign

fortheir work with Renault on the#BehindCarDoorscampaign.

Renault

teamed up with MSL UK to find a way to drive greater relevance with Renault Scénic’s target audience – families. Embarking on a year-long commitment was indeed brave and managing to sustain quality engagement throughout the year was no mean feat.A surprise win for

Best Home & Garden Campaign

came from

Liquid-Plumr / Will it Clog

. Drain openers are not often sought-after home products but that didn’t get in the way of Liquid-Plumr putting together a campaign with

Reach Agency

to showcase the product and inspire consumers, whilst influencers were able to have a more meaningful impact on someone’s life in Pulse Advertising campaign “ELI’s DREAM”for

Deutsche Telekom,

which won

Best Telecoms Campaign.

The awards continued with

Best Sport & Fitness Campaign,

with

ŠKODA

– #ThisIsOurTime claiming gold. On a mission to redress the gender disparity in sports by shining a light on women’s cycling and champion gender parity at all levels,

Ogilvy

and

ŠKODA UK

teamed up with The Telegraph and four elite cycling ambassadors to bring the gender gap into sharper public focus with their #ThisIsOurTime campaign.The next award of the night was

Best Fashion & Style Campaign,

where

Whalar

took to the stage for their work with

NET-A-PORTER

x

JW Anderson

. By putting storytelling at the heart of this never-before-done groundbreaking campaign, five creators captured the inspiration and artistry of JW Anderson’s exclusive capsule collection exquisitely. Then, the most competitive of the vertical awards was the hotly contested

Best Beauty Campaign.

Six deserved companies made it on the shortlist but

Boots UK – Boots Beauty Festival

collected their first trophy of the night

.

The influencer content reached 3.2 million across social channels alone, with an average engagement rate of 4.8% across the target audience. In fact, it was so successful, Boots are planning to turn this into an annual event.
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Technology Awards

It was time to move on to the Technology Awards, identifying just three leaders within the space. First up in the technology awards was

Best Influencer Discovery Tool.

Gold went to

Traackr

, which has the industry’s most comprehensive influencer database. Traackr’s discovery engine provides access to millions of profiles from nano-influencers to global celebrities across 43 countries and 19 languages, which are searchable by content, key metrics, and influencer follower demographics. The

Best Relationship Management Tool

had three shortlisted but taking home the award was

Takumi: Visa Cross Border Campaign.

Takumi’s tool includes a ten-step verification process using a combination of both technology and human insight for influencers in the planning phase of an influencer marketing campaign, enabling Takumi to build a network of verified influencers for Visa. Returning to the limelight was

Traackr

, securing the award for

Best Campaign Planning & Management Tool.

Traackr has continued to penetrate the market over the last year, significantly increasing the number of enterprises customers globally.
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Campaign Awards

Approaching the half-way mark, it was over to the Campaign Awards, which saw five categories up for grabs.

Pfizer Vaccines UK & BCW

scooped

Best Use of Data

for their work on the #24YouHaveThePower Campaign, which saw clever and thoughtful planning, and reliance on data help to successfully communicate to young adults that needed to be aware of the vaccination.The next category was up for much debate amongst the judges. They had a tricky task coming to a conclusion, but the

Most Effective Campaign for ROI

winner went to

Kairos Esports

for

KFC Gaming, UK Launch.

With a high chance of failure, Kairos beat all the odds with strategic research contributing to the high score. Judges praised the “detailed, well-articulated entry” that showcased clear ROI in this tough category. Moving on, the

Renault #BehindCarDoors Campaign

was crowned

Most Effective Collaboration or Partnership

earning judges’ backing for its creativity. Working closely with just two influencers during the brave year-long campaign, the socially optimised creative achieved 48% uplift in ad recall in addition to having attained 1.7 million influencer engagements so far. Among the roster of winners in the Campaign Awards,

Eindhoven365: AnOther City Trip 2018

won gold for

Most Creative Influencer Marketing Campaign

, followed by

IMA

congratulated for

Best Brand Engagement Campaign

for

NIVEA’s #Prepare with NIVEA MEN

digital campaign. Coming to the final Campaign award,

Best Integrated Influencer Marketing Campaign (multi-channel),

it was perhaps a surprise to see

Boots UK – Boots Beauty Festival

taking home their second award of the night. In what the judges praised a “clear winner,” Ogilvy’s influencer-led integrated digital-first event – Boots Beauty Festival – outperformed all expectations.
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Industry Awards

Finally, the industry choice awards were announced to an eager audience, where the IMA judges collated the shortlist and the industry voted their final say on the winner.For this much-anticipated award announcement,

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.  Meanwhile, the crowd was excited to hear theIMA

Rising Star

, a peer-voted award that recognises the successes of young individuals within influencer marketing who are excelling in their area of work.

The Goat Agency’s

Alex Burgess sealed the victory, following praise from his colleagues as he “goes beyond challenging traditional media buyers to new realms influencer marketing possibilities.” Alex is clearly a dedicated, pioneering manager working hard to drive the entire industry forward, leaving no doubt of him being crowned Rising Star.
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Agency Awards

With the awards coming to an end, the last wave of the night came with the Agency Awards, identifying just three categories.

Up first was

Best Talent Agency,

with

Viral Talent

taking home the trophy as the only specialist kidfluencer and family creator agency in the space. This year’s gold winner for

Best Large Influencer Marketing Agency

went to

Viral Nation,

with judges praising the impressive client retention rate of 92% and the current revenue growth rate of 400%.The final award of the night and arguably the most coveted was for

Best Boutique Influencer Marketing

,which saw

Reach Agency

strike gold. The independent, creative influencer agency prides itself on keeping creativity and authenticity at the heart of its strategy.
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Grand Prix

Last but certainly not least was the

Grand Prix

, awarded by the judges to the ‘best of the best’, the ‘crème de la crème’ of the influencer marketing space. Throughout the judging process, judges were told to keep in mind the campaign that stood out to them for its exceptional execution and forward thinking activities. This year,

MSL UK

and

Renault’s

brave ‘#BehindCarDoors’ campaign claimed the coveted title, 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.”On behalf of theInfluencer Marketing Awards, Talking Influence and the Influencer Marketing Show, a huge thank you to all our event sponsors who helped make the ceremony possible. And finally, a huge congratulations to all the esteemed and deserved winners.

To learn why the winners won, and how to claim gold next year, download the official Book of the Night.

Influencer Marketing Awards Book of the Night

Enjoyed the Influencer Marketing Awards?

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 to listen to two days of insightful discussions from expert speakers, network with the best and take actionable insights back to the office.
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