2000: John West – Bear

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One of the most forwarded videos ever, Leo Burnett’s ad featuring a kickboxing Kodiac bear arguably marked the birth of viral marketing.

Agency: Leo Burnett

Nominated by: Gareth Jones & Jimmy Maymann

2001: Agent Provocateur feat. Kylie Minogue – Proof

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Kylie Minogue rides a velvet bucking bronco wearing nothing but lingerie from Agent Provocateur. This video was originally meant for a cinema audience, but after being judged too explicit it went viral and started spreading aggressively throughout the internet.

Agency: CDP-Travissully

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2001: BMW Films – The Hire

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The term branded content really took hold as a new marketing technique in 2001, when The Hire was produced and distributed. It featured a series of short films by Hollywood "A-List" directors, with the BMW car as the real star of the action. A true game changer!

Agency: Fallon Minneapolis

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2002: Nikefootball.com – Secret tournament

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When Nike do things, they do them properly. 24 stars, 8 teams, one winner. The secret tournament lead Nike to an impressive win over the advertising competition at the World Cup in 2002, with online as a core element.

Agency: FramFab

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2002 US Army - Americas army game

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The game was developed by Col. Wardynski who recognised that a video game might be helpful to the U.S. Army in the strategic communication efforts of recruitment. Americas Army ranked in the top 10 FPS (First Person Shooter) games every year from 2002 to 2008, as tracked by GameSpy. It has been criticised for being TOO effective at drawing young Americans to the army.

Agency: Secret Level

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2003: Coca-Cola - Foot Bag

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This animated gif featuring the Keep Britain Tidy character kicking a football on the side of a Coke can is one of the simplest and most compelling pieces of digital marketing ever created.

Agency: AgenciaClick

Nominated by: Gareth Jones

2003: Trojan - Trojan Games

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To launch Trojan Condoms in the United Kingdom, the company launched the "official" web site for the so-called "Trojan Games". The campaign won Gold Lion at the 51st International Advertising Festival in Cannes and the videos have been viewed around 40 million times.

Agency: Adventa LOWE

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2003: Orange - Orange Wednesdays

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Have your cellphone, your broadband or your mobile wireless with Orange and get 2 for 1 on cinema tickets every Wednesday. It’s that simple. One of the longest running and most successful marketing campaigns in the UK.

Agency: Fallon London

Nominated by: Martin Bailie

2004: Burger King - Subserviant Chicken

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A man in a chicken suit willing to do whatever you tell him: what’s not to like? This is undoubtedly one of the most memorable campaigns of all time.

Agency: Crispin Porter & Bogusky

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2004: Google - Gmail April's fool and viral invites

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Google already had a history of April fool’s jokes, so when the company used the occasion to launch their new mail service with incredible capacity bloggers didn’t really know which leg to stand on – but they knew that had to write about it. Add invitation only and you have Gmail’s success in a nutshell.

Agency: N/A

Nominated by: Martin Bailie

2005: Lynx - Tickle

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Boys like to tickle a girl with a feather and watch her giggle. So has it always been, and so will it always be.

Agency: Dare Digital

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2006: Marc Ecko – Still Free

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The best virals usually lead to massive attention and, in some cases, controversy and outrage – this is no exception. Marc Ecko filmed a session of himself “tagging” Air Force One and used the following hype to explain why.

Agency: Smuggler

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2006: Dove – Evolution

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A great example of a corporate brand using the web to gain the trust of consumers. Taking internet users behind the scenes of the fashion industry allowed Dove to occupy the moral high ground, no mean feat I think you’ll agree!

Agency: Ogilvy Toronto

Nominated by: Gareth Jones

2006: Eepybird.com - Mentos + Diet Coke experiments

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This campaign was never planned, neither by The Coca Cola Company nor Mentos. It started out as an experiment by Eepybird. A qualified guess would be that more than 60 million people have seen the clips that made Eepybird, Coke and Mentos internet stars.

Agency: Fritz Grobe & Stephen Voltz (user generated)

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2006: Blendtec – Will it blend

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Some people and marketing campaigns succeed in life against all odds. Tom Dickson and Blendtec are two great examples. 90 videos and 100 million views later he, Blendtec and “will it blend” are forever part of internet history.

Agency: N/A

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2006: Mini - Ave a word

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Regularly voted one of the best rich viral marketing experiences - pushed interactive video to filmic quality and engaged users in personalising and sharing directly with friends.

Agency: Glue

Nominated by: Martin Bailie

2006: Nike – Nike+

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One of the first modern branded utilities, Nike+ has gone further than any piece of advertising ever could in allowing the sports brand to embed itself in the lives of its consumers. This undoubtedly represents the future of marketing.

Agency: R/GA

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann & Gareth Jones

2007: IKEA – Dream Kitchen

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Take something as simple as a website, a thing that has been around for more than a decade. Then reinvent it completely, playing with form rather than content.

Agency: Forsman & Bodenfors

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2007: Diesel – Heidis 15mb of fame

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Heidis was all the reason Diesel usually succeeds. Doing something the others wouldn’t dare and doing it in a way that is highly surprising – and very sexy.

Agency: farfar

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2007: Scandinavia Online - Sol Comments

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A simple and devastatingly effective concept - banner ads that sit on news sites are updated in real-time by copywriters who constantly scribble down their thoughts.

Agency: Mediafront

Nominated by: Gareth Jones

2007: Quiksilver – Dynamite surfing

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Dynamite surfing quickly spread to 90-95% of all surf sites in the world, took the web by storm and did more to promote the brand than all their other advertising combined. Even today, Dynamite Surfing is an internet-meme.

Agency: Adventa LOWE

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2007: Nike feat. Ronaldinho – Touch of Gold

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Watch as Ronaldinho takes delivery of a new pair of boots and spends over two minutes demonstrating the most amazing football skills the internet has ever seen, making fake/real a classic viral theme in the years that followed.

Agency: FramFab

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2007: Emirates – Non Stop Fernando

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This ‘endurance ad’ promoting non-stop flights from Dubai to Sao Paulo saw Brazilian Fernando Ferreira talk non-stop for 14 hours and 40 minutes about his home town. No breaks, no cuts, no edits, no cheats, no compromise.

Agency: Lean Mean Fighting Machine

Nominated by: Gareth Jones

2008: Nike - Photo ID

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Amazing integration of complex image processing technology with a mobile device - once again Nike pushed the bar for what we expected from a brand.

Agency: AKQA London

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2008: Orange - Internet balloon race

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Online ad campaigns rarely get more creative than a virtual balloon race across thousands of websites. In our opinion Playballoonacy raised the bar in terms of online creativity and innovation.

Agency: Poke

Nominated by: Jason Goodman & Gareth Jones

2008: Skype – Nomad

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One journey, 33 days and a lot of engagement. Did they really get her to do that?

Agency: Albion

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2008: Philips - Carousel

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On the list for making the web more beautiful, amazing and interesting – and for doing it in 21:9. After all it is always better to show than tell.

Agency: Tribal DDB Amsterdam

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2008: Warner Brothers - Why so serious?

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The Dark Knight was at the time of its premiere the most anticipated movie of all time. However, had it not been for “Why so serious?” and the internet, where all the different elements of the campaign came together, we would surely not have been hit by such an intense case of Batmanfobia.

Agency: 42 Entertainment

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2008: Uniqlo - Uniqlock

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The Japanese clothing store Uniqlo has burst onto the scene with a viral widget that features a clock interspersed with a robotic dance. Made me think the brand was uber chic.

Agency: Projector Inc.

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2008: Jewish Council for Education & Research - The Great Schlep

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Every planner and brand strategist in the world can learn from this. Take one key insight, keep it at the core of your campaign idea and execute in a way that engages and entertains people while moving real market share.

Agency: Droga5

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2008: Burger King - Whopper sacrifice

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Delete ten friends and get a free whopper. Eventually removed by Facebook itself. Genius because it tapped into an existing truth - everyone has friends on Facebook you care so little about, you'd swap them for a whopper.

Agency: Porter & Bugusky

Nominated by: Jason Goodman

2008: Cadbury’s - Gorilla

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This was a game-changer in its humour, broad appeal and in showcasing that digital advertising can reach a wider (non-web-centric) audience.

Agency: Fallon London

Nominated by: Hugo Drayton

2008: T-Mobile – Life’s for Sharing

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Flash mobs have been used before, but never taken to such levels as T-mobile did with their life is for sharing campaign. Using internet to recruit, using internet to get it out and using internet to follow up.

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi London

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

2008: Obama’s online campaign

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Barack Obama’s digital campaign was truly game changing. A great use of online advertising, social media and mobile allowed Obama to connect with millions of young, influential voters in a way that will act as a blueprint for all future political campaigns.

Agency: Blue State Digital

Nominated by: Martin Bailie & Gareth Jones

2009: Pringles – interactive ad banner

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The standard MPU banner has been around for more than a decade, so you have to wonder why nobody came up with this before. The more you click it the funnier it becomes.

Agency: Bridge Worldwide

Nominated by: Hugo Drayton

2009: District 9 - I-roll

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An example of one of the many ad formats that have emerged around or in video content. A new creative era has only just begun in the online space.

Agency: Inskin

Nominated by: Hugo Drayton

2009: Nike, Nike Football+

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With the latest edition of football+ it is wrong to say Nike is still advertised on the web. They are powered by it, putting them miles ahead of their competition.

Agency: Unknown

Nominated by: Ajaz Ahmed & Gareth Jones

2009: Fiat - eco:Drive

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Ever hear of an advertising award given to a piece of software that helps drivers save gas at the pumps? Of course not… That’s why we won't praise the software's ability to analyze driver habits, rather the way it established a new kind of relationship between consumer and car, using digital media.

Agency: AKQA London

Nominated by: Ajaz Ahmed

2009: Tourism Queensland - Best Job in the World

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This campaign extended far beyond the web to effectively become the world’s greatest PR stunt – generating more than £50m of equivalent paid-for ad space. Anyone still need convincing of the power of social media? No, I didn’t think so.

Agency: Cummins Nitro

Nominated by: Gareth Jones

2009: Drop the weapons - Choose a different ending

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A great example of how the new medium even now should be inspiring us all to think more out of the box instead of only focusing on what to put in it.

Agency: MCBD, MediaCom

Nominated by: Jimmy Maymann

Biographies

Hugo Drayton

Hugo was recently appointed CEO role at InSkin Media, the innovative video and rich media advertising platform. He spent the past 2 years as CEO of digital behavioural targeting company, Phorm. Previously Hugo was European MD at Ad.com and MD of the Telegraph Group, and is chairman of the British Internet Publishers Alliance (BIPA). He is a long-suffering Spurs fan, a motor-biker and cyclist, loves to play tennis and is married to a Blanca, with whom he has 3 children.

Gareth Jones

Gareth Jones is a leading UK digital expert, having been a journalist covering the sector for the last decade. Gareth is currently Editor of Haymarket's Revolution magazine, a leading print and online business magazine title specialising in digital marketing. Prior to joining Revolution, Gareth worked at Marketing, where he was the title's first Digital Editor. Gareth has also held senior editorial positions at New Media Age and MediaTel. He began his career as a broadcast journalist making programmes for BBC Radio 4.

Jason Goodman

Founder of creative and digital agency Albion. Jason has grown Albion from a 4 person show to a business of 55 people in Shoreditch, London working internationally with Clients including Innocent Drinks, Gumtree, Skype, Air New Zealand, Absolute Radio, Be & Betfair.

Jason is a graduate from Cambridge University and he started his first business in 1996 when he co-founded interactive marketing agency BMP Interaction. Jason led interactive strategies for Volkswagen, CGNU, Unilever’s Pot Noodle, winning industry awards from New Media Age, Media Week and D&AD. A ‘face to watch’ in Business Age, Campaign’s A list, and Media Week’s review of digital marketing talent. Jason merged BMP interaction into what is now Tribal DDB Europe where he was COO Europe.

Jason was on Seedcamp’s founding board.

Martin Bailie

Following a busy but impoverished few years as a professional theatre director, working in the US and the UK, Martin sought out a wage in 1996. Working in PR at the BBC and BBC Worldwide he developed digital marketing experiments that led to the formation of one of the first digital marketing agencies in the UK, specialising in the Arts, Media and Charity sectors.

He joined glue as a founding partner in 2000. As Head of Planning, Martin oversees all of glue’s strategic output, including the growth of the agency from a digital specialist to one that increasingly places digital at the heart of a through the line approach. Clients include 3 mobile, Bacardi global, Nokia, the Green Party and the RBS group. Martin is a regular at conferences, a lecturer at ISBA and IDM training courses, a council member of the IPA Strategy Group, a committee member of the Account Planning Group and is a Fellow of the Institute of Direct Marketing.

glue have been voted New Media Age’s Most Respected Agency four years running, have been the most awarded UK Digital Agency for the past couple of years, and are a regularly in the Top Ten most awarded agencies globally according to the Gunn report. To their great pride they secured a place in the Sunday Times’ Top 100 Small Companies to work for, for two years running.

Ajaz Ahmed

Ajaz co-founded AKQA and is the company's Chairman, working with clients to develop new product ideas, identify trends, insights and opportunities. One of the world's most-awarded agencies, AKQA has been named Agency of the Year nine times, "most respected agency" twice and is also the only agency to hold the Agency of the Year title in the UK and the USA at the same time, three years running. A recognized pioneer and innovator, Ajaz won the Advertising Age and Forbes Media Innovator of the Year award. He is a Reviewer for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He received an honorary doctorate from Oxford Brookes University and was a mentor for students at Said Business School, University of Oxford.

He has been appointed to the Institute of Contemporary Arts council, a fellow of The Royal Society for the encouragement of Arts, Manufactures & Commerce, and the China Advertising. Ajaz co-Authored 'Made in AKQA: Ideas Volume 1', the agency's award-winning first book, the proceeds of which went to the Prince's Trust and NSPCC.

Jimmy Maymann

Jimmy Maymann has 15 years of managerial experience within advertising, marketing and new media, now as CEO/chairman for goviral, specialists in branded content distribution, which he co-founded in 2005. His career stated with the establishment of the Internet consulting business Neo Ideo in 1995, where he served as the CEO until it was sold to Leo Burnett in 2001. He continued as strategic director in Leo Burnett. In 2004 he moved to Arc Worldwide, as a Global Discipline Head overseeing global accounts and developing new competences in emerging media. Jimmy has a Master in International Marketing and an Executive MBA from London Business School and he is a “regular” speaker at the Cannes Lions – presenting at the conference in 2007, 2008 and 2009.