DDB gets most nominations at Webby Awards 2012

DDB, Sweden’s Akestam Holst, BBH Advertising, and Wieden+Kennedy among top honored agencies in contention for Webby Agency of the Year, with DDB leading with 12 nominations.

For Webby Agency of the Year compete also BBH (9), Wieden+Kennedy (9) and Akestam Holst (8), Hello Monday (6), AKQA (5), R/GA (5), BBDO (5), Saatchi & Saatchi (5), 72andSunny (4), Pereria & O’Dell (4), and Tribal DDB (4).

The judges that will decide the winners are R/GA’s Bob Greenberg, AKQA’s Rei Inamoto, and Benjamin Palmer of The Barbarian Group. Also, starting April 10th until April 26th, the global advertising industry will also help decide who takes home coveted Webbys in interactive advertising by voting in The Webby People’s Voice Awards.

Besides the agencies, among the nominees are names like Spotify, HBO GO, 106 & Park, Google+, Funny or Die and Pinterest. The judges that will select the winners are Twitter co-founder Biz Stone, Musician David Bowie and Instagram founder Kevin Systrom. Also, the public has until April 26th to vote on The Webby People’s Voice Awards.

IADAS also announced nominees for the inaugural People’s Special Achievement Webby for Social Change, honoring important Internet work that played an integral role in advancing and organizing the masses in 2011’s sociopolitical climate. This year’s nominees are Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, Kiva, and Change.org. The winner will be selected by the online public as part of Webby People’s Voice voting.

Leading news and media organizations such as NPR (9 nominations), The New York Times (8 nominations), and The New Yorker (7 nominations) also earned multiple nods for their online content and mobile applications. Other news brands with multiple nominations in the Mobile Web category include National Geographic (5) and Wired Magazine (4), illustrating the growing importance of the mobile device as a tool for news distribution.

Winners will be announced May 1st and the awards ceremony will take place on May 21st, in New York City.

During the Gala, winners will give the already famous Webby 5-Word Speeches in tradition of past victors like Anna Wintour (“Sometimes geeks can be chic”) and Angry Birds (“Stay angry, get those pigs!”). The show will be hosted by critically-acclaimed stand-up comedian, writer and actor Patton Oswalt and streamed live in HD at Webbyawards.com.

Hailed as the “Internet’s highest honor” by The New York Times, The Webby Awards is the leading international award honoring excellence on the Internet, including Websites, interactive advertising & media, online film & video, and mobile & apps.

Established in 1996, The 16th Annual Webby Awards received nearly 10,000 entries from all 50 states and over 60 countries worldwide. The Webby Awards is presented by The International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS) and has among its sponsors and partners Yahoo!, Vitamin T, MLB Advanced Media, Rackspace Hosting, JWT, The Atom Group, Financial Times, BuzzFeed, PricewaterhouseCoopers, and Guardian News and Media.

The full list of nominees is awailable on Webby Awards website.