Friday the 23rd June saw some of Team Hub head off to the EVCOM Screen Awards 2017 - the annual industry awards for live-event and visual communication.
Held at BAFTA and hosted by the BBC's formidable Kirsty Lang, the night started with a combination of excitement and a few nerves. Hub's six-part broadcast series, Pop Up Start Up, for Alibaba.com was nominated in both the Promotion & Sales and Marketing & PR categories.
Having been a judge myself (for categories Hub was not entered in), I was aware the competition was of an extremely high standard. What had struck me most in the weeks before in watching, discussing and judging entries with a panel of my peers was the use of emotion to arresting effect - some entries had my fellow judges and I crying.
Outside Film & TV, visual communication can often be thought of as dry and corporate: talking heads of people in suits. But what is evident, if the EVCOM Screen Awards are anything to go by, is that more organisations and brands are avoiding passé video communication and are investing in telling stories that strike a chord with us - narratives that hold our attention and keep their products and messages in our conscious. As a result, we are witnessing an increase in both technical and creative quality that can rival more traditional broadcast channels as more and more platforms democratise communication.
As Kirsty Lang graciously guided us through the categories, criteria and the winners on the night, we were often in awe of the ingenuity and talent of our industry colleagues and wish huge congratulations to all those who took home a trophy!
We ourselves are very proud to win silver in both our categories. Our project for Alibaba was a long-form branded content series that required storytelling over a broadcast hour and then over a six-part series. Pop Up Start Up was created by telling the individual stories of the entrepreneurs taking part and threading these together with both the brand and television channel’s values. Alibaba.com and CNBC respectively.
We are immensely proud of this project and want to thank our clients and our whole crew that took part in the creative build (all 276 of you!)
