THE 14TH ANNUAL SHORTY AWARDS

The Shorty Awards honor the best of social media and digital. View this season's finalists!

Industry

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Auto See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Beauty See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Business to Business See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Consumer Brand See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Education See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Entertainment See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Financial Services See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Fitness, Health, & Wellness
<br>See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Food & Beverage
See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Gaming See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Government & Politics See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Hospitality See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Insurance See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Live Events See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> News & Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Non-Profit See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Pets & Animals See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Pharma & Healthcare See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Real Estate See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Restaurants See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Retail & E-Commerce See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Activism See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Sports See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Technology See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Television See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Travel & Tourism See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Wine, Beer & Spirits

Strategy & Engagement

See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Brand Partnership See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Call to Action See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Community Management See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Creative Use of Technology See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> CTV/OTT See previous winners and honorees for Insights and Trends here.</a> <a href=https://shortyawards.com/9th/"https://shortyawards.com/category/16th/data-visualization">See previous winners and honorees for Data Visualization here.</a>"> Data & Insights See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Earned Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Event & Experiential See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Gamification See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Humor See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Innovative Media Buying Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>""> Integration with Traditional Media See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Internal Communications See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> LGBTQ Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Micro-Influencer Strategy See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Multicultural Community Engagement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Music & Dance See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> On a Shoestring See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Organic Promotion See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Paid & Amplification See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Physical and Digital Convergence See previous winner and honorees here.</a>"> Public Service Announcement See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Real Time Response See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> SEO & SEM See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Social Commerce See previous winners and honorees here.</a>"> Storytelling
From the 9th Annual Shorty Awards

REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Finalist in YouTube Presence

Objectives

We set out to create a platform for HBO's long-standing political comedy series Real Time with Bill Maher to embrace a new digital-native audience in the YouTube channel. Our aim was to increase subscribers, video views, awareness, and engagement by bolstering the Real Time YouTube Channel as the hub for all things RTWBM in the digital space – with exclusive content, live episode sampling and special live events.

Strategy and Execution

The Real Time YouTube channel is the main digital arm of the show's live broadcast, which Bill Maher consistently drives to during the on-air broadcast. Immediately following the live Friday night airing each week, Real Time posts highlights from the show and continues the panel discussion with a live stream special called Overtime, in which Bill and his guests source questions from fans. The channel is also home to web exclusive content, including special editions of the show's infamous New Rules segment. For example, when Real Time landed a long sought after interview with President Obama, we uploaded the full, extended version to the channel, including exclusive moments that got cut from the on-air broadcast, which outperformed ratings for the linear show. We continue to partner with YouTube for opportunistic moments, including their Get Out the Vote Initiative, for which the show produced a custom New Rule. We also utilize the live stream function to broadcast special episodes for free, including 4 specials during the RNC and DNC Conventions and the Season 14 finale episode. As live streams are immediately archived for fans to watch for free, The YouTube channel has become our main episode sampling platform. By heavily promoting the channel on-air and across our social platforms, fans know exactly where to get their Real Time fix in the digital space.

Results

The channel saw over 100MM views in 2016, showing significant YOY growth (+50%) and a gain of nearly 150K subscribers (+61%). Special live streaming events and full episode sampling, including the Convention Specials and season finale, drove significant growth and engagement for the YouTube channel. The 4 convention specials and the season finale full episode accounted for 5 of the top 8 best performing videos of 2016 by watch time. In sum, these 5 videos accounted for 16% of all minutes spent watching the channel in 2016. The President Obama Interview was the top performing video of the season, bringing in +3.9K subscribers and generating 24.4K shares. Special live events and sampling gained editorial placement and trending promotion on YouTube.

Media

Video for REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER YOUTUBE CHANNEL

Entrant Company / Organization Name

HBO

Entry Credits