1997
2020

The Webby Awards has been celebrating the best of the Internet for over 20 years: for nearly half the life of the Internet itself. From a professional and academic tool to a ubiquitous communications platform to the universal medium for the most significant breakthroughs in consumer technology and culture at large, the Internet has prevailed as a place where creativity is celebrated, profitable industries are born, and communities have a voice. We are humbled to celebrate another year of Internet excellence with the Webby community, those responsible for creating the awesome, safe, accessible, and inspiring Internet we want.

The Webby Awards Report

A deeper look at the 25th Annual Webby Awards.

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WELCOME LETTER

Welcome to The Webby Awards Entrant Report. This marks The Webby Awards' 25th year. Today we stand by the mission created when we launched in 1996, to remain dedicated to honoring the best of the Internet, and to set the standard of Internet excellence each year.

In this report, you'll find key trends uncovered by our Academy while reviewing the work entered this season. This year was one like no other, and the work we've seen reflects that in an inspiring way. We believe some of the innovative trends recognized by our Academy while judging your work will continue to be what drives the Internet forward. We hope that this insight into 2021's entries can be shared with your team and inspires your organization to continue to make great Internet, especially during these difficult times.

To illuminate some of the most significant trends we saw across this season’s entries, The Webby Awards worked alongside the International Academy of Digital Arts & Sciences to solicit feedback on the body of work they reviewed. This report shares some of their key takeaways.

If you have feedback on how we can make this report more valuable, please don't hesitate to get in touch with us. We'd be grateful for your thoughts.

Thank you again for participating in this year's Webby Awards.

Claire Graves
Executive Director, The Webby Awards
A NEW WAY TO LEARN
2020 brought the acceleration of online learning in place of in-person instruction, came the inevitable change in parents, educators, and students’ relationship to schooling and technology—and new possibilities carved out for what education can now look like.
"I really liked the diverse set of educational apps from reading to chess to food to government/civics. It felt companies were taking new educational experiences seriously and I enjoyed learning about these new tools for learning. I believe that COVID made the educational apps even more critical as families with children needed additional ways to supplement their kids' education."
- Mike Aragon, Twitch, Chief Content Officer
TECH FOR MEANING
"I always look for work that doesn't use technology for technology's sake, but to tell a story. To make people feel something, and then (ideally) take an action based on that feeling. The amount of available infrastructure these days -- for functionality that felt like science-fiction just a few years ago, mainly machine learning -- means that the tech isn't the cool part anymore. What the tech does, is. A few themes that stuck out to me this year show how this philosophy has been taken to heart: brands being willing to change their utility-focused mobile apps for a message, hilarious social media campaigns derived in minutes and seen by millions, and use of AR that truly took advantage of what's possible."
- Husani Oakley, Deutsch New York, Chief Technology Officer
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"It's become clear that designers and developers are embracing 3D. Scroll tricks that became trendy are now evolving to play with original uses of space and depth."
- Felipe Memoria, Founding Partner, Design, Work & Co.
  THE STORY HAPPENS IN NEW WAYS  
"It's no surprise that a lot of campaigns focused on connecting people and bringing experiences to people where they are (instead of bringing people to a location for an experience and then sharing it). Moving forward I hope to see more thinking around this area."
- Carl Desir, Netflix, Director of Inclusion Strategy
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"Many of the nominees expanded the experience of interacting with content beyond the limitations of screens and into AI driven sensory based devices (like Alexa and beyond)."
- Alexa Raad, TechSequences, CoFounder
COVID-19
This year, COVID impacted what, how and why things were made, one thing that became clear was the resiliance of the people behind the work.
“
"COVID couldn't stop the internet. The internet kept the world going."
- Martin Percy, UNIT9, Interactive Director
"One thing that stood out to me and really inspired me was the high level of craft and ingenuity that went into it. Covid-19 has affected everything and everyone, but it's inspiring to see that the industry has maintained such high creative standards."
- Adam Ulvegärde, Forsman & Bodenfors, Creative Director/Art Director
A VIRTUAL WORLD
“
"Many real-world experiences necessarily became digital during 2020, and digital venues were forced to play an increasingly vital part in our everyday lives. It's great to see that digital creators really stepped up to the challenge, and from their living rooms, bedrooms and kids' rooms around the world, delivered some truly impressive results."
- Patrick Gardner, MediaMonks, SVP Growth
"The overall effect of the limitations imposed by COVID-19 – especially toward production – have enable the flourishing of a more creative and forgiven way to shot videos and make things in general. The result of that is a very interesting lo-fi aesthetics of remixing and collaborative creativity, opening space for new creators, that are more self-sufficient vs the old school model that was very dependent of a large production structure. For a long time, social media platforms have been creating this space for new creators, and this year we saw the how fundamental those new models are for the future of the creative work."
- Juliana Constantino, Facebook Inc, Creative Product Lead, Instagram
"More virtual experiences coming online due to COVID. More access to international treasures online was great to see."
- Sarah Clatterbuck. Google, Director of Engineering
THE BIGGER PURPOSE
AND A PROMISING FUTURE
"There was more of an attempt to showcase purpose-driven work and brands are taking more risks to emphasize that they care about more than profit and the messaging is directed to both their employees and their consumers. There was an impressive amount of content, considering the limitations we were operating with."
- Mary Nittolo, the. STUDIO NYC, Founder + Creative Director
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"It's been incredible to see how genuinely purpose-driven more of the entries were this year. Having reviewed some of the best work on the internet, it gives me hope for the future of our industry and humanity at large seeing how our work can impact change, give back to our communities, and communicate important messages out to the world in a creative way."
- David Lee, Squarespace, Chief Creative Officer

🙏

Thank you so much for entering the 25th Annual Webby Awards

Your participation helps us ensure we are recognizing the best of the Internet each year.

Winners will be announced with an Internet celebration on May 18.

As an entrant in the 25th Annual Webby Awards, you are now a member of the Webby community, and will receive special benefits like this report; as well as access to research papers, and once things are back to normal, invitations to host Webby Talks in your office, exclusive invites to Webby Film Nights, and more.

Thank you again for participating this year and for your commitment to Internet excellence. Please feel free to contact Denise Gilley at denise@webbyawards.com with questions or comments. Be well!