Hasselblad’s Social Media Campaign wins two major awards

A natural extension of Hasselblad’s core belief in the importance of community, HassyNYC was launched in October 2009 integrating a dedicated website, Twitter, Facebook and Flickr. Designed to bring together photographers – regardless of skill level and equipment used – in the New York/metropolitan area to share images, technical information and news, HassyNYC quickly became a highly active network. Participation in HassyNYC and the traffic it drove to the HasselbladUSA.com site far exceeded Hasselblad’s goals. Tom Olesen, President of Hasselblad USA deemed HassyNYC "a huge success," adding that "We are honored to receive these highly coveted awards and especially pleased that we were able to achieve this level of success considering the current economic challenges that face independent photographers and our industry in general." Given this accomplishment, Hasselblad launched community sites in Chicago (HassyChi) and Los Angeles (HassyLA) several months later.

But it was the success of the inaugural site that earned Hasselblad the prestigious Gold ECHO and Henry Hoke awards from DMA. Chosen by a panel of distinguished judges, with extensive experience in direct marketing, HassyNYC was awarded the Gold ECHO Award in the business-to-business category based on "overall creative concept including copy, graphics and production quality, marketing strategy and response results."

Selected from among Gold, Silver and Bronze winners of the ECHO Award by Hoke Communications, HassyNYC was also honored with the Henry Hoke Award. This award "reflects the campaign with the most courageous solution to a difficult sales marketing problem."