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/17th/"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

Gen 10 Boos Creation

Entered in User-Generated Content

Objective

The Problem: Gaming Creativity Stays Trapped in the Virtual World

Gaming has always been about creativity. From modding Skyrim to creating CS:GO skins, players have always shaped the games they play. But here’s the catch—their creativity stays locked inside the virtual world.

In the PC gaming category, ads are all about product specifications—performance, frame rates, cooling systems. Brands focus on what their machines can do, but not on what gamers can create with them.

What if we flipped that?

Instead of making just another gaming ad, Lenovo Legion created an ad where gamers themselves could shape the story.

The Challenge: Bringing Gaming’s Ultimate Test to Life

Every great game has a final boss—the one enemy that tests everything a player has learned. But gamers have never been able to create one themselves.

Lenovo Legion set out to change that. Instead of limiting gamers to character skins or personal avatars, we gave them the biggest creative challenge ever:

🎮 Design a final boss.
🎮 Win, and watch it come to life.

This wasn’t just about gameplay customization—it was about bringing a purely digital creation into the real world.

And the best part? The winning boss wouldn’t just be part of a campaign. It would be featured in Lenovo Legion’s 2025 Global Gen 10 Ad Film, immortalized as part of gaming culture.

Would gamers step up to the challenge?

Strategy

The Insight: Gamers Have Always Created—Now It’s Time to Bring That Creativity Outside the Screen

Gamers have been customizing, modding, and designing for decades. But their impact remains inside the digital space.

Why should creativity in gaming stop at skins, avatars, and personal loadouts?

Lenovo Legion set out to break that barrier, proving that gaming creativity deserves a place beyond the virtual world.

The Big Idea: Boss Creation – Where Gamers Become the Final Challenge

Instead of just showcasing Lenovo Legion’s power, we handed control over to the gamers themselves.

For the first time ever, players could design the ultimate final boss—a challenge that everyone would have to face.

And this wasn’t just about fan art or in-game cosmetics. The winning boss would be transformed into a full-scale cinematic character, making its debut in the Lenovo Legion Global Gen 10 Ad Film in 2025.

Bringing It to Life: A Two-Pronged Approach

1. Letting the Gaming Community Create the Impossible

2. Blurring the Line Between Gaming and Reality

Challenges & Overcoming Them

🔹 The PC Gaming Category Talks Specs—We Talked Creativity

🔹 Turning Virtual Concepts into Real-World Cinematics

🔹 Cutting Through Digital Noise

Results

The First Time a Gaming Boss Was Designed by the Community—And Made Real

The Boss Creation campaign transformed gaming creativity into reality—and gamers showed up in force.

📈 Thousands of entries flooded in, proving that gamers were ready for the ultimate creative challenge.
📈 Millions of views & engagements across Instagram, TikTok, and YouTube.
📈 A winning boss that wasn’t just imagined—it was brought to life.
📈 One gamer, flown across the world, watching their idea go from sketch to screen.
📈 Massive pre-launch hype for Lenovo Legion’s Gen 10 Ad Film, as fans eagerly awaited the final reveal.

More than just a campaign, Boss Creation proved that gaming creativity is bigger than just in-game customization.

It showed that gamers aren’t just players—they’re world-builders.

And with Boss Creation, Lenovo Legion gave them a way to bring their creations beyond the screen—into the real world.

Final Thought: When Gaming Imagination Becomes Reality

For years, gaming brands have sold performance, power, and specs.

Lenovo Legion sold possibility.

Instead of just showing what a gaming laptop can do, Boss Creation let gamers prove what they could do.

And in doing so, Lenovo Legion didn’t just make an ad—it made gaming history.

 

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Lenovo Legion

Links