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

Start Here

Entered in News & Media

Objective

Start Here explains the news. We help people around the world navigate the complicated world of international news and current affairs by breaking down big stories so they’re easy to understand and engaging to watch. 

It’s hosted by Sandra Gathmann, a seasoned journalist, whose calm, neutral presenting style inspires trust and loyalty from our audience.   

In a world where the news media is so polarized and people are unsure who to trust, our objective is to cut through the noise, explain why a story matters, and give people the information they need to  form their own opinions on issues that matter.

 

Strategy

Start Here delivers three main types of content: 

 

But whatever the platform or type of content, Start Here’s core strategy remains the same. No hype, no agenda, no gimmicks. Just high-quality journalism, engaging storytelling and creative production to cut through the confusion about what’s going on in the world. 

It takes a huge amount of work by a small, but dedicated, production team to make complicated stories simple. We deliberate on every word in the script, we are fastidious about fact checking and we take great effort to seek out a diverse range of guests to provide different viewpoints on a story. 

We also aim to cover stories that may not be topping the SEO rankings, but are no less deserving of the world’s attention. Our episode on the war in Sudan is an example of this - attracting comments like this: 

Results

2024 was another record breaking year for Start Here in terms of content views and engagement. 

Across platforms we attracted more than 38 million views, all organic. Our YouTube episodes had an average retention rate of 51%, showing that once people click on our content, it engages them and they stick around. 

All of our metrics show that there is a strong demand for Start Here’s balanced, clear and calm approach to issues which are often deeply divisive. 

But our impact is also evident in the response from our audience. Students get in touch to tell us how our videos help them with their studies; teachers use them as teaching aids on complicated topics. And as one viewer of our tariffs explainer commented: 

“So yes thank you for the method and presentation I feel informed now about issues that affect me directly,  yet it is rarely exposed in such a clear and concise manner thank you”

 

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Al Jazeera Digital

Links

Entry Credits