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

Venom: The Last Dance - Venomize My Pet

Entered in Generative AI

Objective

For Venom: The Last Dance, we set out to redefine fan engagement through cutting-edge digital innovation. With generative AI revolutionizing the digital landscape, we saw an opportunity to create a first-of-its-kind venomization tool — one that would let fans transform their pet or any animal into a Venom Symbiote-infused creature.

Our approach was to merge Venom’s iconic aesthetic with advanced AI technology, ensuring that every transformation retained the character’s signature traits while allowing for limitless creative expression. This tool expanded the imaginative boundaries of what a Symbiote bond could look like across all animals. The objective was twofold: to generate buzz for the final installment of Venom by offering fans an innovative experience and to drive organic social engagement through shareable user-generated content. By empowering fans to co-create within Venom’s world, we fostered a sense of ownership and excitement, turning passive viewers into active participants. This activation not only exemplified our commitment to innovation and creative storytelling but also set a new benchmark for how generative AI can be leveraged to enhance fan engagement in our film marketing.

Strategy

The Pet Venomization initiative was inspired by a key moment in the film, when the Venom Symbiote bonded with a horse to create the Venom Horse. This concept sparked the idea of extending the Symbiotes transformative power to other animals not seen in the movie. The digital marketing group took this idea and reimagined it as an interactive experience for fans, enabling them to venomize their pets before further expanding the scope to venomize any animal, such as kangaroos, flamingos, and many more.

To bring this ambitious idea to life, we researched generative AI models and identified Getty Images and NVIDIA as the ideal partners to execute this vision in a safe and ethical way. Their cutting-edge technology provided the foundation to create a unique custom model capable of transforming any animal image into a venomized version. By training our AI model on thousands of official Venom movie assets, we maintained the highest quality in design, producing results that were instantly recognizable and authentic to the franchise. This meticulous training process ensured high-quality, visually striking outputs while adhering to strict ethical guidelines to using copyright-cleared data. To further adhere to privacy standards, we also purged all user-submitted data immediately after each generation. Overall, this approach allowed us to deliver an innovative and engaging experience for users while pushing the boundaries of what’s possible with generative AI.

We chose to make this execution website-based for accessibility and ease of use for global access. Users simply needed to either take a photo of an animal or upload an existing photo of an animal and click a button to have it instantly venomized. 

Recognizing the global appeal of Venom, we localized the platform into 14 languages, adhering to regional AI laws and ensuring compliance with Sony’s rigorous AI ethics policies. Overcoming challenges such as legal vetting, information security approvals, and AI model optimization required collaboration across multiple departments, including internal ISG, legal counsel, and our AI ethics team.

One of the most significant hurdles was training the AI to accurately integrate Venom’s visual traits into a wide array of animal images. Through iterative testing and refinement, we ensured the outputs retained the creative integrity of Venom while offering personalized, unique results for each image. Additionally, we optimized the model’s performance to deliver transformations in seconds, ensuring a quick user experience. Finally, we streamlined social sharing, making it effortless for users to showcase their venomized creations with friends.

Results

The Venomize My Pet activation delivered outstanding engagement, boasting a 78% global engagement rate, and an average time spent on the experience of 3 minutes and 23 seconds — more than twice the industry benchmark. With 3MM users visiting the site and 560,000+ unique venomizations, the experience captivated fans worldwide.

The venomization tool’s success was driven by its high replay value, as fans eagerly venomized multiple animals, further amplifying its organic reach. The overwhelming participation and sustained engagement proved that the activation not only met but surpassed our objectives, making it a standout success in the campaign.

Beyond the numbers, this initiative set a new standard for generative AI in entertainment marketing, seamlessly blending storytelling, technology, and fan creativity. By balancing creativity with ethical considerations, we delivered a campaign that not only amplified awareness for Venom: The Last Dance but also set a benchmark for future generative AI activations in entertainment marketing. This project showcased the transformative potential of AI in storytelling and fan engagement, driving organic buzz and reinforcing Venom’s iconic place in pop culture.

Media

Entrant Company / Organization Name

Sony Pictures Entertainment

Links

Entry Credits