CHICAGO (April 12, 2022) – Chicago Fire FC today announced that the Club has been named as a finalist for the 14th annual Shorty Awards in three separate categories, including Best Brand Redesign, Best Short Form Video and Best Branded Content.
The Fire are the only MLS team to be named a finalist for this year’s Shorty Awards and just one of two sports teams to be recognized, alongside the NFL’s Minnesota Vikings. The winners for each award are expected to be announced in early May.
“We’re honored to be nominated alongside some of the best brands and creatives in the world,” said Chicago Fire FC Senior Director of Content Tyler Emerick. “The entire Chicago Fire content team was proud to tell the story of the project, with special recognition to Justin Hubler and Grant Apgar. This honor also belongs to the thousands of Fire fans who contributed to this project and helped create a crest for all Chicago.”
The Fire were named to the Best Brand Redesign category after a months-long, fan-focused project that saw more than 20,000 Fire fans, supporters and Chicagoans at large add their voice to the creation of a new crest and identity for the Club. The other finalists in this category include Meta, MGM Studios, Twitch and Religion of Sports.
The Fire’s crest project also resulted in a nomination for this year’s Best Short Form video category. The Club unveiled the new badge through a short animated video, which summarized the entire project in 60 seconds through various iconic Chicago and Club visuals and recordings from fan roundtables to illustrate how the individual elements fans requested came to life in the final artwork. Additional finalists for this award include Lenovo, McDonald’s, Samsung and more.
Chicago was named to the Best Branded category for its digital rollout of the Club’s multi-year partnership with Revolution Brewing in Oct. 2021. As part of the partnership, the Fire and Revolution Brewing unveiled its new signature beer, Hazy Pitch, on Oct. 13, 2021. Additional nominees in this category include iHeart Radio, Brit + Co and Office Depot, Chipotle, Hulu, State Farm and more.
The Shorty Awards honor the very best of digital and social media by culture’s most influential and popular brands, agencies and organizations. Shorty Award honorees are chosen by the Real Time Academy (RTA), experts and leaders in digital and social media who have been hand selected on the basis of their deep industry knowledge, professional reputation and outstanding achievements, including previous Shorty wins.
Members of the Academy include Jared Kozel, (EVP, Executive Creative Director at Wunderman Thompson), Francis Roberts Jr. (Head of Creator Partnerships at Snapchat), Naz Nazli (Creative Director, Creative X at Meta), Mel Clements (VP Creative, Marriott International), and Jennifer Kim (Head of Social, Comedy at Amazon Prime Video), among others.
For more information on this year’s Shorty Awards, click here.
