There’s no doubt that digital communication’s stock rose as the pandemic struck, making it nearly impossible to travel or meet in person for more than a year.
The latest B2B communication plans of denim mills and other players in the supply chain are evidence of this. After the shock the pandemic had on business began to sink in, companies shifted their focus from physical to digital, namely high-quality informative videos and series.
On Tuesday, Lenzing’s Carved in Blue team honored the best of these videos with the first Blue Lenz Denim Video Awards at Bluezone in Munich—one of the first denim industry events to take place in person since early 2020.
Winners include: Amy Leverton’s “Denim Dudes Presents: Denim & Segregation Webinar” (Best Host/Webinar Series), “An Indigo Story” by Vivian Wang (Best Art Direction), Coreva Technology – Developed and Patented by Candiani Denim (Best Animation), Artistic Fabric Mills ‘Tracing the Lifecycle of a Jean” (Best Sustainability Connection to the UN SDGs) and “Endrime x Artistic Milliners Tailoring Collection” (Best Overall Video).
Transformers ED Series by Transformers Foundation and Sue Barrett’s Lockdown Nostalgia Project tied for Best Educational Video/Series.
Winners were determined by a panel of judges including Margherita Verlicchi, copywriter at Menabo; Michelle Branch, founder of Markt & Twigs; Wouter Munnichs, founder of Long John Denim; Neha Celly, founder of Nece Gene; Erin Barajas, co-founder of Interesting Monsters; Panos Sofianos, denim innovation curator at Bluezone; and Kelly Harrington, founder of Trademark Blue.
Befitting the occasion, the majority of winners accepted the awards via pre-recorded videos.
The nominated videos are part of the 300-plus video library Carved in Blue hosts on Blue Lenz, the B2B communication platform’s YouTube channel, to help bring more attention to new collections and advances in sustainability. The channel launched in January 2020.
“I grew up in an era of MTV…you can’t forget that first video you saw. It made us think of how we can do the same thing with the denim industry,” said Tricia Carey, Lenzing’s director of global business development—denim, at the awards presentation.
Despite producing engaging and captivating content, Carey said mills’ efforts are somewhat being wasted. “For several years, we thought we needed to bring more attention to these videos,” she said. Though there’s longevity to the video messages, they’re often hard to find online after they’ve been released. Blue Lenz serves as a central hub to find the latest videos, much like the early days of MTV.
“We want to highlight and champion the best in our industry and to give credit to the people and their teams behind each of these denim videos,” Carey said.