TO ALL MEDIA HOUSES

Subject: Letter for media coverage

ABOUT THE AWARDS

The South African Social Media Awards caters for influencers, content creators, digital tools, and brands. The biggest accolade for social media personalities is here, there are many distinct trophies available in social media and marketing, but none is dedicated the good work of social media personalities as the much-coveted South African Social Media Awards (SASMA).The main purpose of this coverage will be to raise awareness to the public and all social media personalities about the awards.

On the 29^{th of} May 2021, we successfully launched the inaugural SASMA awards and opened nomination entries for public to nominate their favourite social media personalities.

AWARDS CATEGORIES

BEST INFLUENCER

Social Media Influencer of the Year

This award goes to the individual/duo who have the biggest impact overall, across multipleindustries on social media.

Sports and Fitness Influencer of the Year

This award goes to the individual/duo/group who have influenced a lifestyle behaviour by advocating for fitness and a healthy lifestyle on social media.

Beauty Influencer of the Year

This award goes to the individual/duo who have influenced a cultural change by creating extraordinary looks and designs, promoting beauty products, and setting trends on social media.

Fashion Influencer of the Year

This award goes to the individual/duo who creatively influence style wear looks or established a presence on social media for their own brand/s.

Food Influencer of the Year

This award goes to the individual/duo who have influenced a cultural change in food technology, styling and sharing offood experiences.

Travel / Leisure Influencer of the Year

This award goes to the individual/duo/group who showcase beautiful destination experiences, curate travel experiences that are significant and evoke emotions that arememorable and storytelling.

ENTERTAINMENT

Most Popular Video Series on Social Media

This award honours the most creative and effective use of a video series such as a digital web series or docu-series to bring awareness to and achieve a social good campaign,initiative,or project.

Most Popular Content Across Social Media Platforms

This award goes to the individual/group who have released a series of content across all social media platforms (YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Podcast, Twitter and TikTok) and reached an insane amount of likes, comment, shares and mentions.

Most Popular South African Song on Social Media

This award will go to the individual/group who dominated the socialstreams during the launch period, gained traction and downloads onmusic streaming platforms.

SOCIAL IMPACTCATEGORIES

Most Recognized Business on SocialMedia

This award goes to the retail brands that have marketed their product or services on social media and havein turn builta community of brand custodians.

Social Media Mentor / Motivational Speaker of the Year

This award goes to the individual who is consistent in releasing motivational content across multiplesubjects, and is ableto inspire changewithin a society.

Social Media Activist of the Year

This award will go to the individual/group who have campaigned on social ills and succeeded while advocatingfor change.

 Social Media Charity Campaign

This award will go to the individual/group/brand who has created impactful charity Social Media Brand Campaign.

This award will go to the brand that has effectively marketed their product or services on social media and has influenced a narrative, engaged in critical subject matters, encouraged throughout leadership with their respectivetarget market.

TOP 4 CATEGORIES

The below categories are non-entry categories and will be nominated by the SASMA executive committee from the nominees in the other category groups.

Social Media Personality of the Year

This is intended for individuals who, in the opinion of the SASMA’s executive committee, have established themselves a brand and have made their influence transient beyond social media influencer. This award is only dedicated to those who are consistent in sharingtheir journey with audiences on social media.

Emerging Social Media Personality of Year (Newcomer)

This award is intended for an individual who, in the opinion of the SASMA’s executive committee, has newly established themselves as a brand and has experienced rapid growth through social media platforms.

Social Media Agency of the Year

This award is intended for the social media marketing agency who, in the opinion of the SASMA’s executive committee, has achieved overall success throughout their client’s brand campaigns.

Social Media Dominance “Breaking the Internet”

This award is intended for the individual/group/brands who, in the opinion of the SASMA’s executivecommittee, have achieved viral campaign success.

JUDGING

1. The judging process will begin on the 13th of August 2021 and shall be completed by 12th of September 2021.
2. The SASMAs judging panel will consist of South African PR, digital, brand and marketing agencies, directors, designers, academics as well as media commentators from relevantindustries.
3. Any judge having a direct or indirect interest in an entry will be requested to declaresuch interestand will haveto excuse themselves fromjudging.
4. Any decisions made by the SASMAs judging panel and board shall be final and bindingand no correspondence will be entered.
5. An independent auditing firm will audit the vetting, adjudication, and outcome ofresults.

Nominations and Voting

A nominee announcement will be recorded in studio and pre-packaged as a 30min show, to be broadcast as a live recording on the Awards social media platforms (Facebook and YouTube) on the 7th of October 2021. The media will be sent an embargoed press release detailingall thenominee’s names in each category.

Public voting will commence on the day of the nominee announcement, and the public will be able to cast their vote via SMS / USSD line.

All nominee names, voting line details as well as public vote competition information, terms, and conditions, is to be made available on the awards website.

END

ISSUED BY THE SOUTH AFRICAN SOCIAL MEDIA AWARDS (SASMA)