Global WOW Project Awards 2019

The first-ever WOW OF THE YEAR, as selected by LINERs!

Dec 27, 2019

LINERs frequently hear the expression “WOW=No.1.” Together with the LINE STYLE – the foundational guide to LINE's unique culture – that idea of “WOW=No. 1” is the standard that underpins all we do and pushes LINERs around the world to pursue and create WOW. To celebrate the projects from 2019 that best embodied the spirit of WOW, in January LINE held the Global WOW Project Awards 2019.

▶ 금색의 WOW OF THE YEAR, 은색의 BEST WOW, 녹색의 WOW WINNER와 WOW Finalist까지 소유욕을 불러 일으키는 멋진 트로피가 행사장에 전시된 모습입니다.
The highly coveted WOW award trophies—Gold for WOW OF THE YEAR, Silver for BEST WOW,
and Green for WOW WINNER and WOW Finalist.

A truly international awards event

Taking place in LINE’s Shinjuku, Tokyo office, the awards event was broadcast live in ten offices and seven markets – Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Indonesia, Vietnam, China and Japan. LINERs everywhere watched the live broadcast and waved and interacted throughout the big event. With so many people participating from so many countries, it was a true testament to the global nature of LINE.

A scene from the Shinjuku, Tokyo office during the Global WOW Project Awards 2019,
as LINERs from other offices around the world also participated.

"This is how our project triggered WOW!"

The event began with presentations by the project managers of the five projects that made the finals. Many projects had been initially nominated in October 2019, with 35 of them making it out of the first round, and then in December five making it to the final round. LINERs around the world were able to watch the project managers’ presentations live and vote for the most WOW project through online voting.

Shortlisted projects :

  - LINE Starbucks Card Project
  - LINE Shopping TW: 1111 Crazy Shopping Day Project
  - LINE NEWS: Deep Personalization Project
  - Smart Channel Project
  - Antman Project

(From left to right) Yosuke Mazaki of LINE Starbucks Card Project, Ku Chang-Hsin (Jerry) of LINE Shopping TW: 1111 Crazy Shopping Day Project, and Ryo Nakamura of LINE NEWS: Deep Personalization Project.
(From left to right) Daisuke Asai of Smart Channel Project, and Joonsik Baek of Antman Project.

Everyone is on the edge of their seats…

Once the presentations were over, it was time to vote. This truly was an award by the people. Some offices also held small events with draught beer to make the award ceremony even more festive. Everyone was on the edge of their seats guessing which project would take home the WOW OF THE YEAR Award!

Each person was able to vote for two projects, and each LINER’s vote matched 1 WOW Credit = 1 USD.
LINERs’ votes were tallied and converted to cash prizes, which were given to winning projects.
LINERs who voted were able to enjoy refreshing beer as well!
Which project will be the 'WOW OF THE YEAR'? Many LINERs participated in the event trying to predict the results.

(Drum roll) “The WOW OF THE YEAR for 2019 is…!”

Once the votes were in, it was time to count the results – and it turned out there were a lot of votes to count! But once the results were tallied, the winner was clear: Antman Project was the No. 1 WOW OF THE YEAR project!

"Antman Project" is a project that converts image formats without reducing picture quality to save on storage in LINE albums. The project name is based on the technique that shrinks the size of big data. In addition to boosting the data transfer speed, one of Antman Project’s big strengths was its ability to create a variety of effects.


The moment Antman Project was announced, cheers went up in all the LINE offices. LINERs watching the live broadcast from the Bundang office in Korea exploded in cheers as well! On this day, the members of the Media Platform, who were at the event from start to finish with the anticipation of the award, shared in the delight of winning the award with their colleagues. LINERs at the event in Japan were able to listen to their award acceptance speech given all the way from Korea.

"Bundang office in Korea, please come on out!” People in the Shinjuku office waved to the LINERs at the Bundang office
in Korea. Pictured is a LINER from Media Platform giving his acceptance speech! Congrats!
Project Manager Joonsik Baek of the Antman Project,
who was awarded WOW OF THE YEAR, posing with Jungho Shin (left) and Takeshi Idezawa (right).

The Global WOW Project Awards 2019 and Kick-off Meeting 2020 ended with great success thanks to the awardees and participants. The Global WOW Project Awards were launched in 2019 to discover more best practices that displayed meaningful challenges and achievements as well as to share them with all LINERs so as to continue bringing more WOW to the world. We look forward to seeing more projects being nominated in 2020 for another round of friendly competition.

 

 

 

※ Please note that the details described in this article may not apply to all offices.