The PagePlay Equestrian Social Media Awards (ESMAs) were set up in December 2010 as a way of bringing together the global equestrian community through social media. They were initially designed to allow fans and followers of UK and Irish businesses, brands and professionals to shout about who they felt really flew the flag for the equestrian industry.
During 10 days, on the run-up to Christmas Eve 2010, people were asked to nominate their favourites in 15 categories. We received so many nominations that we split each category into two groups; A. UK/Ireland and B. International. In 10 days we received just under 4000 nominations. The top 10 within each category got through to the finals - which closed at 1pm GMT on Friday 18 Feb 2011.
The 181 finalists were announced on 13 January. They represented a range of equestrian sports, including racing; eventing, western, dressage, and show jumping.
The ESMAs are now a global affair with finalists representing from each continent!
The awards have featured in a number of equestrian industry and leisure magazines around the world and on a multitude of prominent equestrian websites across the globe.
Some fun facts and figures from the 2012 finals:
14,134 - number of people who've voted.
75,526 - number of times the voting page was viewed.
36,895 - number of individual viewers.
2.32 - average minutes they spent on the page.
9,781 - number of Facebook fans.
500,369 - number of Facebook post views.
124 - number countries who've viewed the voting page (Top 5 countries: UK, USA, Germany, Canada, Netherlands)
Each finalist was asked to film an acceptance speech. We created an awards video, split into 5 episodes on YouTube for easy sharing during ESMA week to ensure everyone could attend.
