Instagram Rings Awards program announced by Meta Platform

Films have the Oscars, television has Emmys, music has Grammys, so why not the biggest social platforms in the world enter the awards?

Instagram, the meta-ownership photo and video platform, launches Instagram Rings, a new program intended to celebrate the creativity of its more than three billion monthly active users.

But among these three billion users, only 25 will receive rings, the winners obtaining both a physical ring designed by the famous English fashion designer Grace Waler Bonner, as well as a unique digital gold ring for their profile and their Instagram stories.

“We estimated that it was time to have a price that recognizes people who take these creative chances on our platform,” explains Eva Chen, head of fashion partnerships at Instagram, who helped conceptualize the award program. “These people are cultural catalysts, and they trigger conversations, and in doing so, they encourage people to express themselves too.”

Chen, the country of Wales Bonner and the chief of Instagram Adam Mosseri will be one of the judges of the rings, joined by experts like the director Spike Lee, the star of the rugby Ilona Maher, the make -up artist Pat McGrath, the designer Marc Jacobs, the actress Yara Shahidi, the artist Kaws and others.

Chen says that the judges worked with the own teams of Instagram creators for Winnow on the billions list to millions to hundreds, before registering on their 25 winners.

“Instagram is a community of three billion people, and these three billion people probably reflect a billion different interests, so the criteria were really difficult,” said Chen. “I say that as a judge, seeing the huge list of nominees, and being able to shoot it just at 25, it was a challenge, and I know that, like the other judges, they were too great people.

The winners cover subjects and categories of content, fashion or makeup with sports and entertainment, allowing a wide range of winners through interest groups, reflecting the largest Instagram community.

“I think one of the most magical things about Instagram is that it shows some moment of someone,” says Chen. “For something like this rings program, we enrich and attribute these creators who opened their lives and opened their art and their vision on all the different surfaces of Instagram.”

Chen notes that when she started in the company for the first time, it was just a flow, and the platform now has coils, her short-form video product, broadcasting chains, stories, wires and live videos.

“So when we look at these creators, these are multiple facets who can tell stories of so many different ways, which is, I think, something really magical about the Instagram creator, it is someone who can speak to people in so much different ways,” she said. “They are multilingual when it comes to communicating with their subscribers.”

The most intriguing part of the Instagram Rings program may be what the 25 winners will receive. They will get the physical ring in a presentation box, which Chen, Mosseri and the Bonnerner Wales have developed, but they will also get something more unusual: personalization for their Instagram profiles.

If you use Instagram, you know that the ring around your stories is generally a orange red pink gradient (or green if it’s your close friends), but the winners of the rings will see their stories surrounded by a unique golden ring. They will also obtain the possibility of customizing the background color of their Instagram profile, a capacity that will be unique to them, and their content will be presented under their own projectors and flows in the application.

“We do something that we have never really done before, which gives these winners the opportunity to personalize their profile page,” explains Chen.

But prices count the most when they last. The Oscars were rewarded almost 100 years ago; EMMYS over 75 years ago; And the Grammys distributed their first gold gramophone in 1959. Instagram hopes that its rings program is only the first of what will be long -term to honor its creative community.

“Comments are a gift, as we often say here in Meta, and we would like to see how it is received and how the winners appreciate the literal Instagram projectors,” explains Chen. “It took a long time for this program to meet, it is the culmination of years of wanting to do something like that and to be able to execute it, both in terms of product and to bring this panel of lights to be judges.”

“They will have to go through this first first, it was very long, but we would like to continue to recognize and celebrate artists and voices on Instagram,” she adds. “It is so important now for creators to gain creative chances and continue to refine their profession and feed on this constantly evolving platform. So I think that hope is that we can do it for the years to come, and each year, simply continue to increase the setting up creativity and projectors. ”