After receiving three times the numbers of entries that were expected, The Bees Awards announced the roll-call of winners of the second edition held in San Francisco with Fiat Automóveis's Mio project running out the winner the Best Use of Social Media Platform category.

In handing the prize to Fiat Automóveis and AgênciaClick Isobar, The Bee Awards judges; remarked: "This campaign documented the creation of the first ever crowd sourced car. It allowed product users to help shape the future of the industry and provided a forum for engaged dialogue. It was the perfect mix of creative collaboration between brand and consumer and reached 17,000 people from 160 countries."

To claim the honours Fiat Automóveis and AgênciaClick Isobar beat off the attentions of four U.S. rival marketing projects: "Ford Explorer: Reinventing the Reveal" (Ogilvy PR Worldwide), "Curiously Strong Awards" (Evolution Bureau), "Facebook Polling Place Locator" (Involver) and Nightlife Exchange Project" (JWT New York) as well as "YouLive" from Sweden's Prime agency.

The Bees Awards in fact received entries from 33 countries this year; 21 had participated in the 2010 edition. The judges noted that: "The quality of work this year was extremely impressive which made the judging quite interesting for our 20 world experts."

Advertising industry trade publication, Ad Age, also focused on the awards win and highlighted the innovative Fiat Mio campaign: "Fiat combined social media and reality in an unprecedented way to launch the first-ever crowd-sourced car. In this campaign, Fiat built a forum -- its own social network, so to speak -- and created a space for dialog between the designers of the car and Fiat drivers. The members of the community were invested in the final results of the campaign -- a real live car called the Fiat Mio. Consumers answered questions about gadget integration and what kind of driving the Mio should be planned for, as well as the ultimate crowd-sourced car question -- should it be connected to the social web?

"The car was launched to great fanfare at the 26th Annual Automobile Show in Sao Paulo - continued Ad Age - By telling Fiat exactly what they wanted in a car and using social media to do it, consumers believed they were helping to shape the future of the industry. A brand message gains effectiveness when customers are engaged -- and this is the ultimate engagement, giving the consumer a hand in creating the product. The project, Fiat said, drew 10,000 suggestions and was a process of learning again how to make an automobile. Even though the campaign was designed and implemented in Brazil, it reached at least 17,000 people in 160 countries, with an English-language version as well as one in Brazilian Portuguese. The campaign lived across the web, including YouTube, where a series of videos that documented the project can be viewed."