First, we sought out an expert panel. We knew we didn’t have the authority to decide which GIFs were the best, so we brought in the big guns. Reaching out to the major internet culture sites, we gathered thought leaders from Mashable, Buzzfeed, Tumblr and more to help nominate the best GIFs of the year. We then launched a microsite, thegifys.com, where the public voted on over 60 GIFs across 12 categories, ranging from cats to news & politics. We got the word out through Facebook and Twitter, and the press featured it in nearly every internet news & entertainment outlet.

In its first year, the .GIFYS received over 500,000 votes and over 230,000 unique visitors. As GIFS have continued to rise as the darling medium of the internet, the .GIFYS have helped GIFS earn their rightful place in internet history. The immediate response of the GIF community was overwhelming. GIPHY.com reached out to us to sponsor the 2nd annual awards, and our panelists broadened to include media-savvy influencers from Huffington Post, Reddit, Sagmeister & Walsh, and the Museum of the Moving Image.