As part of the upcoming Mashable Awards, we're taking a closer look at each of the nomination categories. This is "Most Creative Social Media Campaign," click HERE for our previous coverage. Be sure to nominate your favorites and join us for the Gala in Las Vegas! Sponsorships are available. Please contact sponsorships@mashable.com for more information.

Here at Mashable, we chronicle significant social media campaigns on a daily basis. Some are notable simply because of a brand name, others get recognized for the technology or platform they employ, but the best always rise above the rest in how they resonate with readers and online audiences.

Social media affords brands limitless potential in the realm of creativity. The most creative of the bunch find a way to make something magical or unthinkable happen. Remember when the Old Spice guy's viral videos were the only thing anyone could talk about? Or what about the controversial Foursquare badge crafted by MTV that encourages young adults to check in at STD clinics? These are not your garden variety social media campaigns.

What follows is a list of the top five creative social media campaigns we've seen in the past year. This list is by no means objective or definitive — it's your job to decide the real winners. In fact, you can voice your opinions on the most creative social media campaigns of the year by casting votes for your favorites in our fourth annual Mashable Awards.

1. Live Off Groupon







Josh Stevens is spending an entire year living off Groupons — no home, no cash, no belongings (other than what he can barter for), nothing but unlimited Groupons, a laptop and a mobile phone. Stevens was selected, after a grueling social media audition process, in May 2009 to live on Groupons alone in the very unusual Live Off Groupon challenge.

Now nearing the half-way point of his journey, Stevens has spent upward of 150 days traveling 19 states, using the Groupons at his disposal for remarkable adventures such as test driving a Nascar stock car or trading them for flights, clothing, toiletries and other necessities.

Part of the deal is that Stevens must update the world with tweets, Facebook posts and blog entries about the strange goings-on of his now nomadic lifestyle. In the process, he's managed to create a highly engaged audience — he has nearly 10,000 fans on Facebook — anxious to help in anyway they can. In fact, Stevens credits his social media champions for the relative ease of the journey thus far. For example, a single Facebook status update was able to get him a few dozen airfare offers. Point proved.

When Stevens completes the mission — and there's no doubt in my mind he will — he will walk away from this unusual campaign with $100,000 in cash. As for Groupon, they're already reaping the benefits of a massive social media footprint created by Stevens' Groupon exchanges and a number of media appearances.

This campaign's a real winner because it's crazy, human and social media-driven. But, we highly doubt that anyone, let alone Groupon and its latest harebrained Groupspawn campaign, can replicate the magic of this one.

2. DEWmocracy 2







Take a trip to the nearest convenience store and you'll find a new fan-created flavor of Mountain Dew on shelves — Mountain Dew White Out. The White Out flavor represents the completion of a more than year-long social media endeavor for the soda maker.

In July 2009, Mountain Dew began its social media quest to find extreme fans to help craft an all-new flavor under the campaign moniker DEWmocracy 2. Fifty applicants were selected to sample and record their reactions to seven experimental flavors. The top three flavors were chosen and testers were organized into product teams called Flavor Nations — one for each flavor.

Each team was tasked with the responsibility of naming its flavor, designing a label, selecting an agency and supervising the marketing and advertising plans for flavor launch.

On April 19 2010, the three new flavors — Distortion, Typhoon and White Out — hit retail shelves, at which point the teams were tasked with using their social capital to solicit votes for their flavor. More than 2 million votes later, White Out is now a permanent part of the Mountain Dew product line.

Mountain Dew wins social media gold in our eyes because the campaign is as genuine as they come — no gimmicks here, just real fans and tangible results. The fan-vetted flavor was no cheap win for the company, and it set the bar extremely high for brands looking to follow in its footsteps.

3. Old Spice Guy







This year may be forever remembered as the year one man with great abs made people talk about men's body wash. Actor Isaiah Mustafa reprised his role as the Old Spice guy in a made-for-web social media blitz that involved more than 180 hilarious YouTube videos — each with a homemade feel — directed at Twitterers, bloggers, celebrities and your everyday Joe Schmoes.

Skeptics could have easily written off the campaign as nothing but an agency-produced, brand-removed campaign, but history tells a different story. Wieden + Kennedy were able to craft an Emmy award-winning campaign that was almost universally loved.

The videos attracted millions upon millions of views, thousands of comments, celebrity responses and a smattering of press coverage. Visible Measures even named it one of the fastest-growing online video campaigns of all time.

The Old Spice guy became such a cultural phenomenon that men everywhere (we're looking at you Ben Parr) still try and fail at assuming Mustafa's characteristic Old Spice guy tone and accent. Nice try guys.

4. Ford Facebook Reveal







New cars are always revealed at auto shows; it's just the way the industry works. American automaker Ford might have made a significant enough impact with its 2011 Ford Explorer Facebook Reveal to forever change the status quo.

Earlier this year, Ford bucked with tradition and turned to Facebook for an exclusive reveal that included massive build up, along with launch day videos, wall question-and-answer sessions and chats with executives. Essentially, Ford brought the auto show to Facebook and with it they found immense success.

By the numbers, Ford garnered 50,000 "Likes" on the Explorer's Page, saw 11,000 YouTube video views and found that 25,000 individuals priced new Explorers on Ford.com all in a single day.

Stats aside, the true testament to a successful campaign is whether there are copycats. Sure enough, the luxury automaker Bentley shortly followed suit with its own online reveal. Of course, Bentley's campaign didn't match the fanfare of the original, but we're confident Ford has paved the way for plenty more Facebook auto reveals.

5. GYT Foursquare Badge







Can a Foursquare badge change the way young adults approach uncomfortable subjects like getting tested for STDs? MTV teamed up with Foursquare to find out. The two created the Get Yourself Tested badge to encourage checkins at STD clinics, and preliminary results show that the campaign is working — thousands of badges were doled out in just the first few weeks alone.

The subject matter may be as controversial as handing out condoms at schools, but that doesn't make it any less creative.

Foursquare checkins are social in nature. You checkin at a venue, and if you want points and the chance to earn badges, you'll need to share that checkin with friends. With thousands of GYT badges being earned and shared by young adults and their legions of friends through Twitter and Facebook updates, this campaign has a huge reach.

For better or worse, MTV actually has the power to change a longstanding stigma around STD testing, simply because the company employed the Foursquare GYT badge as a reward. There's not a single social media campaign that matches this one in terms of gumption, and that's exactly why it deserves recognition.

Which of the above campaigns was your favorite? Do you have a top five of your own? Let us know in the comments and don't forget to nominate!

The Mashable Awards Gala at Cirque du Soleil Zumanity (Vegas)

In partnership with Cirque du Soleil, The Mashable Awards Gala event will bring together the winners and nominees, the Mashable community, partners, media, the marketing community, consumer electronics and technology brands and attendees from the 2011 International CES Convention to Las Vegas on Thursday, January 6, 2011. Together, we will celebrate the winners and the community of the Mashable Awards at the Cirque du Soleil Zumanity stage in the beautiful New York New York Hotel. The event will include acts and performances from our partner Cirque du Soleil Zumanity. In addition, there will be special guest presenters and appearances.

Date: Thursday, January 6th, 2011 (during International CES Convention week) Time: 7:00 – 10:00 pm PT Location: Cirque du Soleil Zumanity, New York New York Hotel, Las Vegas Agenda: Networking, Open Bars, Acts, Surprises and the Mashable Awards Gala presentations Socialize: Facebook, Foursquare, Meetup, Plancast, Twitter (Hashtag: #MashableAwards)

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Image courtesy of iStockphoto, Lobsterclaws Image courtesy of Live Off Groupon, Facebook