For its work on the innovative #MakeMySandwich campaign, Arby’s won the top spot in Art Direction at the 11th annual Shorty Awards, which honors the best of social media.
“We’re proud of the content we create and distribute. We love seeing the reactions from our fans and how they engage with the brand,” said Josh Martin, Senior Director of Social and Digital for Arby’s.
Arby’s earned the award after its brilliant transition from creating custom, hand-crafted content out of the brand’s packaging to using actual sandwich ingredients to build real-time, quick-response social portraits.
In order to bring Arby’s to the forefront of the sandwich conversation in unison with its Head of Sandwiches campaign, Arby’s worked with a variety of celebrities to start the conversation on Twitter, using the hashtag #MakeMySandwich. One by one, Arby’s drew each personality’s portrait and replied with its finished “sandwich” creation.
Far be it from us to deny a birthday request. #MakeMySandwich pic.twitter.com/nfufZwcDeO
— Arby's (@Arbys) September 13, 2018
Over the next three weeks, requests poured in, with Arby’s creating more than 100 sandwich portraits that were shared on Twitter, in a two-hour Facebook Live video and on Instagram Stories, even including one of Wendy’s.
We're not much for fashion, but we think this is a great look for you. #MakeMySandwich pic.twitter.com/PJHcm8olDf
— Arby's (@Arbys) September 14, 2018
Arby’s has continued the conversation, creating sandwich portraits for holidays, cultural moments and other events:
That's one mean sandwich. #MakeMySandwich pic.twitter.com/Quw9NFV4rU
— Arby's (@Arbys) December 24, 2018
Celebrating 10 years of Garry #ParksAndRec pic.twitter.com/pVKyTN3fvw
— Arby's (@Arbys) April 10, 2019
“It was a total team effort to bring the #MakeMySandwich campaign to life,” said Josh.
Congratulations to Josh, Arby’s Social Media Supervisors Michael Nguyen and Jimmy Beck and the entire Arby’s Marketing team for this incredible honor.

Michael Nguyen (far left) and Jimmy Beck (left middle) accept the Shorty for Art Direction.