Innovation Awards 2008
Innovation in Affiliate Marketing: TradeDoubler for Dell
What they won for: Work for Dell including use of pay-per-call functionality to venture into the mobile search arena and convert online sales over the mobile phone.
Judges' comments: "TradeDoubler's entry stood out for opening a whole new sales mechanism. Taking advantage of a limitation in capability, the innovative approach has created a truly cross-channel, modern, mobile service that links the device with (arguably) a more appropriate form of communication – voice rather than just the web."
Innovation in Email Marketing: Thomas Cook
What they won for: Interactive magazine Holiday Hotspot, containing resort features, video footage including actual interviews with customers, clickable editorial features such as an Interactive Calendar that offered month-by-month editorial and video advice on where to go (and why).
Judges' comments: "The multi-channel, multi-media nature of this initiative was truly impressive and lifted this out of the realms of simply being 'best practice'. The digital team managed to convince an entire organisation to shift gears and try something very different."
Innovation in Online Advertising: ad pepper media
What they won for: SiteScreen network, the first safe blind network, which protects brands' reputations online.
Judges' comments: "Highly innovative solution to a genuine industry problem of brands appearing on inappropriate websites. As more above the line spend is directed online, the problem of bad placement will continue to grow. Ad pepper has provided an innovative and real-time solution to this problem."
Innovation in Multichannel Marketing: lastminute.com
What they won for: "fonefood", a mobile website to find and book restaurants all over Europe.
Judges' comments: "This is a stand-out winner for having taken an emerging technical capability and turned it into an engaging, polished and sustainable service. Of particular note is the ability to cancel reservations — this is more than a directory listing — and the promotional integration means that this is a commercial tool not simply a profile-raising activity."
Innovation in User Experience: mydeco.com
What they won for: Interior design website which allows users to select products against a range of criteria like colour, dimension and price, and to visualize products in the home.
Judges' comments: "The 3D room planner is a useful online tool, built on Adobe's Flex application that allows customers to design and build their own room. There is a lot of hype about next-generation social shopping and aggregator sites and this is one which actually works really well and provides people wanting to decorate their home with a genuinely good experience."
Innovation in Social Media & Communities: Photobox.co.uk
What they won for: Online community for photo printing and personal publishing which enables anyone to create personalized products using their own digital photos.
Judges' comments: "Obvious they just 'get it' and are focused on relevant innovation not just the latest gimmick or gadget ... There are all manner of tools out there on the web, but these only become really exciting for the average consumer when they are made to converge seamlessly. This innovation shows an understanding of the importance of that seamlessness."
Innovation in SEO & Natural Search: Quirk eMarketing
What they won for: Mash-up with Google Earth on South African Tourism website.
Judges' comments: "All the judges felt that the tie-up with Google Earth was a highly innovative way of driving engagement, which proved itself to be extremely effective in driving links and improving natural search visibility."
Innovation in Paid Search & PPC: Unique Digital
What they won for: Driving traffic to Sky News website by tapping into search volumes on breaking news stories at competitive CPCs.
Judges' comments: "This was a very clever way of systematically driving traffic to a publisher website by exploiting the lack of competition in sponsored listings for specific news searches. A very well-thought-out and strategic initiative."
Innovation in Web Analytics & Optimization: TagMan
What they won for: Dedicated tag management system which allows companies to meet their entire tagging needs from a single container tag, bridging the gap between the content management system, ad serving and web analytics.
Judges' comments: "The creation of a single system and interface through which tags can be deployed is a significant innovation which can help to remove the burden caused by the proliferation of tags as well as enabling complete campaign tracking."
Innovation in Online Acquisition: GAME Stores Group
What they won for: Created an innovative and engaging online game where users play to win the wish list they have created on game.co.uk.
Judges' comments: "Great idea, highly engaging and entertaining ... they created a compelling game which drove repeated sales as well as virally boosting positive sentiment towards the brand."
Innovation in Online Conversion: Thomas Cook
What they won for: Customer interface and adaptable booking journeys that make finding a holiday easier to research, easier to locate, and then easier to book.
Judges' comments: "They have successfully used individual visitor activity and previous booking history to present relevant and personalized offers based on behavior by way of personas. They score most highly for innovation in organizational management - educating and convincing an entire company that this would be a good investment. And it was."
Innovation in Online Retention: Coast Digital
What they won for: Personalized and dynamic email marketing which is helping to drive long-lasting relationships with customers.
Judges' comments: "Dynamic content in emails makes the most of customer segmentation by leveraging customer behavior. Past purchases are the best indicator of future action and Wiltshire Farm Foods is on track to increase customer retention as well as customer satisfaction by getting their individual messaging right each time."
Innovation in Digital Marketing Team Management: Jellyfish Online Marketing
What they won for: Performance-based paid search campaigns and auctions among their own account managers to see who manages client campaigns.
Judges' comments: "There are other search agencies now working purely on a cost-per-acquisition (CPA) basis for their clients but Jellyfish has introduced a new dimension to this model by holding internal auctions to decide who wins the account, and a well-thought-out bonus scheme based on profit and CPA which has helped them to retain key staff."
Most Innovative Person in Digital Marketing: Hedley Aylott, Summit Media
Judges' comments: "Hedley is a true innovator in the digital marketing and e-commerce space who is widely admired both for the technology introduced by Summit Media and also for his pioneering work in training prisoners in digital marketing."
