ClickZ Connected Marketing Awards

The ClickZ Connected Marketing Awards 2010 recognize brands and organizations that have embraced innovation and creativity to connect with their audiences - and drive results.

"Much conventional wisdom in marketing is being reconsidered. The key concept ushering in these changes is the notion of connectivity. Connected marketing is more about the change in consumer behavior than it is in the technology available to marketers," said Mike Grehan, VP and global content director for ClickZ, Search Engine Watch, and SES.

Marketing experts, who write for ClickZ and Search Engine Watch Experts columns, and our editors voted on entries in each category. Entries were judged on four criteria: creativity, innovation, interactivity and business outcomes.

"Marketers are clearly committed to tapping social networks, search, e-mail, and other marketing channels to connect with customers and prospects using creative and integrated techniques. Brands participating in ClickZ Connected Marketing Awards demonstrated that these efforts can bring solid business results regardless of their organization's size," said Anna Maria Virzi, ClickZ's executive editor.

2010 Winners:

Excellence in Connected Marketing

Winner: Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra
Campaign: Next Audience Engagement Strategy
Marketing partner: ExactTarget
Why it's a winner: Asking people to bring their mobile phones to a symphony concert seems counterintuitive. But that's exactly what the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra did as part of its "Next Audience Engagement Strategy" campaign to connect with its audience during a pre-concert talk. The campaign also tapped other social networks, such as YouTube, to attract a new generation to the symphony. Bravo! Bravo!

Honorable mention: Bermuda Ministry of Tourism
Marketing partners: iCrossing, Global Hue, and Corbin and Associates

Best Use of Search Marketing

Winner: Reebok
Campaign name: Reebok EasyTone
Marketing partner: iProspect
Why it's a winner: In 2009, Reebok introduced a new footwear line called EasyTone. The media campaign featured provocative messaging and imagery showing women wearing nothing but their underwear and EasyTone sneakers; the search effort focused on branded, product specific, and toning shoes campaigns. It included terms like "the secret to great legs," "nice legs great sole," "talking boob commercial," and more. "We were impressed at how Reebok closed the loop between search and social activity by mashing together different tools to monitor real time social feeds, news feeds and keyword trending tools such that they could continually adapt the ad messaging and expand the audience targeting," said Jonathan Allen, director of Search Engine Watch.

Honorable mention: Streeter Place
Marketing partners: GyroHSR, ClickEquations

"Streeter Village's audience targeting methodology via PPC channels was sophisticated and diligent, displaying impressive 'outside the box' thinking," said Search Engine Watch's Allen.

Honorable mention: Sunrise Senior Living, Finding Friends in New Ways
Marketing partner: 15miles, the interactive-media division of TMP Directional Marketing
"Sunrise Senior Living's campaign impressed us with the way they combined all local search targeting options via an SEO strategy, IP-targeted PPC and IYP listings to generate plenty of locally targeted real-estate on the SERPs and attributing conversions and business value to each source," Allen said.

Best Use of Social Media Marketing

Winner: Next To Normal - An Original Musical
Campaign name: Next to Normal: The Twitter Performance
Marketing partner: Situation Interactive
Why it's a winner: This Broadway musical about familial dysfunction is anything but normal and so was the marketing campaign for the show. "The cast really connected to its fans via Twitter," commented one judge. "Staying involved with the fans built a personal relationship between all parties and only grew the success of the show." Even with a small marketing budget, "Next to Normal" tapped social media to make the show soundtrack the top 10 most downloaded album on iTunes and Amazon.com without breaking the bank with advertisements. Very impressive.

Honorable mention: Deb Shops' Model Search
Marketing partner: NetPlus Marketing

Best Use of E-mail Marketing

Winner: National Hockey League
Campaign name: NHL Ticket On-Sale
Marketing partner: e-Dialog
Why it's a winner: Using just two fan data points - favorite team and geographic location - the NHL developed a highly-relevant e-mail message tailored to each fan based on their geographic location and the team they follow. For instance, a Boston Bruins fan living in Philadelphia would get an e-mail message that featured Bruins imagery; the schedule listed games in which the Bruins were playing the Philadelphia Flyers in Philadelphia. With 30 teams and 26 markets, there were over 900 potential versions of this e-mail. The results showed what the NHL expected: reminding fans about games when their favorite teams were playing in their local area would lead to increased single-game ticket sales.

Honorable mention: Chick-fil-A's Enhanced E-mail Program
Marketing partner: BrightWave Marketing

Honorable mention: Massage Envy's "Massage for the Cure"
Marketing partners: Mighty Interactive, ExactTarget

Honorable mention: PETA's E-mail Marketing Strategy
Marketing partner: Convio

Best Use of Mobile Marketing

Winner: OpenTable
Campaign name: OpenTable Mobile
Marketing partners: GoodRec, Sequence
Why it's a winner: Starting in July 2009, OpenTable launched an app for the Palm webOS, followed by apps for the BlackBerry, Android, and Nokia platforms. Earlier this year, it launched an iPad app. Each application closely mimics the features of the OpenTable website.
By late October 2009, 1 million diners had been seated via OpenTable's mobile applications. Less than six months later, the company reached 2 million, and today they're at over 3 million. "Good use of multiple mobile platform and geo-location functionality, and clear and measurable ROI," one judge said.

Honorable mention: Kmart Protégé Campaign
Marketing partners: Quattro Wireless, Myxer, Varitalk, 4Info, Movoxx

Best Use of Online Video for Marketing

Winner: Ginger Software
Campaign name: Ginger Conversion Video
Marketing partner: EyeView Digital
Why it's a winner: Ginger Software, which sells software to check spelling and grammar, used online video advertising to market its product. It ran iterative tests during the campaign, resulting in increased conversion rates.
"The campaign itself was compelling in terms of getting the advertiser's message across," one of our judges said. "Interesting use of animation, and I like the creative segmentation with the voice over," observed another judge.

Honorable mention: Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America's Save the Dream Tour
Marketing partners: SEO-PR, DigiNovations

Best Use of Display Advertising

Winner: Boden
Campaign name: Personalized Retargeting Campaign
Marketing partner: Criteo
Why it's a winner: Boden, a fashion retailer, implemented personalized display ad retargeting technology to retarget the customers who visited their website but had not made a purchase. Dynamic ad banners personalized in real-time for each viewer were presented; ads featured actual products the shopper browsed and recommended products from other shoppers with similar interests. "This takes retargeting to a new level of creative accomplishment. Enhances the navigation experience of retargeted display ads," one judge said.

Honorable mention: EyeWonder's Client Testimonials Campaign

ClickZ Marketing Excellence Award

Winner: Stefan Pollard, ClickZ Experts columnist
This award is being given posthumously to e-mail deliverability expert Stefan Pollard, a ClickZ columnist from 2006 to 2010. Stefan, who died in May 2010, was a champion of best practices and selflessly gave his time to others.

Connected Marketing Innovation Award

The editorial team elected not to name a winner this year in this category. None of the entries demonstrated the level of excellence expected by ClickZ-SEW editors.

For more info:
See the FAQ page or the past winners.
Questions? Please contact us.