2005 WebAward Call for Entries Now Closed

The 2005 WebAwards Call for Entries period is now closed and soon the judging process will begin. Good luck to all who entered this year's competition.

Web Marketing Association Names Best Investor Relations Web Sites

Colgate-Palmolive Wins Best of Show in the Second Annual Interactive Investor Relations Awards Competition

The Web Marketing Association, in partnership with the Wealth Management News Service, is pleased to announce the winners of the second annual Interactive Investor Relations Awards Competition (IIR Awards) for investor relations Web site development. Entries competed with peers within more than 50 industry categories as well as against an overall standard of excellence. Sites were judged on design, navigation, ease of use and use of technology to enhance the investor’s experience as well as specific content criteria relating to investor and financial communication.

"This year’s winners demonstrate that it takes more than just a flashy design to have an effective investor Web site," said William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association. "IIR Award winners are judged not only on design, but with a strong emphasis on content, combined with a high level of functionality and usability for their target audience. Participating in the competition provides management with valuable feedback from expert judges and gives companies an opportunity to measure the effectiveness of their online investor relations efforts.”

The 2005 Best of Show IIR Award is presented to the Colgate-Palmolive (NYSE: CL) at investor.colgate.com for their outstanding investor Web site. In the opinion of the competition judges, the site went beyond all others entered in the IIR Awards to provide investors and the financial community access to critical information in a user friendly format. Particularly, effective use of Flash and video presentations were sited as contributing to the sites success.

A complete list of the winning sites can be found at the interactive Investor Relations Award Web site at www.iiraward.org.

Special recognition is also given to b2i Technologies, Inc. of Richardson Texas. B2i won 21 awards in the 2005 IIR Awards for their clients, including 14 Best of Industry Awards and 7 Outstanding IR Website Awards.

The interactive Investor Relations Awards are judged by individual and institutional investors, financial advisors, financial media, IR professionals and Web developers. Each site is judged on 35 different criteria, earning a score between 0 and 100 points. The highest score in a given category wins Best of Industry for that category. Remaining entries receiving a score of 80 points or greater receive the Outstanding Web site Award. All entries receive judges’ comments and feedback to help participants understand how their entry is viewed and to facilitate improvement.

Sponsors of the 2005 interactive Investor Relations Awards include Barron's and The Wall Street Journal Online, Burrelle's Luce, NewsUSA, O'Dwyer's PR Daily, Small Army Creative Services and PRWeb.

2005 WebAward Deadline Extended

The deadline for entering the Web Marketing Association's 2005 WebAward Competition has been extended until June 15th. This will be the only extension to allow the judging to begin on schedule.

If you have not yet submitted your entries and want to be recognized for your outstanding Web development work, please go to www.webaward.org and enter today. You'll never know if you don't enter.

If you are one of the many Internet professionals who have already entered, now is the time to review your entry one last time before it is sent to the judges. Entries may be edited until the 15th using the edit entry link in the confirmation email sent when you entered your site. All entry fee payments must be received before the entry deadline.

The WebAwards is the premier Website award program available to the interactive community. This is your final opportunity to be included in this exciting event.

Good luck to all our participants and judges.