Social Media Success Summit 2010: The Web's Largest Online Social Media Conference

Social Media Success Summit 2010 is the web's largest live online conference that will empower you to use social media to gain more exposure, better engage customers and grow your business. The world's leading social media gurus will show you how. Join 24 experts, including Guy Kawasaki (author, Art of the Start), Chris Brogan (author, Social Media 101), Darren Rowse (author, ProBlogger), Mari Smith (author, Facebook Marketing), Greg Jarboe (author, YouTube and Video Marketing), Kim Dushinski (author, Mobile Marketing Handbook); experts from Best Buy, Home Depot, Whole Foods, Foursquare and Groupon; Steve Rubel (Edelman), Ann Handley (MarketingProfs), Brian Clark (Copyblogger), Jason Falls (Social Media Explorer), Jay Baer (Convince & Convert) and Ramon De Leon (Chicago Domino's Pizza)—just to mention a few!

This year's focus is to empower you to build social media marketing plans, track your social media results and learn from other successful businesses. You'll also discover how to use Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Foursquare and Groupon to attract high-caliber customers and grow your business during this economic slump.

Spread out over the month of May, sessions can be watched live or watch a recorded version when convenient for you. Transcripts from each session are also included in the admission price.

You can get 50% off if you act now and attendance is limited. Go to the Social Media Success Summit Website for complete details and to sign up to attend.

WebAwards to Honor World's Best Web Sites

The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the call for entries for its 14th annual international WebAward competition. The WebAwards are the standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web site. It recognizes the individual and team achievements of Web professionals who create and maintain outstanding Web sites. The deadline for entry in the 2010 WebAwards is May 25, 2010. A complete list of past winners and this year’s entry form can be found at www.webawards.org.

“The goal of the WebAwards is to not only recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today, but also provide valuable feedback to entrants on how their sites stack up against their peers and industry standards of excellence,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “The WebAwards is different from other Web site award programs because we’re not just a beauty pageant focused on name recognition and design. For that reason, we see ourselves more like the Good Housekeeping Seal of Approval than the Academy Awards.”

Web sites are judged on seven criteria, including design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copy writing and ease of use and receive a numeric score. Each WebAward entry is judged against other entries in its industry category and then against an overall standard of excellence. Entrants also benefit from receiving valuable feedback from the WebAwards professional judging panel on their Web site development efforts.

This year’s top awards will include:

• A Best of Industry WebAward will be given in each of the 96 industry categories, including financial services, medical, small business, travel, advertising, transportation and government.

• The competition’s highest honor, the 2010 WebAward “Best of Show,” will be given to the one site that the judges believe represents the pinnacle of outstanding achievement in Web development. Last year’s Best of Show winner was Organic, Inc. for its outstanding work on "Bank of America - Morris on Campus" web site at http://www.bankofamerica.com/oncampus, which also won Best Bank Website.

• The Web Marketing Association will also recognize the interactive agency winning the most awards in the competition with the “Top Interactive Agency” WebAward. The 2009 Top Agency award was Extractable (http://www.extractable.com/) taking home 25 WebAwards. This Bay Area interactive agency specializing in web strategy, web design, custom technology, was recognized with five Outstanding Website WebAwards and 20 Standard of Excellence WebAwards.

Judging for the 2010 WebAwards will take place in June through August and winners will be announced in September. Judges will consist of a select group of Internet professionals who have direct experience designing and managing Web sites,–including members of the media, interactive creative directors, site designers, content providers and webmasters – with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and technology. Past judges have included top executives from leading organizations such as A&E Television Networks, Agency.com, BGT Partners, Blattner Brunner, Bridge Worldwide, The Cincinnati Enquirer, Comedy Central, Disney, Euro RSCG, Ion Global, J. Walter Thompson, John Deere Company, New York Post Interactive, Organic, Inc., Refinery, R/GA, Saatchi & Saatchi, SAP, Starwood Hotels, Sun Microsystems, Warner Bros. Online, Xerox and Zugara.

The 2010 WebAwards are sponsored by the following leading organizations: BGT Partners, PR Newswire, Burst Media, AllBusiness.com, ExactTarget, ad:tech conferences, Internet World UK, Search Engine Strategies, Webmaster Radio, and Website Magazine. The Web Marketing Association thanks these companies for their commitment to the entire online marketing community.

Web Marketing Association Announces the Winners of the 2010 Internet Advertising Competition Awards

The Web Marketing Association announces the winners of its annual Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards, an effort to honor excellence in online advertising and to recognize the individuals and organizations responsible for the best in Internet marketing. The IAC Awards are the first and only industry-based advertising award competition dedicated exclusively to online advertising.

2010 Best of Show Awards were awarded in each of the online medium categories. This year's winners include:

e-Dialog for e-Dialog 2009 Holiday Card (Best of Show Email message)
Conde Nast Digital for Proctor & Gamble: Must Have Its (Best of Show Online campaign)
Dean Media Group for Platform Addict (Best of Show Ads the client did not pick)
Bridge Worldwide for Pasta Al Denta Banners (Best of Show Integrated ad campaign)
Biggs|Gilmore for Gliders (Best of Show Interactive application)
Biggs|Gilmore for Video Recipes (Best of Show Online Video)
Biggs|Gilmore for FrootLoops.com (Best of Show Website)
COSSETTEfor Living Breathless (Best of Show Rich media Online ad)
Y&R New York and VML for Give It A Ponder (Best of Show Rich media Online campaign)
imc2 for Pizza Hut iPhone App (Best of Show Mobile application)
PGATOUR.COM and Datran Media's StormPostfor PGATOUR.COM Scores Hole in One with Video in Email (Best of Show Email message campaign)
Mattel & Razorfish for Hot Wheels Battle Force 5 (Best of Show Online ad)
Miles Media for VISIT FLORIDA (Best of Show Online Newsletter campaign)

Biggs|Gilmore of Kalamazoo, MI was recognized for the second year in a row with the 2010 Top Agency Award, winning 16 IAC Awards. Their awards include 3 Best of Show awards, 9 Best of Industry awards and 7 Outstanding awards.

Other IAC Award winners who received at least five awards included:

AGENCY (number of award winning entries)

Biggs|Gilmore 16
Bridge Worldwide 10
VML 10
BlueRush 9
Conde Nast Digital 8
Organic, Inc. 7
USDM.net 7
Aristotle 6
BGT Partners 6
Disney Parks & Resorts Online 6
Hitchcock Fleming & Associates 6
COSSETTE 5
John Hancock 5
Leopard 5
Razorfish 5
The Kaplan Thaler Group 5
Y&R 5


The Competition web site with a complete list of winners is located at www.IACAward.org

Free Full Pass to Attend ad:tech Conference

ad:tech Conference will be held in San Francisco on April 20-24. If you would like a chance to attend this conference for free, send your contact information, including name, title, company, and address to adtech@WebAward.org by March 31st to enter our drawing for a full conference pass.

This is a great conference every year and you can stop by the expo hall and say hello to the Web Marketing Association in booth #6383.

Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup

Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup
May 24-25
Hotel Nikko San Francisco

The 2010 Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup is where top brand, corporate and social marketers, media professionals, educators and non-profit organizations gather to share best practices, research and latest strategies on marketing to youth with technology.

For more info go to http://mashup.ypulse.com/

CMO Council's 4th Annual Marketing Outlook Study

Our friends over at the CMO Council are working on their 4th Annual Marketing Outlook Study which will be a valuable and reliable barometer of media and marketing spend, as well as a sound indicator of where and how marketers expect to drive campaign effectiveness, efficiency and yield in the months ahead.

Please take a few moments and take the survey to help the entire online marketing community be better prepared for the future.

IAC Award Winners to be Announced

Today the nominators in the 2010 Internet Advertising Competition Awards received an email to log in to their nominator account to see the results of their entries.

On Monday, the results will be available to the entire world at www.iacaward.orghttp://www.iacaward.org.

The ordering of award trophies and certificates for the winners will be available on Monday as well.

Search Engine Strategies Conference Pass Drawing Winners

Congratulations to Becca Holder-Otte, Web Manager at Banner Health and Adrienne Knox, Director of Marketing at Briefings Media Group who are the winners of the free Conference Pass to Search Engine Strategies New York, March 23-25 from the Web Marketing Association.

For more information go to http://www.searchenginestrategies.com/newyork/