Inaugural nominations for The Drum Search Awards unveiled
The Drum Search Awards finalists have been announced having been judged by a panel that included chairman Matt Bush, head of performance at Google, David Harling, head of digital at Moneysupermarket.com Group, Stuart Bryce, senior digital marketing manager (Search) at O2 UK and Lindsay Rowntree, search director, UK at Starcom MediaVest Group.
The first year of the awards will be sponsored by Yahoo, Google and Bing and includes categories such as; Performance Agency of the Year (Paid Search Agency of the Year), Best Integrated Strategy or Campaign, Best Travel/Leisure/Sports Campaign and Best Use of Technology – PPC, among several more.
The judging panel consisted of:
- Stuart Bryce, senior digital marketing manager (Search) at O2 UK Telefónica UK
- David Harling, head of digital at Moneysupermarket.com Group,
- Rob Hammond, head of SEO at Trinity Mirror
- David Freeman, business director - SEO at Havas Media
- Jon Myers, VP & managing director EMEA at Marin Software
- Paul Mead, Founder & MD at VCCP Media, Matt Bush, head of performance at Google
- Andrew Girdwood, media innovations director at DigitasLBi
- Zoey Chant, group head of SEO at lastminute.com
- Colm Bracken, head of search advertising, UK at Microsoft
- Edward (Teddie) Cowell, director of SEO UK and International at MediaCom
- Chris Whitelaw, chief executive at iProspect
- Lindsay Rowntree, search director, UK at Starcom MediaVest Group
- Andrew Harries, head of digital performance at OMD UK
- Ross Jenkins, global managing director, Performance Media at Lowe Profero
- Lyndsay Menzies, chief executive at 8 Million Stories
Chairman Matt Bush, commented: “Search is, in my somewhat biased opinion, the most effective and efficient ad platform of all time, and is also (arguably) the first real-time, programmatic, data-led, native, contextually-aware marketing channel. Others have followed.
"Search is also the 'Database of Intentions', giving both a long-term and right-now view of what the world is really thinking and feeling. Search is honest, intimate and truthful. So Search data can be used to fuel and power all marcomms, not just Search and digital channels - it can be the foundation of all decisions, however, Search doesn't always get the spotlight it maybe should!
"The Drum Search awards will shine the light on the great work that is being done in search - from the basics of driving digital performance to creativity in mobile, from feed-based advertising to deep data integrations, from offline to online to store and maybe back again. We know there is some fantastic creativity in search, building out marketing models for the future, The Drum Search Awards will showcase the very best.”
The full list of nominations can be found on The Drum Search Awards website, with the winning finalists being announced at the awards ceremony on 9 June in the Marriott in Grosvenor square. Tables can also be booked through the awards website.