Category: Award Winning Agencies

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Web Marketing Association to Name Best Websites of 2020

The Web Marketing Association has opened its 24th annual international WebAward competition call for entries.  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 in 96 industries all over the world who create and maintain outstanding Web sites.  The deadline for entry for the 2020 WebAwards is May 29, 2020.  A complete list of past winners and this year’s entry form can be found at www.webaward.org.

Websites 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 2020 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 is presented to  UP Hotel Internet Marketing for winning the 2019 Best of Show WebAward for their excellent work on Qbic which also won Best Hotel and Lodging Website.

The Web Marketing Association will also recognize the interactive agency winning the most awards in the competition with the “Top Interactive Agency” WebAward. WSI was named Top Agency at the 2019 WebAward Competition, , taking home 15 WebAwards last year. The Top Agency Award is given to recognize the consistently outstanding development going on at interactive firms.

The WebAward Top Agency award recognizes consistency of effort and is given to the interactive agency that wins the most WebAwards in a given year. All locations and offices of a specific agency will be consolidated for the purpose of determining the winner of this award. Each entrant will be awarded points based on the level of award for each award received. A Best of Show will be worth 10 points, Best of Industry 5 points and each Outstanding award 3 points and a Standard of Excellence 1 point. The agency with the most points will be awarded the Top Agency Award for 2020.

Each year, many agencies and some corporations win multiple awards and deserve additional recognition. This year, we will recognize each organization that wins 6 or more WebAwards with an Outstanding Interactive Developer trophy. In 2018, there were 13 agencies recognized with this prestigious award.

Interactive and advertising agencies that win a 2020 WebAward will automatically be included in the Award Winning Agency Database with a free premium listing.

Judging for the 2020 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 Universal McCann, SapientNitro, T Rowe Price, Bridge Worldwide, Disney, Euro RSCG, Boeing, Huge, ING Direct, IBM, VML, Facebook, J. Walter Thompson, Gartner, Possible Worldwide, YUM!, Cuker Interactive, PayPal, Razorfish, Munich Re, Refinery, Ernst & Young, Magellan Health Service, Microsoft, R/GA, Family Cookbook Project, Saatchi & Saatchi, SAP, Starwood Hotel, and Website Magazine.

Check out our Web Marketing Association Facebook Page and be sure to like us as we will be providing hints and tips on how to improve your chances on winning a top award though out the award program entry period.

The 2020 WebAwards are sponsored by the following leading organizations: iContact, PR.com, and Webmaster Radio. The Web Marketing Association thanks these companies for their commitment to the entire online marketing community.

To enter the 24th annual WebAward Competition for Website Development, please visit our website and create a nominator account.

 

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The Best Online Advertising To Be Recognized By Web Marketing Association

IAC Award Crystal StatueThe Web Marketing Association announces the Call for Entries for the 18th annual Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Awards. The IAC Awards are the first and only industry-based advertising award competition dedicated exclusively to online advertising. This international award program will evaluate all forms of online advertising, including email, page-based ads, online newsletters, mobile apps, Websites, video, social media and voice skills in 96 industry categories. The Competition Web site is located at www.iacaward.org and the deadline for entry is January 31, 2020.

“Online advertising is driving creative achievement for many companies,” said William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association.  “We created the IAC Awards to highlight the best in this unique advertising medium by industry, and also to help advertising professionals validate their efforts to clients and senior management. The IAC Awards can provide third party confirmation that clients are getting the best creative for their ad dollars.  Winning awards is a great way to demonstrate your creative potential.”

The Internet Advertising Competition Awards are open to all organizations and individuals (advertising and interactive agencies, corporate marketing departments, small business owners, etc.) involved in the process of developing Internet advertising. Entries may be submitted online at http://www.iacaward.org. The deadline for entry is January 31, 2020 and will be judged on creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting, and use of the medium.

Awards will be presented within each of the industry categories and advertising formats including:

Best Social Media Campaign

Best Online ad (including banner, pop-up or interstitial)

Best Rich media online ad

Best Email message

Best Online newsletter

Best Website (including best landing pages and best microsites)

Best Online video

Best Mobile applications

Best Voice Skills or Actions

Best Integrated ad campaign

Best of show award for each format will be selected from among the industry winners. Ads eligible for entry in the competition must have run during the period from January 1, 2019 through January 31, 2020.

Interactive agencies that win multiple awards will also be in the running for Top Agency Award. Each entrant will be awarded points based on the level of award for each award received. A Best of Show will be worth 5 points, Best of Industry 3 points and each Outstanding award 1 point. The agency with the most points will be awarded the Top Agency Award. Agencies winning an IAC Award will also be automatically included in the Award Winning Agencies Database.

In an effort to recognize those organizations that demonstrate exceptional development skills across multiple entries, agencies that win more the 6 awards will also be recognized with an Outstanding Advertising Developer award from the Web Marketing Association. In 2019, eight agencies won this honor.

Judging for the IAC Awards will take place in February, 2020. Judges will consist of a select group of Internet advertising professionals with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web advertising. Past competition judges have included top executives from leading corporations, institutions and media organizations such as Arc Worldwide, Beeby Clark+Meyler, Brunner Digital, Campbell-Ewald, CNN, Deep Interactive Asia, Digitas, EuroRSCG 4D, Google, IBM Interactive, JWT, Mastercard, McCann Worldgroup, Possible, SapientRazorfish, Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Small Army, Tectis GmbH, TMP Worldwide, Universal McCann Interactive and Wunderman / Y&R.

The 2020 Internet Advertising Competition Awards are sponsored by PR.Com, EContent Magazine, iContact, WebMaster Radio and Website Magazine.

A complete list of past winners can be found at the IAC Award Website.

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Best Websites Named in 96 Industries Named By Web Marketing Association

The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the winners of its 23rd annual WebAward Competition for Web site development. Entries from 43 countries were adjudicated in 96 industry categories during this year’s competition. Entries were judged on design, copy writing, innovation, content, interactivity, navigation, and use of technology.

A complete list of the winning sites can be found at the WebAward Web site at www.webaward.org.

 

Best of Show

The 2019 Best of Show WebAward is presented to UP Hotel Internet Marketing for their outstanding work on Qbic.  The site was also recognized as Best Hotel and Lodging Website.  Qbic’s first London hotel is at the heart of what is London’s most lively square mile with some of the city’s best street food, art galleries, boutiques, creative businesses and nightlife, all glued together with local people who make it more than just a tourist spot. Qbic is now broadening its reach to Brussels and Manchester and positioning itself as a hotel group.

 

Top Agency

WSI was named Top Agency at the 2019 WebAward Competition, taking home 15 WebAwards and earning 45 quality point this year. The Top Agency Award is given to recognize the consistently outstanding development going on at interactive firms.  The agency was recognized in the 2019 WebAwards for Best B2B Website, Best Medical Website, Best Restaurant Website, Best Home Building Website, five Outstanding Website WebAwards and six Standard of Excellence WebAwards.

WSI is the largest digital marketing network of its kind and have partners and clients in every corner of the world. We have the passion and expertise to help any business do better marketing – no matter where they are located.

 

13 agencies or companies were also recognized as Outstanding Website Developer for winning six or more WebAwards in 2019. They include:

AGENCY (Number of Awards)

TMP Worldwide 14

Forum One 10

Vital 10

Postali LLC 9

Patients & Purpose 8

theOrigo Ltd.8

Thomson Reuters 8

UP Hotel Internet Marketing 7

TravelClick an Amadeus company 7

Miles 6

TopSpot Marketing 6

Scorpion 6

eSolutionsGroup 6

 

Competition format

The competition was judged by a team of independent Internet professionals representing a variety of relevant disciplines of Web site development. Judges included members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, creative directors, corporate marketing executives, content providers and webmasters.

The WebAward competition format allows Web sites to compete head to head with other sites within their industry to win the Best of Industry award.  Entries also compete against a standard of excellence to win Outstanding Website and Standard of Excellence WebAwards.  Each site is judged on seven different criteria and earns a score between 0 and 70 points.  The highest score in a given category wins Best of Industry for that category. If the remaining entries receive a score of 60 or greater, they receive the Outstanding Web site award. Entries that score higher than their industry average and below 59.9 receive the Standard of Excellence.

The 2019 WebAwards are sponsored by the following leading organizations: PR.com, EContent Magazine, Webmaster Radio, iContact, and Website Magazine.

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Web Marketing Association Announces the Winners of the 2019 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. The Competition web site with a complete list of winners is located at www.IACAward.org

“In 2019, digital advertising is expected to account for more than 50% of total US media ad spending for the first time. As more and more marketing dollars are poured into online advertising, the creativity and excellence in online advertising continues to rise,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association, Inc.  “The Web Marketing Association is pleased to help set the standard for Internet excellence with the IAC Awards by highlight the best in online advertising by medium and industry.”

 

Best of Show Winners

These Best of Show winners represent the pinnacle of achievement across all industries.  The Web Marketing Association is pleased to help set the standard for Internet excellence with the IAC Awards by highlight the best in online advertising by medium and industry.

 

Here are this year’s Best of Show winners:

IBM Watson Advertising for IBM Watson Advertising and Behr Paint: IBM Watson Ads winner of Best of Show Online ad

Undertone, Havas, & Huge for Undertone for Airheads/Perfetti winner of Best of Show Online campaign

true[X] + Fox Networks Group + SONIC for SONIC winner of Best of Show Rich media Online ad

Takis, OmniVirt, Starcom for Takis winner of Best of Show Rich media Online campaign

Zeta Creative | Giant Food Stores for Giant Food Stores Halloween Sweet Spot winner of Best of Show Email message

TMV Group for Faygo Email Newsletter winner of Best of Show Email message campaign

Spartan for Spartan Life Newsletter winner of Best of Show Online Newsletter campaign

Heat for Westworld: Build a Better World winner of Best of Show Integrated ad campaign

Heat for Wild Turkey: 101 Years, No Apologies winner of Best of Show Social Media campaign

Thermo Fisher Scientific for Cell Counting Music Video winner of Best of Show Online Video

Hong Kong Trade Development Council for HKTDC Marketplace App winner of Best of Show Mobile application

Heat for Words With Friends 2 winner of Best of Show Interactive Application

PPK Advertising for The Monopoly Jackpot In It To Spin It Live winner of Best Of Show Online Video Campaign

Visit St. Pete/Clearwater and Miles Partnership for Visit St. Pete/Clearwater’s “Central Avenue” winner of Best of Show Website

 

Top Agency Winners

The Web Marketing Association recognizes the agency that demonstrates consistent excellence in online advertising development by winning more IAC Awards than any of their peers in a single competition. Each entrant was awarded points based on the level of award for each award received. The agency with the most points is awarded the Top Agency Award.

TMV Group is recognized with the 2019 Top Agency Award, winning 21 IAC Award winning entries, including a Best of Show award, 15 Best of industry awards 5 Outstanding awards and a total of 115 quality points towards the Top Agency Award. TMV Group is a Detroit-based independent branding agency focused on creating strategically grounded creative in digital, social media, broadcast and website design.

Eight additional organizations were recognized as Outstanding Advertising Developers in the 2019 IAC Awards for winning 6 or more awards. They are:

AGENCY (number of awards)

TMP Worldwide                    15

Patients & Purpose                9

Zeta                                           8

Miles Partnership                   8

Heat                                           8

INNOCEAN USA                    6

TravelClick                               6

true[X]                                      6

 

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

 

The Web Marketing Association is now accepting entries for the 23rd annual WebAward Competition for Web site development.  Deadline for entry is May 31, 2019.

 

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Award Winning Interactive Agency Database

Finding an “award winning” interactive agency has just gotten easier to find online. The Web Marketing Association has just launched a new website that has brought together advertising agencies and interactive agencies who have won recognition in major award programs.  This new searchable database of award winning interactive agencies is found at www.AwardWinningInteractiveAgencies.com

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Overcoming a Google Penalty: How SEO Inc. Increased a Client’s Organic Traffic by Over 170%

Here at SEO Inc., prospects and new clients often reach out to us because their website’s rankings are suffering from a Google penalty. They usually come to us for two reasons:

1) They have been penalized algorithmically, meaning their site has drawn the unwanted attention of a Google algorithm like Panda or Penguin. These algorithms are designed to decrease website rankings when they find things like low quality content or spammy links.

2) They have been penalized manually by Google. Usually this is the result of their previous SEO company having engaged in blackhat link building tactics.

SEO1

We recently had a new client reach out to us because he suspected his current web development company was doing something illegitimate to his site, which was causing it to lose traffic. He had recently relaunched his website with a modern and responsive design, and he had signed up for SEO with the same company. However, aside from some recent positive traction, organic traffic wasn’t nearly what it had been in previous years or even recent months. In fact, it had decreased significantly.

SEO2

Our client was fairly SEO-savvy, so right away he noticed that some things had not been done with the new site, which raised some major red flags.

Missing redirections. A lot of the old pages had not been redirected to the new pages on the site. This means the SEO value of the old URL’s was not being passed to the new URL’s.

Missing alt text. Many of the images were missing alt text, which provide essential information that allows blind or handicapped users to browse the site.

Slow website speed. Our client believed his website seemed slower than it should have been.

Needless to say, he wasn’t satisfied with the results and depth of knowledge exhibited by his previous company.

Our Goal

SEO Inc. resolved to work with our new client to restore his rankings to a consistent level and increase his organic traffic using legitimate, proven SEO strategies. We would perform an audit of his entire website, essentially leaving no stone unturned as we inspected his site on a page-by-page basis as well as on the whole to root out and remove toxic links. We would also aim to improve his on page optimization, leveraging unique content and keyword distribution to enhance relevancy and authority for his pages.

Link Detox

SEO3

Once we could review the client’s website in depth, we made a startling discovery – his previous company had been building links to his website using black hat SEO tactics. They had used a common tactic called a Private Blog Network (PBN). This was a network of WordPress sites this company owned and operated, and its sole purpose was to publish articles that would link back to their clients’ websites using exact match, money (high value) anchor text. This PBN was particularly easy to identify, as all the sites under it linked to each other and pointed back to this company’s website as well – a clear sign of black hat webspam and of trying to “cheat” the ranking system.

Because we could identify the PBN so easily, we knew it was only a short matter of time before Google would crack down on our client, having issued manual penalties in the past for using PBNs to artificially inflate rankings.

Our Solution

Once our client came onboard, we performed a thorough link detox of his site. This process involved looking at each backlink pointing toward his site and immediately disavowing the PBN sites. In the days and weeks following the Google algorithm Penguin 4.0 (which targets webspam in real-time and rolled out in fall of last year), we saw a noticeable increase in organic traffic to our client’s site.

Page Speed and Image Optimization

Another challenge was to correct our client’s 404 errors that his previous company had ignored. Optimizing the website’s page speed and load times became another large focus of the project. We did indeed find that the website was performing at a less than ideal speed, which when combined with the lack of redirects, would make for a poor user experience and reduce the sites organic visibility.

Our Solution>

We worked to make sure that all our client’s old URLs were redirected to their new counterparts. This would allow the pages to carry over the “link juice” value to the new site, preserving the flow of traffic from the old pages to the new.

We took advantage of several newer technologies to take the website’s page speed to new levels, specifically HTTP/2 and PHP7. HTTP/2 replaced the older, slower HTTP website protocol, while PHP7 provided a stronger scripting language for web development purposes.

As for his images, we compressed all of the images on his website losslessly using the WordPress plugin WP Smush and used W3 Total Cache to combine and reduce the number of CSS & JS resources used. This would cut back on the amount of scripting needed to load the website. We also added descriptive alt text to his images, optimizing them to be able to be understood by users with disabilities and adhering to ADA standards.

Page Speed States Before Implementation:

SEO4

Page Speed States After Implementation:

SEO5

On Page Optimization

Once we had taken care of the mission critical SEO tasks, we could shift our focus to his on page optimization. His previous company had implemented a damaging keyword strategy that goes against Google’s guidelines. We found numerous instances of overlapping and duplicated keywords in his meta tags and headers. Since so many pages shared the same focus keywords, a lot of his pages were prevented from ranking for additional key terms.

Our Solution

We discussed with our client how to ensure a strong keyword strategy for each page by positioning the keywords to target a specific service or topic. Then, we incorporated them into unique content with no overlap between pages.

Rich Snippet Optimization

SEO6

In addition to the on page optimization work, we also added various structured data formats to enhance the site’s search result listings and click through rate. We created a testimonials page on his website to list all of his reviews and ratings and then added AggregateRating Review Structured Data to showcase his 5 star rating in the search results. We also added Breadcrumb markup to make the URL listing more digestible and appealing to both search engines and users. In addition to the structured data mentioned above, we added the following additional formats:

These additional formats allowed his site to gain added value from Google’s search results listings, as they are now eligible to be featured in prominent sections on the page.

White Hat Link Building Campaign

Last but not least, we took a purely white hat approach to building links to our client’s site. Unlike the previous company’s tactics of forging backlinks using an illegitimate PBN, we wanted to provide real value to his website and his visitors by building links that were related to his industry. We were able to leverage services such as HARO (Help a Reporter Out), which connects journalists with experts to answer their questions using thorough research and know-how to create the foundation for a strong link profile for our client.

Conclusion

We are pleased to report that after our on page optimization efforts, page speed improvements, rich snippet additions, and the implementation of our keyword and content and strategy, our client’s website performance increased drastically:

  • Organic traffic increased by 170%
  • Page load time reduced from 4.8 seconds to 1.2 seconds
  • Page sizes reduced from 2.68 MB to 676 KB

We are thrilled to have helped pull our client out of his SEO troubles, securing his site and making it more appealing to human users and search engines.

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Award Winning Interactive Agency Database

Finding an “award winning” interactive agency has just gotten easier to find online. The Web Marketing Association has just launched a new website that has brought together advertising agencies and interactive agencies who have won recognition in major award programs.  This new searchable database of award winning interactive agencies is found at www.AwardWinningInteractiveAgencies.com

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Top Mobile Interactive Agency To Be Named

The Web Marketing Association will also recognize the interactive agency winning the most awards in the MobileWebAward competition with the “Top Interactive Agency” Award this year.

TMP Worldwide was named Top Interactive Agency for the 2016 MobileWebAwards competition. They received 11 awards, including: Best of Show Mobile Website, Best Employment Mobile Website, Best Marketing Mobile Website, Best Technology Mobile Website and 9 Outstanding Mobile Website Awards.

Enter the MobileWebAwards and be recognized for your best work.

 

 

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2017 WebAward Winners Announcement Date Set

2017 WebAward Competition for Website DevelopmentWinners of the 21st annual WebAward Competition will be publicly announced on the award program website on September 7, 2017. At this time, the Web Marketing Association will announce the Best of Show winner as well as Top Agency winner. In addition, we will announce the 96 Best of Industry winners as well as the Outstanding Websites and Standard of Excellence winners.

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Time to Enter the 2017 MobileWebAwards

The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the call for entries for its 6th annual international MobileWebAward competition.  It recognizes the individual and team achievements of Web professionals all over the world who create and maintain outstanding mobile Websites and mobile applications.  The deadline for entry in the 2017 MobileWebAwards is September 29, 2017.  The entry form for this award program can be found at http://www.mobile-webaward.org.

“If a company is not effectively using mobile to reach it’s audience, it is dead in the water.” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association.  “The goal of the MobileWebAwards is to both recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective mobile Web sites and mobile apps on the Internet. Whether a responsive website, mobile-specific website or a mobile app, our expert judges will select the best offerings in 96 industries.”

The MobileWebAwards were judged on seven criteria seen as requirements for a success mobile website or mobile app. They include Creativity, Impact, Design, Content, Interactivity, Ease of use and Use of the medium. Each mobile website or mobile app entry is judged against other entries of the same format in its industry category and then against an overall standard of excellence.

This year’s top awards will include:

  • A “Best of Industry” MobileWebAward 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 2017 MobileWebAward “Best of Show,” will be given to the one best mobile website and one best mobile app that the judges believe represents the pinnacle of outstanding achievement in Web development.
  • The Web Marketing Association will also recognize the interactive agency winning the most awards in the competition with the “Top Interactive Agency” WebAward.
  • Each organization that wins 5 or more MobileWebAwards will be awarded an Outstanding Mobile Interactive Developer trophy.

Last year’s top awards winners were:

TMP Worldwide won Best of Show Mobile Website for Unexpected Accenture – You View, which also was recognized as Best Employment Mobile Website. Unexpected Accenture – You View’s goal is to get people excited about a career in technology by bringing case studies to life through the people who worked on them.

Ormco Corporation won Best of Show Mobile Application for Bethany Hamilton Damon™ Smile Emoji Keyboard, which also was awarded Best Mobile Mobile Application. The Bethany Hamilton Damon Smile Emoji keyboard is the first app that supports teens and adults undergoing orthodontic treatment by leveraging the power of mobile messaging apps to enhance the power of self-confidence.

TMP Worldwide was named Top Interactive Agency for the 2016 MobileWebAwards competition. They received 11 awards, including: Best of Show Mobile Website, Best Employment Mobile Website, Best Marketing Mobile Website, Best Technology Mobile Website and 9 Outstanding Mobile Website Awards.

Two organization were recognized with the Outstanding Mobile Interactive Developer for winning five or more MobileWebAwards. They were TravelClick Inc, and TopSpot Internet Marketing.

Award Judging

Judging for the 2017 MobileWebAwards will take place in October and winners are expected to be announced in late December.  Judges will consist of a select group of Internet professionals who have direct experience designing and managing mobile Websites,–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 WebAward  judges have included top executives from leading organizations such as A&E Television Networks, Agency.com, BGT Partners, 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 Website Magazine.

Sponsors

The 2017 MobileWebAwards are sponsored by the following leading organizations: Website Magazine, PR.com, iContact, EContent Magazine, and SEO Inc. The Web Marketing Association thanks these companies for their commitment to the entire online marketing community.