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Web Marketing Association’s 10th Annual Web Site Awards to Recognize Outstanding Internet Achievement in 96 Industry Categories

The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the call for entries for its 10th annual international WebAward competition. The WebAwards is 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 2006 WebAwards is May 31, 2006. A complete list of past winners and this year’s entry form can be found at www.webaward.org.

“The WebAwards is different from other Web site award programs because we’re not just a beauty pageant focused on name recognition and design,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “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. 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.

Using the quantifiable data collected from nearly 10,000 Web site evaluations over the past decade, the WebAwards has defined and recognized industry-specific benchmarks for successful Web sites in each of these areas and release a the Internet Standards Assessment Report to communicate the findings of the study. A copy of the study is available at www.webaward.org.

This year’s top awards will include:

* A “Best of Industry” WebAward, a handsome plaque with the image of the winning site embossed, will be given in each of the 96 industry categories, including financial services, medical, small business, travel, advertising, transportation and government. New categories for this year include Blogs, Architecture, Electronics and Photography.

* The competition’s highest honor, the 2006 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 based IQ interactive (www.iqtv.com), for their outstanding work on “National Geographic – Inside The Mafia” at URL www.insidethemafia.com.

* The Web Marketing Association will also recognize the interactive agency winning the most awards in the competition with the “Top Interactive Agency” WebAward. The 2005 Top Agency award was presented Zugara (www.zugara.com), taking home 20 awards, more that any other organization in the history of the competition.

Judging for the 2006 WebAwards will take place in June through August, with winners announced in September. Judges will consist of a select group of Internet professionals who have direct experience designing and managing corporate Web sites,–including members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, content providers and webmasters – with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and technology. Mark Kingdon, CEO of Organic, Inc. has been selected to lead the judging panel this year. Past judges have included top executives from leading organizations such as Ogilvy Interactive, Saatchi & Saatchi, Blattner Brunner, Comedy Central, Sun Microsystems, Refinery, Euro RSCG, EPB Interactive, New York Post Interactive, The Cincinnati Enquirer, J. Walter Thompson, Xerox, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Modem Media, and Answerthink.

The 2006 WebAward Competition current sponsors include Burst Media, SimpleFeed, Register.com, NewsUSA, AdTools Inc, Small Army, Perseus Development Corp and PRWeb. Media Sponsors include Website Services Magazine, AdRants, MarketingVox, MediaPost, eComXpo, Ad:Tech and Macworld. The Web Marketing Association thanks all of its sponsors for helping to make this annual competition possible.

About the WebAwards

The 10th annual international WebAwards competition sets the standard of excellence in 95 industry categories by evaluating Web sites and defining benchmarks based on the seven essential criteria of successful Web site development. The goal of the Web Marketing Association, sponsor of the WebAwards, is to provide a forum to recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today. Entrants benefit from a Web site assessment by a professional judging panel and the marketing opportunities presented to an award-winning Web site. For more information, visit www.webaward.org.

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Web Marketing Association’s 10th Annual Web Site Awards to Recognize Outstanding Internet Achievement in 96 Industry Categories

The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the call for entries for its 10th annual international WebAward competition.  The WebAwards is 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 2006 WebAwards is May 31, 2006.  A complete list of past winners and this year’s entry form can be found at www.webaward.org.

“The WebAwards is different from other Web site award programs because we’re not just a beauty pageant focused on name recognition and design,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association.  “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.  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. 

Using the quantifiable data collected from nearly 10,000 Web site evaluations over the past decade, the WebAwards has defined and recognized industry-specific benchmarks for successful Web sites in each of these areas and release a the Internet Standards Assessment Report to communicate the findings of the study.  A copy of the study is available at www.webaward.org.

This year’s top awards will include:

* A “Best of Industry” WebAward, a handsome plaque with the image of the winning site embossed, will be given in each of the 96 industry categories, including financial services, medical, small business, travel, advertising, transportation and government.  New categories for this year include Blogs, Architecture, Electronics and Photography.

* The competition’s highest honor, the 2006 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 based IQ interactive (www.iqtv.com), for their outstanding work on "National Geographic – Inside The Mafia" at URL www.insidethemafia.com. 

* The Web Marketing Association will also recognize the interactive agency winning the most awards in the competition with the “Top Interactive Agency” WebAward. The 2005 Top Agency award was presented Zugara (www.zugara.com), taking home 20 awards, more that any other organization in the history of the competition.

Judging for the 2006 WebAwards will take place in June through August, with winners announced in September.  Judges will consist of a select group of Internet professionals who have direct experience designing and managing corporate Web sites,–including members of the media, advertising executives, site designers, content providers and webmasters – with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and technology. Mark Kingdon, CEO of Organic, Inc. has been selected to lead the judging panel this year.  Past judges have included top executives from leading organizations such as Ogilvy Interactive, Saatchi & Saatchi, Blattner Brunner, Comedy Central, Sun Microsystems, Refinery, Euro RSCG, EPB Interactive, New York Post Interactive, The Cincinnati Enquirer, J. Walter Thompson, Xerox, Art Institute of Pittsburgh, Modem Media, and Answerthink.

The 2006 WebAward Competition current sponsors include Burst Media, SimpleFeed, Register.com, NewsUSA, AdTools Inc, Small Army, Perseus Development Corp and PRWeb.  Media Sponsors include Website Services Magazine, AdRants, MarketingVox, MediaPost, eComXpo, Ad:Tech and Macworld. The Web Marketing Association thanks all of its sponsors for helping to make this annual competition possible.

About the WebAwards

The 10th annual international WebAwards competition sets the standard of excellence in 95 industry categories by evaluating Web sites and defining benchmarks based on the seven essential criteria of successful Web site development.  The goal of the Web Marketing Association, sponsor of the WebAwards, is to provide a forum to recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today.  Entrants benefit from a Web site assessment by a professional judging panel and the marketing opportunities presented to an award-winning Web site.  For more information, visit www.webaward.org.

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WebMaster World

The Web Marketing Association will be participating in
several of the leading industry conferences this year. Here is your opportunity
to participate in important educational sessions while networking with other
industry professionals. Here a leading industry conference that we
recommend.

WebMaster World
Apr 18-20, 2006, Hynes
Convention Center, Boston
WebmasterWorld’s PubCon is an educational
conference and industry trade show programmed specifically for web professionals
and website site owners. The event will be opened with a Keynote Speech by best
selling author Malcolm Gladwell, writer of ‘The Tipping Point,’ and ‘Blink.’

The conference has four tracks each day and these include
sessions focusing on some of today’s hottest Internet topics. The tracks are:
Organic Search & General Webmaster Issues, Paid Search (PPC), Affiliates
& Advertising, and the highly popular Site Reviews. In addition, the highly
rated networking event gives attendees the opportunity to meet and discuss their
individual issues with the other attendees, speakers and businesses. The event
is supported by the Industry’s leading businesses as speakers, exhibitors, and
sponsors, including Ask, Google, Microsoft’s MSN Search and Yahoo!.

For more information go to www.pubcon.com A limited number of participants
can receive 25% off the full conference rate by entering code "wm-80625" when
registering.

Vistit us at booth #406 and learn more about the 2006 WebAward competition.

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eComXpo Panel

Bill Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association, will be moderating a panel at eComXpo, a virtual trade show
for eCommerce marketers. Joining him will be Chris Colborn, VP Interaction
Design, R/GA, Jeff Freedman, Marketing Principal, Small Army, and Michelle
Gugick, Associate Director of Interactive, Ernst & Young. The title of the
panel is Building an Award-Winning Web site: Current Trends in Web
development from the Judges of the 2006 WebAwards. Please join us for this
informative discussion. Attending the event is completely free, and registration
is now open at www.ecomxpo.com.

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PRWeb Podcast of ISAR Study

PRWeb, a sponsor of the 2006 WebAwards, has created a podcast interview of William Rice, President of the Web Marketing Association, discussing the major finding of the recently released Internet Standards Assessment Report (ISAR).

Entitled "Breakthrough Internet Study Sets Benchmarks for Web Site Development " the podcast is currently live and is listed on the main page under "Most Recent Podcasts" and in the "Most Recent Podcasts" RSS feed. 
(http://prwebpodcast.com/feed/recent.xml).  

It can also be found under the approriate iTunes category feeds on this page (http://prwebpodcast.com/podlist.php).

You can find the podcast in various formats on this page: http://prwebpodcast.com/releases/pod137.htm)
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ad:tech Conference

The Web Marketing Association will be participating in
several of the leading industry conferences this year. Here is your opportunity
to participate in important educational sessions while networking with other
industry professionals. Here a leading industry conference that we
recommend.

ad:tech
Apr 26-28, San Francisco
The #1
Event for Interactive Marketing. Join us at ad:tech San Francisco for
groundbreaking sessions, a hands-on technology showcase, enhanced networking
opportunities, and sizzling parties.

Save 20% by registering with our promotional code: ATSFEG.
Learn more and register at: www.ad-tech.com/sf.asp

Visit us at booth #5751 and learn more about the 2006 WebAward competition.

 

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Burst Media Sponsors WebAwrd Competition once again

Burst Media has been
named a 2006 sponsor of the Web Marketing Association’s 10th annual WebAward
Competition. The WebAwards is the
standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks based on the seven
criteria of a successful Web site.   

"We are pleased to have Burst
Media helping us to promote the WebAward
Competition again this year," said William Rice, President of the Web
Marketing Association. "Burst’s
network of sites has given us outstanding reach for our advertising
campaigns.  Burst Media makes it easy for us to execute and analyze our advertising strategy on
many sites that would normally not be available to us".

"Helping support the online marketing community is an important part of
Burst Media’s philosophy," said Jarvis Coffin, President and CEO of the Burst
Media. "As a past WebAward winner, we recognize the value of participating
in a program such as the WebAwards. Winning
a WebAward not only provides valuable feedback from expert judges, but also gives
companies a valuable marketing tool and shows company management that their
Internet investments are on the right track. We are pleased to support the
efforts of the Web Marketing Association and the WebAward program."

Burst Media
is an Internet ad services and online ad sales rep company that delivers more
than 4 billion advertising impressions for over 4,000 websites every month, Burst
reaches approximately 1 in 3 people online and is among the 15 largest online
media properties in terms of unique visitors and reach. By providing thousands
of web publishers with tools and expertise from ad sales to email newsletter
tools and community forums for learning, Burst helps publishers generate
sustainable revenue. Burst also markets AdDesktop, a competitively-priced, ASP
ad management solution that helps web publishers securely target, serve, track
and report the performance of online advertising campaigns. The company,
founded in 1995, is based near Boston, and was recently named the 11th
fastest growing private company in Massachusetts by the Boston Business
Journal.

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Featured Articles from Interactive Briefing

Interactive Briefing, the newsletter of the Web Marketing Association, featured two articles this month:

How
Tradeshows can benefit from going Virtual – Trade show are a great way
to meet with a lot of vendor and learn about current trends. Here’s a case study
about one group that is bringing their tradeshows to a computer near
you.

 

Bringing
out a sites personality — Currentsite.com is a branding tool,
interactive playground and an award winner.


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Media coverage of Web Marketing Association’s ISAR Study

Last week, the Web Marketing Association released the Internet Standards Assessment Report, a landmark study of web development benchmarks across 81 industries. We are pleased to report that many leading publications have already picked up on the report, including:

AdRants – Gaming Sites On Top, PR Sites On Bottom of Website
Effectiveness Study

http://www.adrants.com/2006/03/gaming-sites-on-top-pr-sites-on-bottom-of.php

MarketingVox – 10-Year Study Establishes Website Development
Benchmarks

http://www.marketingvox.com/archives/2006/03/16/10year_study_establishes_website_development_benchmarks/

Adotas – Study Dissects Web Trends Across 80 Industries

http://www.adotas.com/2006/03/study-dissects-web-trends-across-80-industries/

WebProNews – Gaming Sites, Great; PR Sites, No

http://www.webpronews.com/topnews/topnews/wpn-60-20060316GamingSitesGreatPRSitesNo.html

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eComXpo Virtual Conference

The Web Marketing Association will be participating in
several of the leading industry conferences this year. Here is your opportunity
to participate in important educational sessions while networking with other
industry professionals. Here a leading industry conference that we
recommend.

eComXpo
April 4-6, 2006
100% Online & Virtual, eComXpo
will bring together more than 7,000 advertisers, publishers, search marketers,
merchants, affiliates, webmasters, agencies and vendors, making this the world’s
largest tradeshow for eCommerce Marketers. All the benefits of a top tradeshow
can be attained from the comfort of your home or office. View interactive
presentations from industry luminaries, enter to win valuable prizes, and
network with exhibitors and attendees! Attending the event is completely free,
and registration is now open at www.eComXpo.com