Global Digital Excellence Awards 2021 - Book of the Night by Don't Panic Events

GLOBAL ECOMMERCE WEBSITE OF THE YEAR

META, CUSTOMER FIRST DIGITAL & FACE THE FUTURE FINALISTS

SUMMARY

LovetheSales.com

Meta take a truly joined-up approach to performance marketing & development, combining eCommerce expertise with multi-channel strategies to grow Shopify giants. Our approach is grounded in acquiring a deep understanding of our client’s proposition, customer behaviour and performance. For us, it’s not just about delivering a website, but more about being an extension of a client’s team and delivering a solution with measurable return on investment. This typically leads to long-term client partnerships.

Meta, Customer First Digital & Face The Future

Tidal Digital & Perfume Direct Bespoke Shopify build for perfumedirect.com

Meta joined forces with Customer First Digital (CFD, a consultancy partner) to maximise multi-channel marketing efforts for ‘Face The Future’ (FTF) along with a bespoke platform upgrade that has delivered resounding results to-date. Following the successful deployment of a bespoke Shopify Plus eCommerce build, FTF are enjoying record sales, exceeding the migration forecast figures through major improvements in user experience and optimised site functionality. Winning a GDX Award would recognise both Meta’s work as eCommerce specialists growing Shopify Giants, and CFD’s mission to create sustainable growth and future proof businesses through their ‘customer first’ marketing approach.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS It is clear to see that taking an SEO-centric approach to migration worked well for this next winning entry. We as judges could see that this definitely paid off and delivered results. They did a particularly great job of showing the implementation of the site and the different aspects of the innovation, conversion and creativity that formed part of their implementation. We were also impressed with the organic stragegy used.

EMPOWERING YOU AS AN INDEPENDENT BUSINESS. Tribe Global is a growing network of ambitious, award-winning, independent communications agencies and smart business partners. You’ll find us in more than 70 cities across Europe, the America’s, the Middle East and Asia. We stand strongly with independent agencies to deliver value and provide them with competitive advantage. We are delighted to be a sponsor of these awards, which recognise and celebrate only the very best campaigns, teams and companies in the digital sector. A huge congratulations from the Tribe to all of this year’s finalists!

Contact Ian Wright to find out how we will empower your business. i.wright@tribeglobal.net

www.tribeglobal.net

GLOBAL B2B WEBSITE OF THE YEAR

BLACK SUN & COCA-COLA HBC coca-colahellenic.com FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Black Sun & Coca-Cola HBC coca-colahellenic.com

Blend Marketing & Biocair Hassle-Free Global Scaling for B2B Healthcare Logistics

Coca-Cola HBC is devoted to growing every customer and delighting every consumer around the clock in 28 countries with a portfolio of over 100 brands. We wanted to make our website as exciting as our brands and as exceptional as our service to our customers, so we enlisted the support of Black Sun to deliver a site that reflects that, and the values of our business and our people. We are delighted that we can now tell our story and engage with customers, suppliers, partners and future talent thanks to the improved content, site structure, functionality and usability.

Inmarsat & Black Sun

This is reward in itself for the many hours of hard work that went into the new site from people across our business and in our agency – a Global Digital Excellence Award would be the icing on the cake.

Parental Leave Toolkit – created by Bright Horizons

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This winning entry showcased their impressive multi-faceted website. They leveraged enterprise-grade technology to enable best-in-class content managmenet for different parts of the business. This was a well considered CRM choice. We were very impressed by the way they managed to bring together so many assets, answering the client’s needs in a creative way. Everything was done to support stakeholders during the pandemic and lockdowns.

The strength of a network With A can-do INDEPENDENT Spirit Pimento is a fully integrated marketing and communications agency, supported by the UK’s largest community of independent consultants and agencies. As a result, we are able to tailor teams and responses to the specific needs of our clients. We firmly believe that flexibility can help drive profitability. So, in this era of unprecedented change, we are uniquely placed to deliver agile thinking and executions to help businesses get ahead of it.

Find out more pimento.co.uk

GLOBAL B2C WEBSITE OF THE YEAR

META, CUSTOMER FIRST DIGITAL & FACE THE FUTURE FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Meta, Customer First Digital & Face The Future

Tidal Digital & Perfume Direct Bespoke Shopify build for perfumedirect.com

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This winning entry really had clear objectives. it was great to see their results really tie back to what they set out to achieve. This really helped us as judges gain a real scope of their successes. They provided a lot of information that showed their very well planned and implemented strategy. With good page load improvements and a great reduction in checkout abandonments, all the judges agreed that this winning website was impressive.

ONE MINUTE TO REACH HALF A BILLION PEOPLE... LET US SHOW YOU HOW IT’S DONE...

Say hello to the fastest-thinking, furthest-reaching community on social media. interest@bankofcreativity.co.uk @OneMinuteBriefs

GLOBAL PPC CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – B2B

PEAK ACE & TIMOCOM Rebuilding Paid Search from Lisbon to Moscow SUMMARY We helped TIMOCOM, the leading procurement platform for transport contracts in Europe, to reinvent their paid search channel in the midst of a global health crisis that shook the transport industry. We ended up building campaigns in 24 languages that now run in a total of 28 countries.  Given the economic situation in early 2020, TIMOCOM decided to significantly reduce their budget and focus on efficiency. We therefore had to balance cutting costs with achieving visibility amongst the users that mattered. We persevered and exceeded all our initial targets: we spent significantly less, acquired more leads and increased brand visibility.  Winning an award for this campaign would mean a lot to us, because it truly put our international agency to the test. Successfully localising these languages across several teams formed the basis of this campaign – as the numbers suggest, this approach quickly paid off. We believe that this campaign is an outstanding submission due to both its holistic approach to strategy and undeniable results.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This entry was an impressive campaign, which spanned multiple geographies and target sectors. Their very good data modelling, really made it clear to see how much work went into this and where their focus was. They had great uplift in leads which had a positive impact for their client, during what has been a very difficult period of time, particularly for the industry they focused on.

GLOBAL PPC CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – B2C

PEAK ACE & POOL CHLOR SHOP Swimming against the COVID-19 tide FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Clicky & Toad Hall Cottages Record Leap in Growth

2020 was tough for many of our clients, which meant we felt very grateful and excited to work with Pool-Chlor-Shop, who actually saw an increase in business last year. Having completed our account restructure quickly, we could capitalise on all the unexpected demand that followed in the summer, thanks to our automated campaign creation approach. With both search trends and work situations changing at a moment’s notice, our team had to be quick on their feet to make the most out of the additional interest in pool supplies. As a result of our strategy and the trust of our client, the team surpassed all goals with flying colours. Even more astonishing: these revenue figures could have been even higher, had pools not been so popular that the entire industry faced a shortage of them spanning the whole of Europe as early as May.

Evoluted & CarMats.co.uk From 0 to £2m in 12 Months Peak Ace & Pool Chlor Shop Swimming against the COVID-19 tide Stand Out Digital & Caviar Passion Tripling revenue using a multi-touch-points strategy The Brains & Fraser Hart Moving luxury sales online during Covid The Media Image & Debenhams Scaling Profitability & Efficiency Online – UK & Ireland The Media Image & Kendo Brands Fenty Skin Global Launch – A Two-Phased Approach To Entering A Highly-Saturated Skincare Market WebDigital & ForIT From 1889% to 5535% ROAS

Winning this award would be a confirmation for our team of how extraordinary our achievement was in 2020: in the face of a global pandemic, suddenly working 100% remotely and all the extra stressors COVID-19 brought, we produced excellent results for our client.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We as judges all agreed that this winning entry was outstanding. They provided the right amount of detail to showcase their hardwork. We were impressed to see that improvements made from restructuring accounts and other activities helped meet all of their objectives. We could see a lot of effort went into the entry and they really managed to display great results. Congratulations to everyone involved with the campaign.

GLOBAL INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – B2B

GRAVITY GLOBAL & EMBRAER The Profit Hunter FINALISTS

SUMMARY

GHD The World of Energy Post-COVID Campaign

The Embraer ‘Profit Hunter’ campaign by Gravity outperformed competitor aircraft manufacturers globally.

Gravity Global & Embraer The Profit Hunter

Giving the brand fame in the largest markets of the US to places where the brand has little awareness like Kazakhstan and successfully selling to these markets. In Kazakhstan the airline requested the campaign is reproduced on the nose cone of its own aircraft… hitting the front pages of international media

Gravity Global & MAN Truck & Bus SUPERHUMAN

This campaign deserves to win because the multichannel approach was truly connected and as a result outperformed all other manufacturers campaigns – some with 20x the level of spend. It’s now the industry’s number one talked about favourite globally as well as setting a new performance benchmark.

Smarts & Diageo Bar Academy Connecting the Community: Global Bartenders in Lockdown

The Think Tank & Asendia e-PAQ Launch

JUDGES’ COMMENTS It was great to see a fantstic marketing idea run across so many different channels. The clear strategic drivers showcased what the campaign was pushing towards, which really helped us as judges understand the process. There was also some great insights, which lead to an even better set of results for their client. Well done to the winners!

GLOBAL INTEGRATED CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – B2C

EVOLUTED & CARMATS.CO.UK Building a £2million ecommerce site in 12 months using Search FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Evoluted & CarMats.co.uk Building a £2million ecommerce site in 12 months using Search

Established in 2006, Evoluted provides ROI-driven marketing campaigns, digital design and bespoke web development to local, national and multinational companies. Spanning across a wide range of industries, Evoluted applies a focus on building long-term relationships, working collaboratively and providing lasting results.

Stand Out Digital & Caviar Passion Tripling revenue using a multi-touch-points strategy

Tidal Digital & Muscat Livestock – A Cut Above The Rest

In just 9-months, Ash Young and the team at Evoluted exceeded £1 million in revenue from a standing start on the CarMats.co.uk e-commerce site, which was set up by Ash in May 2020. The original goal was to hit the £1 million mark by 12-months, but Ash and the team have managed to do it in just 9 thanks to a comprehensive integrated search strategy created to dominate the UK car mats market. This strategy has contributed to CarMats. co.uk now due to reach £4 million revenue within 2 years, with the brand currently averaging more than £10k a day since the start of 2021, all from a standing start less than 1 year ago! Winning this award would mean a huge amount to Ash and the Evoluted team, recognising the immense effort they have contributed to the success of CarMats.co.uk and the subsequent buzz that has developed across the agency and ecommerce world.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We thought that this winning entry was a well formulated and impressive integrated campaign, that stands as a great example of SEO and paid search synergy. With an entrepreneurial spirit and determination in full view, it was clear to see they had a great use of time and effort. It was impressive to see really strong results for a brand new product. Well done!

GLOBAL SEO CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – B2B

REFINITIV SEO TO THE RESCUE How Record SEO Growth Helped Us Deliver in 2020 FINALISTS

SUMMARY

AdLift & Schneider Electric Cracking International SEO Puzzle: Brings Country Websites Visibility to More than 85%

SILVER AWARD

At the start of 2020, our team was given gargantuan growth targets. After a successful 2019 that was focused on launching Refinitiv.com and complex site migration work, we were told that we needed to hit 40% growth in SEO sales contribution. The urgency of our task ahead was heightened in March 2020 with the onset of the Covid-19 Pandemic as it became clear that other marketing channels, such as in-person events, would no longer be viable. If Refinitiv was going to hit our KPIs needed ahead of our acquisition by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), then SEO would have to deliver on these ambitious targets. The pressure was on. To accomplish this, we brought SEO entirely in-house with Josh Mendelowitz and Aaron Barefoot leading SEO strategy, supported by SEO specialist Joanna Dearden and direction from our Digital Performance Director James Rowland. Our small but focused team set out an SEO growth strategy that relied on innovative technical SEO tactics, an SEO-focused content strategy, unified link growth tactics and all done at scale with a targeted approach to International SEO. Most importantly, we successfully executed against this strategy, resulting in over 50% growth in SEO sales contribution, well ahead of our 40% targets. This helped Refinitiv end the year in a strong financial position ahead of our transformational acquisition by LSEG.

Inseev Interactive & MCT Trading 31% YoY Increase in Goal 1 Conversions

JUDGES’ COMMENTS

Inseev Interactive & MCT Trading 31% YoY Increase in Goal 1 Conversions

Refinitiv SEO to the Rescue How Record SEO Growth Helped Us Deliver in 2020

The winner for this category provided a fantastic comprehensive entry. We felt that it was well documented and showed some important data. This helped evaluate this successes of this entry. As an inhouse team we completely understood that delivering the target percentage of growth in SEO sales is huge. It was terrific to see the multisearch-surface approach and that they didn’t just focus on one aspect of SEO.

GLOBAL SEO CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR – B2C

MEGANTIC & HIGHGROVE BATHROOMS Tapping into Organic Search FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Clicky & YorkTest Putting SEO to the Test

Megantic is the only eCommerce focused Organic Search (SEO) specialist in Australia having created a unique strategy for online retailers which enables websites to target traditionally ignored and substantially grow your online

Evoluted & OriGym Gym Closures Realise SEO Opportunities Megantic & Highgrove Bathrooms Tapping into Organic Search Peak Ace & Zava Trust me, I’m an online doctor PriceRunner Kickstarting market growth through tactical SEO optimisations Tempcover SEO Campaign Zeo Agency & Acibadem Health Group Opportunity Knocks Twice Zeo Agency & Decathlon Stay Active, Stay Optimized!

Our entry is an Australian bathroom supply chain called leading player in the bathroom space with over store. In addition to Megantic’s organic search expertise we focused extensively on local SEO given the 50 stores and delivered exceptional results across all key metrics and targeted ‘actions’ including calls, emails & info clicks. Over the last 12 months Megantic has almost 5x increase in revenue equating to 46:1 ROI Winning this award would be a massive endorsement for our strategic capabilities in developing and executing local SEO initiatives that deliver tangible results underpinned by expertise. Recognition on a global scale allows us to continue to share & evolve our unique strategy to help businesses grow.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS All the judges thought that this agency was very knowledgable. They had a very good strategy and implementation to achieve their objectives and KPIs. The case study they provided demonstrated a strong client/agency relationship. It was clear to see that this agency have a comprehensive understanding of how to maximize technical organic search for exceptional results. Great work!

GLOBAL BIDDABLE CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This next winning entry blew the judging panel away. Beyond the brilliant results, this entry oozes creativity and innovative adaptability to the roller coaster that was last year in paid media. They had a great audience analysis, and the implementation shows how much work they put in to increase the audience reach with additional KWs. Working on such a complex market over several countries is also a great accomplishment.

GLOBAL ORGANIC CONTENT CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR

PEAK ACE & ZAVA Trust me, I’m an online doctor FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Peak Ace & Zava Trust me, I’m an online doctor

We worked with Zava, a European e-heath provider, to create a datadriven content strategy that positioned it as an expert and innovator within the medical field. Rigorous research, elevated by a partnership with a reputable marketing research institute, produced data on medical topics still largely ignored within the media and society. We packaged this data to easily form the basis of content pieces, on subjects ranging from how childless women can face social exclusion (whether they are voluntarily childless or not), to topics of digitalisation of the medical field and more. While tackling taboo subjects, our outreach strategy also embraced the scrutiny that the COVID-19 pandemic placed on healthcare systems and medicine worldwide. Our results dramatically improved Zava’s profile, greatly increasing its authority score with a huge rise in media mentions.

YouTube Marketing Agency Team5pm & GAMMA How GAMMA dominates the YouTube and Google search results

SILVER AWARD YouTube Marketing Agency Team5pm & GAMMA How GAMMA dominates the YouTube and Google search results

To win this award would be to acknowledge an enormously successful campaign that raised the profile of not only a heretofore obscure field of medicine, but also work that brought attention to social issues still somehow not talked about in 2021.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS All of the judges agreed that this entry was flawless with hugely impressive results. This organisation raises the bar of industry standard. They provided a well rounded entry which showcases true data driven marketing. Their targets were truly smashed and some really good quality links were achieved. The quality of content touching on taboo or less-discussed topics was fantastic. It is clear to see from the client testimonials provided that their client appreciated the impact they have had together, as they look forward to future success.

GLOBAL PAID SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR

THE BRAINS & DHL Building Africa’s largest ecommerce store through Facebook Ads FINALISTS

SUMMARY

ROAST & CCUK The Get It Right (From a Genuine Site) Campaign

The Brains has come leaps and bounds since we started trading in 2016, having grown to over 1m in revenues and 25 employees. We’ve not sought recognition for our work (though recognition has been given without our applying) and we would like our staff to be recognized for the outsized effort they have put in over the past year. Our Agency was founded by a Paraplegic man and a mixed African/white man (myself) so we see winning an award as an exciting way to show an example to other people like us that you can succeed despite anything you believe is limiting you.

Stand Out Digital & Akt London Born to perform

The Brains & DHL Building Africa’s largest ecommerce store through Facebook Ads

We’ve specialized in helping some of the most Niche B2B companies achieve impressive results where other agencies have let them down.This has been especially valuable in the pandemic era where we have helped businesses to develop new marketing channels as their traditional approaches have been impractical. Recently we’ve produced original research into B2B psychology and developed an ingenious automated lead generation system called Leads On tap which has been reviewed as a game changer for B2B advertising. An award would really help us signal that we are officially one of the serious marketing players.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The winning campaign masterfully adapted to the market while ensuring the client’s goals were exceeded. The cross-department workflow and reporting really impressed us. We appreciated that opening to an new market is challenging and we praise this agency for their innovative approach. They had a good implementation process with testing, showing they care about a client and the results. Their outstanding client quote shows how this agency sucessfully built a sustainable blueprint for expansion.

BEST USE OF TWITTER

TWITTER UK & GREAT ORMOND STREET HOSPITAL CHARITY #Whamageddon SUMMARY Twitter NEXT is the creative arm of Twitter, partnering with brands to make ideas worth talking about. We aim to create campaigns beyond the usual ad formats. Testing, hacking and building innovative ideas on Twitter never seen before on the platform. In this campaign, we identified an untapped Twitter behaviour and turned it into an unconventional Christmas fundraising campaign for Great Ormond Street Hospital Charity (GOSH). GOSH became official partners of #Whamageddon, a game where you have to avoid hearing Wham’s classic ‘Last Christmas’ (an almost impossible task at this time of year). In an exceptionally competitive year for charity appeals and on a shoestring budget, GOSH stood out. Achieving their most engaged with Tweet ever, a 200% increase in social donation rates, a FREE daily promotion on national radio, and to top it off, ‘Last Christmas’ reached No.1 for the first time after 36 years! To win this Award would prove you don’t need huge budgets to punch above your weight. Just a great idea that really speaks to people. Winning would certainly give the whole team a sense of giving back to the NHS for all they’ve done.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We as judges love the innovation and creativity behind this whole entry. Following what has been such a tough year, this entry showcased a really heart warming campaign that raised funds for a very worthy cause. Well done for creating such a charming and heart warming idea.

BEST USE OF FACEBOOK / INSTAGRAM

THE BRAINS & DHL Building Africa’s largest ecommerce store through Facebook FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Stand Out Digital & Akt London Born to perform

The Brains & DHL Building Africa’s largest ecommerce store through Facebook Ads

The Digital Street & ITC Vivel #VoiceOfArt

Our Agency was founded by a Paraplegic man and a mixed African/white man (myself) so we see winning an award as an exciting way to show an example to other people like us that you can succeed despite anything you believe is limiting you. We’ve specialized in helping some of the most Niche B2B companies achieve impressive results where other agencies have let them down.This has been especially valuable in the pandemic era where we have helped businesses to develop new marketing channels as their traditional approaches have been impractical. Recently we’ve produced original research into B2B psychology and developed an ingenious automated lead generation system called Leads On tap which has been reviewed as a game changer for B2B advertising. An award would really help us signal that we are officially one of the serious marketing players.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The winner did an amazing job with a very complex campaign. The client testimonials provided in their entry really helped us as judges see the value of their work. It was great to see well documented screenshots which showed how they overachieved with what they set out to do. Their strong implementation and creativity was praised on the judging panel.

BEST GLOBAL OUTREACH CAMPAIGN

PEAK ACE & ZAVA Trust me, I’m an online doctor SUMMARY We worked with Zava, a European e-heath provider, to create a datadriven content strategy that positioned it as an expert and innovator within the medical field. Rigorous research, elevated by a partnership with a reputable marketing research institute, produced data on medical topics still largely ignored within the media and society. We packaged this data to easily form the basis of content pieces, on subjects ranging from how childless women can face social exclusion (whether they are voluntarily childless or not), to topics of digitalisation of the medical field and more. While tackling taboo subjects, our outreach strategy also embraced the scrutiny that the COVID-19 pandemic placed on healthcare systems and medicine worldwide. Our results dramatically improved Zava’s profile, greatly increasing its authority score with a huge rise in media mentions. To win this award would be to acknowledge an enormously successful campaign that raised the profile of not only a heretofore obscure field of medicine, but also work that brought attention to social issues still somehow not talked about in 2021.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We would like to praise this next winning campaign for doing exactly what it needed to do. A well thought through strategy, using data and insights, clearly led to impressive results. This was a smart and highly effective campaign, with a good use of user personas and good YoY results. We really appreciated the detailed budget and resource allocation, provided in their entry. Overall it was a very well written application and did a fantastic job showing their journey of sucess. Superb work!

BEST GLOBAL INTERACTIVE CAMPAIGN

PEAK ACE & ZAVA Trust me, I’m an online doctor FINALISTS

SUMMARY

AdColony & Moose Toys Moose Toys and AdColony Spin the Wheel of Success for Collins Key

Peak Ace & Zava Trust me, I’m an online doctor

JUDGES’ COMMENTS All the judges agreed that this next winning entry had solid tactics. They produced a good piece of brand PR, which seems to have been very effective. The entry its self had a very detailed implementation section, that did a great job of showcasing the creativity of the work implemented within the campaign.

BEST GLOBAL LOW BUDGET CAMPAIGN

AQUEOUS DIGITAL & SCRATCHSLEEVES Baby Steps to Giant Leaps in SEO FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Aqueous Digital & ScratchSleeves Baby Steps to Giant Leaps in SEO

ScratchSleeves make innovative clothing and accessories for babies, toddlers and young children that are an appealing alternative to traditional scratch mitts. Their products prevent children suffering sleepless nights, due to eczema, chicken pox, measles or other itchy skin conditions. As a leading UK search agency, Aqueous Digital’s remit was simple - help ScratchSleeves market their niche products world-wide. When you have a great product and a great story to tell, simple SEO is probably not the answer!

Evoluted & Palamatic Small Budgets Drive Big Growth With Intelligent SEO WebDigital & E-Acumulatori 34 times more revenue with 5% more budget and 2445% ROAS Zeo Agency & Kitap365.com From Zero to One Zeo Agency & Millenicom Walking Among the Giants Zeo Agency & Starakim.com SEO Saves Power

Our strategy avoided competing head-on with the large retail competition, but instead focused on longtail keywords and establishing ScratchSleeves as an the No1 expert in their field. We used high-quality relevant content and a robust digital marketing strategy that drove a significant increase in website traffic and conversion to sales. Despite the tough trading condition and overall challenges presented by covid-19, website traffic increased by 135%. This resulted in overall sales of their product increasing by 35% and sales revenue increasing by 48.65% [commercially sensitive], as they expanded their market reach across the globe. We are very proud of our work with ScratchSleeves. The results we’ve seen in 2020/21 are outstanding and we believe a demonstration of gold standard ethical SEO tactics worthy of being celebrated.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We as judges felt that this winning entry did a great job of showing their results across a number of different key metrics. What they achieved on a small budget was impressive and we wish them all the best for the future.

BEST GLOBAL CHARITY / NOT FOR PROFIT CAMPAIGN

ROUTE AGENCY & THE UNION Advancing Prevention During Adversity FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Route Agency & The Union Advancing Prevention During Adversity

Like other companies, we initially experienced a difficult trading environment as the pandemic struck. We’d never worked from home before, collaborating; creating and making key decisions whilst physically separate. Many of our projects collapsed overnight as some of our clients work within the sectors – for example public transport – which were hugely affected by lockdown and the ongoing Coronavirus restrictions. Throughout it all though, despite the bad days, each member of our small team has worked incredibly hard, often long hours, remained upbeat and delivered some exceptional ideas and work that have genuinely helped clients to survive this prolonged period of uncertainty. Crucially, we showed how businesses can adapt to any challenges they may face, including those outside our control. In fact, our business has ultimately thrived and grown during this period as more customers adapt to digital marketing – and in no small part this is down to the persistence and resilience of our team. Our people really have gone beyond the call of duty to not just look after our clients, going that extra mile, but to safeguard our agency too. This award win would be for them and their continued high quality of work, passion and determination to ensure Route does a great job for all clients, whatever their needs.

University of Plymouth Plymouth on Demand

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This winning entry showcased a very impressive campaign that clearly significantly helped the critical coming-together of health professionals during a period where traditional conference formats simply wouldn’t work. The uplift in attendance, global reach, and diversification of attendees vs. previous years was very impressive. Their results were extremely strong, smashing all the objectives set by the client. Truly well done, we could really see the hard work and effort that went into this campaign!

GLOBAL ROI CAMPAIGN OF THE YEAR

PEAK ACE & TIMOCOM Rebuilding Paid Search from Lisbon to Moscow FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Clicky & Select Property Grou Building ROI Success

We helped TIMOCOM, the leading procurement platform for transport contracts in Europe, to reinvent their paid search channel in the midst of a global health crisis that shook the transport industry. We ended up building campaigns in 24 languages that now run in a total of 28 countries.

Peak Ace & Pool Chlor Shop Swimming against the COVID-19 tide

Peak Ace & TIMOCOM Rebuilding Paid Search from Lisbon to Moscow

The Think Tank & Asendia e-PAQ Launch

Given the economic situation in early 2020, TIMOCOM decided to significantly reduce their budget and focus on efficiency. We therefore had to balance cutting costs with achieving visibility amongst the users that mattered. We persevered and exceeded all our initial targets: we spent significantly less, acquired more leads and increased brand visibility.  Winning an award for this campaign would mean a lot to us, because it truly put our international agency to the test. Successfully localising these languages across several teams formed the basis of this campaign – as the numbers suggest, this approach quickly paid off. We believe that this campaign is an outstanding submission due to both its holistic approach to strategy and undeniable results.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS WebDigital & Videnov From 2200% to 14200% ROAS

This entry had clearly defined objectives and a well thoughtout strategy for what was a large and complex campaign. It was fantastic to see that the results far surpassed the original goals outlined. Their achievements reflect the creativity, innovation and data analysis capabilities of this agency. Congratulations to the team that implemented this campaign across such a large market, with so many languages. Very impressive work and a great ROI was achieved.

BEST GLOBAL USE OF CRM

TEMPCOVER Data-driven CRM Programme SUMMARY This entry highlights how Tempcover has successfully launched a data-driven CRM programme that has enhanced existing customer relationships and converted enquirers into paying customers – leading to a measurable increase in brand loyalty and repeat purchase, while reducing reliance on paid channels. Tempcover specialises in short-term car, van, motorbike, student, and learner insurance – having sold more than 3.4-million policies since 2006. We enable drivers aged 18-75 with full UK, provisional and EU licences to purchase temporary fully-comprehensive coverage from as little as 1-hour to 28-days in duration. Our short-term policies offer truly flexible cover for the time drivers actually need – with no long-term commitment or auto-renewals. Our temporary cover does not impact other annual policies or no claims discounts, as it is a separate, standalone policy. The Tempcover team has worked tirelessly to create a better user journey by adding demonstrable value to short-term motor insurance customers through its CRM programme. Winning this award would serve as an endorsement from our industry peers that our data-driven approach to marketing is making a real difference to enhancing customer relationships.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This winning entry successfully engaged customers through new communication channels. We were impressed to see how they also rewarded the most loyal customers with their most competitive prices through the launch of a data-driven CRM programme, which essentially created a bespoke discount tool to match data to driving sales.

BEST GLOBAL USE OF DATA

PEAK ACE & POOL CHLOR SHOP Swimming against the COVID-19 tide FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Peak Ace & Pool Chlor Shop Swimming against the COVID-19 tide

Propellernet & PureGym Real-time Keyword Research During Lockdown

SILVER AWARD Propellernet & PureGym Real-time Keyword Research During Lockdown

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We as judges thought that the winning entry had a great use of automation and data. We especially appreciated their strategy, logic and campaign structure. This agency had a fast turn around but successfully produced a campaign with impact. Superb work, well done!

BEST GLOBAL USE OF PERSONALISATION

TIDAL DIGITAL & PERFUME DIRECT ‘The Sweet Smell of Success’ SUMMARY The e-commerce landscape in 2020 was one of opportunity as everyone began to adjust to the new normal and online shopping surged in the UK. Whilst the potential was promising, it also posed an incredibly challenging outlook for those set on keeping ahead of the competition. More and more businesses of all sizes turned to the internet to keep their dreams alive as the lockdown took over in the UK. For Perfume Direct, this presented a conundrum - having already earmarked this year for success and assigned a heavily increased budget to online marketing, they were facing the very real prospect of being outrun by the competition as all other competing brands also put all their eggs into the online basket. Perfume Direct sent out an SOS to Tidal. Tidal stepped in to assess the situation and delivered a full-scale digital marketing solution built around a multichannel approach. This smart new approach utilized learnings from data from a variety of sources to deliver a heavily personalised framework which unleashed extra avenues of opportunity. The campaign delivered amazing results with a crazy spike in revenue, particularly around key dates such as Black Friday and Christmas. The results of which have now propelled the brand to become a major player in the UK fragrance space. An award from the GDX Awards would recognize this hugely effective campaign run by both teams and place it in the lights where it deserves to be mentioned!

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This entry is a great example of how to mix organic and paid media to achieve results. We as judges really appreciated their clear SMART objectives and the time they took to formulate their entry. With a direct and concise approach we could clearly see the work at play, which lead to such fantastic outcomes.

BEST GLOBAL USE OF RESEARCH

CLICKY & YORKTEST Researching, Testing and Optimising for the Ultimate Conversion Rate Health FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Clicky & YorkTest Researching, Testing and Optimising for the Ultimate Conversion Rate Health

We believe that the continued success over the past 12 months is a reflection of the dedication and expertise of our team, but also of the truly collaborative partnership between client and agency.

Hennessey Digital Lead Form Responsiveness Research

YorkTest’s commitment to ensuring our team were educated about allergies, intolerances, and their product offering allowed us to deliver results that simply otherwise would not have been possible. The Clicky team spent time in the YorkTest laboratories to understand what they do in order to be able to diagnose intolerances and allergies. It is from this robust understanding that we can tailor our strategy to deliver the best possible solution for our target audiences. The education given by the client complimented our expertise perfectly. The revenue achieved over the past year, and the position that YorkTest’s digital presence is in is remarkable. We have delivered several “record months” in a row. Most importantly, we have achieved and surpassed our conversion rate and revenue targets. To win this award would give recognition to all of the hard work our dedicated team does and a celebration of our fantastic partnership with YorkTest.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The winner for this category didn’t just display search, it was an optimization of search. This was described by the judging panel as a good project with lots of collaboration. We have no doubt that this led to successful results. Bravo to this company for the cocreation approach with their client.

BEST GLOBAL PLATFORM / TECHNOLOGY / TOOL

INFLUENCITY Influencer Marketing Software FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Influencity Influencer Marketing Software

Influencity is the most complete AI-powered influencer marketing platform that will allow you to obtain total Influencer Relationship Management on a single comprehensive platform. We provide over 60 functionalities that will adjust to your own workflows to successfully execute end-to-end influencer campaigns. To go into more detail, this is what Influencity platform will allow you to do:

Postoplan Smart, automated social media and messenger marketing platform that allows you to create, schedule and promote content RapidSpike Customer-focused Website Monitoring Siteimprov The Siteimprove Platform Squared.io Google Ads. Automated. TrueClicks PPC Auditing & Monitoring built for Teams Vodafone Idea Limited

- Search for the perfect influencers for your campaigns in just a few seconds. We have over 70 million influencers which can be found combining over 20 filters (engagement, location, gender, age, interests…) - Analyze any social media profile, create your own database, and organize your influencers in lists. - Estimate your campaign’s results before managing them. You will be able to do this thanks to the analysis that the platform makes based on the influencers’ main KPIs. - Measure results through complete reports that include publications with its automatically generated metrics, graphs, and data of your campaign as a whole.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This tool was described by the judging panel as a smart, robust and jam packed with information. Fundamentally this tool allows for the easy management of influencers, along with the ability to forecast impact. We were particularly impressed with the design aspect that helped make the tool very user friendly. The way their solution brings-together such a large set of influencers was truly impressive. Congratulations for creating a tool that brings together a whole world of influencers to your fingertips!

GLOBAL SOFTWARE INNOVATION AWARD

SQUARED.IO Google Ads. Automated. FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Influencity Influencer Marketing Software

rankingCoach FREE & marketingRadar

Squared.io is a category-defining product as the first fully automated audit and optimization platform for Google Ads anywhere in the world. We continue to push the boundaries of technology in advertising to a more automated and more intelligent future, providing advertisers with innovative ways of managing both their time and budgets more effectively.

Squared.io Google Ads. Automated.

We are thrilled to have been recognized at the Global Digital Excellence Awards and look forward to continued success in the industry.

Microsoft M365 Product Updates

Stay KooooK Digital Guest Journey Web-App TrueClicks PPC Auditing & Monitoring built for Teams

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The winning entry for this category showcased a tool that successfully allows teams to become more efficient with their use of time. With so many elements to review across performance and campaigns, this tool successfully takes a lot of the manual element away, which negates the risk that comes with a manual approach. We were impressed with the organic overlap feature, as it is a super efficient way to see where budget could be saved and re-allocated. Leveraging automation, it’s clear from the case studies they provided that, this platform has proven to help drive time savings and cost efficiency for its customers. Overall this is a great tool that helps agencies cope with the pressure of management costs.

GLOBAL BIDDABLE AGENCY OF THE YEAR

PEAK ACE AG SUMMARY Established in 2007, Peak Ace AG is an integrated performance marketing agency based in Berlin, Germany – a one-stop shop for flexible, data-driven solutions for performance marketing channels, including paid advertising, organic search (SEO), content marketing and marketing technologies (CRO & digital analytics). The award for Global Biddable Agency of the Year would be an honour treasured, earned and shared by every one of our Peak Acers. It’s the people that make Peak Ace great. We live by the philosophy that fostering a culture of mutual respect and inclusion makes for the best work for our clients. In 2020, we have shown how investing in your employees garners incredible results, company-wide – for brand recognition, client acquisitions and growth. Anyone can start an agency with the goal to turn a profit. But we believe that making sure your employees are the fabric of your company culture, empowered to drive the business forward and, most importantly, passionate about the work they do – that’s how you build a successful and sustainable agency.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We as judges think this winning entrant does a fantastic job as an agency. They have an impressive consideration for the importance of employee retention. We thought it was great to see an agency live by its values and really look after their employees, especially after a very challenging 12 months. The examples they provided on their entry really showcased some great work which lead to some excellent results.

GLOBAL START-UP AGENCY OF THE YEAR

TIDAL DIGITAL SUMMARY Tidal Digital have been in operation since July 2019. Armed with nothing more than an empty bank account, a small handful of UK based clients and a dream, the three founders set to work banging their digital hammers against their digital chisels, carving out the foundations for what would turn out to be a much larger digital colosseum than they could have imagined. Fast forward 18 months, Tidal Digital have signed contracts with Rolls-Royce, partnered with the Sheik of Dubai’s billion-dollar initiative, Dubai CommerCity, taken four industry awards across two ceremonies, employ twelve staff across two countries and have clients in five out of the seven continents globally. Persevering throughout the pandemic, Tidal have turned negatives into positives. Learning tough lessons early on in client retention and adapting processes to counter the deficit and turn retention figures on their head. Rewards attained through our work are evident in the returning figures from our campaigns. External recognition through industry related awards is the cream on our cake and that is what drives us to keep innovating, gifting us the knowledge that we’re doing things right. Winning an award at the GDX Awards would be testament to the outstanding results we’ve achieved so far and push us to continue our quest to the top of the mountain.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This winning entry has hit the ground running. As judges it was really nice to see the achievements this company has made in just 18 months. They have gained impressive results for their clients considering they are a start-up agency. Remarkable work.

GLOBAL SOCIAL MEDIA AGENCY OF THE YEAR

BATTENHALL FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Battenhall

Battenhall is a new kind of social media agency, pioneering innovative technologies, new ways of working, and providing specialised and integrated brand communications. The last year has seen record annual revenue growth of £1m, innovative new services, global expansion, and a record 49 client wins.

OneFifty Consultancy

New services, including our rapid response communications division Battenhall REACT, were launched to high-profile clients, such as the NHS, to help deal with Covid-19. And we pioneered new ways of working, such as Battenhall Total Flexible Working, which gives our team the ability to work from wherever they wish, for as long as they want. Winning an award would be validation of our forward-thinking approach over the past 12 months. Instead of furloughing staff and hindering our growth plans, we pivoted 100% to a total flexible working policy, continued to elevate our services to existing clients with new offerings like our critical response team ‘REACT’, and actively went after new business that would stretch our capabilities and enable us to continue with our growth plans.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This winning agency had a strong success across all pillars. In addition, the importance of diversity, people and culture really showed through on their entry. Along with some great initiatives to cater for new ways of working, we as judges were also impressed to see market expansion, which was fantastic given the current climate. This is a totally oustanding acheivement while keeping the company flexible! Congratulations on their amazing journey in 2020.

GLOBAL IN-HOUSE DIGITAL TEAM OF THE YEAR

ALPRO Global Digital & Media Team SUMMARY Alpro’s story began in 1980 with an apparently simple question: ‘What if the goodness of soya could be used to feed the planet’s population without the middle man (cow)?’. This idea flourished. The plant-based movement grew. And 40 years down the line Alpro is still pioneering the plant-based food revolution. In 2013 the decision was made to in house the areas of brnad content and digital media, integrated within the Global Bran Equity division within the Marketing department. Since then our team has grown in experience and size, getting involved in crucial media strategy and planning conversations and activating thousands of campaigns. From 3 to 9 members in the team, from 5 to 15 activated media channels, from 12 to over 40 serviced markets. A spectacular progress. Our Digital & Media Team is made up of a lean group of 9 talented individuals, whose work is not always fully grasped within the business due to uneven levels of digital knowledge. Winning the Global Digital Excellence Awards would definitely boost internal visibility of our team, shed a light on the great work we do on a regular basis and thus obtain some well-deserved recognition.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS We as judges appreciated the volume of work produced within such a small team. Reading the ‘why you should win’ section of their entry really provided us with a great insight into the team itself and what they have achieved.

GLOBAL PPC AGENCY OF THE YEAR

PEAK ACE AG FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Peak Ace AG

Established in 2007, Peak Ace AG is an integrated performance marketing agency based in Berlin, Germany – a one-stop shop for flexible, data-driven solutions for performance marketing channels, including paid advertising, organic search (SEO), content marketing and marketing technologies (CRO & digital analytics).

WebDigital Elevated Performance

The award for Global Biddable Agency of the Year would be an honour treasured, earned and shared by every one of our Peak Acers. It’s the people that make Peak Ace great. We live by the philosophy that fostering a culture of mutual respect and inclusion makes for the best work for our clients. In 2020, we have shown how investing in your employees garners incredible results, company-wide – for brand recognition, client acquisitions and growth. Anyone can start an agency with the goal to turn a profit. But we believe that making sure your employees are the fabric of your company culture, empowered to drive the business forward and, most importantly, passionate about the work they do – that’s how you build a successful and sustainable agency.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The winning agency for this category displayed incredibly strong client examples with impressive results, highlighting their attention to detail and their performance driven culture. We as judges appreciate that this last 12 months has proven extremely challenging to keep motivation and job satisfaction up. It was fantastic to see this agency gaining consistent feedback, did check-ins and provided wider initiatives to allow senior team members to keep their teams engaged.

GLOBAL SEO AGENCY OF THE YEAR

PEAK ACE AG FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Hennessey Digital

Megantic

Peak Ace AG

StudioHawk

SILVER AWARD StudioHawk

JUDGES’ COMMENTS The Global SEO Agency of the Year Award goes to an agency that really stood out. This agency has an outstanding approach, providing just the right amount of detail, but in a concise and well formulated way. We as a judging panel really felt we understood their story. The work they achieve is outstanding and we would like to congratulate this agency for this well deserved win.

GLOBAL INTEGRATED DIGITAL AGENCY OF THE YEAR

THE MEDIA IMAGE FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Battenhall

Grant Macfarlane founded The Media Image in 2008. Grant had worked at Google since 2000 having been the first hire to the UK Google Ads team.

Blend Marketing

Clever Touch Marketing

Peak Ace AG

The Brains

The Media Image

SILVER AWARD Peak Ace AG

Over the intervening 12 years, from a shared office in South West London with 2 employees, TMI has grown to 69 employees as of February 2021. In October 2019, The Media Image celebrated the official opening of The Media Image US Inc, the agency’s American arm, in New York. TMI now operates from GMT -7 in Las Vegas to GMT +3 in Riga, Latvia and from London, UK in the north to Cape Town, South Africa where our 27-person support office is located. Our staff profile is 60% female. Encouragingly for the agency at large, given the extraordinary disruptions in the macro environment wrought by Covid-19, 2020 was a growth year across the board with 16 new members joining the team. This represents a 30% increase in the staff complement last year and in the last financial year (FY2021), our net income is up 195%. Winning this award would validate our sense as an agency that we have scaled successfully to a multi-national paid media operation.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This winning agency provided a flawless entry. They did a really great job! We as judges really enjoyed the range and quality of the data driven case studies they provided. This showed innovation and a commitment to growing. The examples from different campaign types showcased their success as an integrated agency. Very well done!

GLOBAL FREELANCER OF THE YEAR

NED POULTER FINALISTS

SUMMARY

Jaime Gill

Hand on heart, ask yourself how you can offer truly valuable business building consulting when half your time is spent “consulting” with colleagues to make sure you’re “aligned”? When you end up directing more energy at signing up new clients rather than deepening a relationship and working to help truly grow your existing clients? Does a commitment to headcount become more important than a commitment to excellence? Is accountability treated as an imposition not a privilege? You can’t, hand on heart. So I don’t.

Ned Poulter

At Pole Star Digital, we (we being me, Ned Poulter) truly believe in the power of one. And so do our clients. The carefully chosen few that I work with. Because what’s the point unless the fit’s right? Unless the chemistry, the timing and the challenge benefit all? And it’s an important celebration of this simple truth that winning this award would represent. Especially important in the current climate. That there’s a valuable clarity, a purpose and a strength in growing an agency from four to one. A globally recognised, multi-award winning army of one. Isolation? Splendid isolation. It gets my clients better results. And I’m sure I’m not alone.

JUDGES’ COMMENTS This entrant illustrated passion and creativity, with some impressive work! It was great to see they had clear objectives and high values. We have no doubt that this has helped them with their achievements.