ClickZ Connected Marketing Awards 2010 Announced in San Francisco, August 17

Awards Recognize Brands and Organizations that Embrace Innovation and Creativity to Connect with Audiences

SAN FRANCISCO, CA, August 17, 2010 - Reebok, the National Hockey League, and the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra are among the winners of ClickZ Connected Marketing Awards 2010. The awards recognize brands and organizations that have embraced innovation and creativity to connect with their audiences - and drive results.

"Much conventional wisdom in marketing is being reconsidered. The key concept ushering in these changes is the notion of connectivity. Connected marketing is more about the change in consumer behavior than it is in the technology available to marketers," said Mike Grehan, VP and global content director for ClickZ, Search Engine Watch, and SES.

Winners were announced today as part of Connected Marketing Week, a week-long festival of digital marketing events, now taking place at the Moscone Center in San Francisco.

Entries were judged on four criteria -- creativity, innovation, interactivity, and business outcomes. It was important to our judges that the campaign had a significant effect on the organization's business.

"Marketers are clearly committed to tapping social networks, search, e-mail, and other marketing channels to connect with customers and prospects using creative and integrated techniques. Brands participating in ClickZ Connected Marketing Awards demonstrated that these efforts can bring solid business results regardless of their organization's size," said Anna Maria Virzi, ClickZ's executive editor.

The editorial teams of Incisive Media's ClickZ and Search Engine Watch and the online publications' Experts columnists judged the awards. ClickZ's Caitlin Rossman coordinated the effort.

Award Winners and Honorable Mentions

Award: Excellence in Connected Marketing

Winner: Asking people to bring their mobile phones to a symphony concert seems counterintuitive. But that's exactly what the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra did as part of its "Next Audience Engagement Strategy" campaign to connect with its audience during a pre-concert talk. The campaign also tapped other social networks, such as YouTube, to attract a new generation to the symphony.

Honorable mention: "Bermuda Ministry of Tourism" campaign

Award: Best Use of Search Marketing

Winner: Reebok for its "Reebok EasyTone" campaign that featured provocative messaging and imagery and used a search effort focused on branded, product specific and toning shoes campaigns.

Honorable mentions: "Streeter Place" and "Sunrise Senior Living - Finding Friends in New Ways" campaigns

Award: Best Use of Social Media Marketing

Winner: Next To Normal, an Original Musical, for its "Next to Normal: The Twitter Performance" campaign that tapped social marketing, particularly Twitter, as a marketing tool that succeeded in getting the album to the top 10 most downloaded on iTunes and Amazon.com with a limited budget.

Honorable mention: "Deb Shops - Deb Model Search" campaign

Award: Best Use of E-mail Marketing

Winner: NHL for its "NHL Ticket On-Sale" campaign consisting of an e-mail announcement to over 800,000 fans, customized to their locale with the local team schedule and links to ticket purchasing sites.

Honorable mentions: "Chick-fil-A's Enhanced E-mail Program," "Massage Envy's Massage for the Cure," and "PETA's E-mail Marketing Strategy" campaigns

Award: Best Use of Mobile Marketing

Winner: OpenTable for its "OpenTable Mobile" campaign that launched apps for the Palm, BlackBerry, Android, Nokia, iPhone, and iPad with interfaces mimicking the OpenTable website and incorporating unique features such as geo-location.

Honorable mention: "Kmart Protégé" campaign

Award: Best Use of Online Video for Marketing

Winner: Ginger Software for its video advertising campaign that included creative animation and iterative tests, resulting in increased conversion rates.

Honorable mention: "Neighborhood Assistance Corporation of America's (NACA) Save the Dream Tour" campaign

Award: Best Use of Display Advertising

Winner: Boden for its "Personalized Retargeting Campaign" featuring dynamic ad banners personalized in real-time to retarget viewers who had previously left the website without making a purchase.

Honorable mention: "EyeWonder's Client Testimonials" campaign

Award: ClickZ Marketing Excellence Award
Winner: This honor is being awarded posthumously to e-mail deliverability expert Stefan Pollard, a ClickZ expert contributor from 2006 to 2010. Pollard, who died in May 2010, was a champion of best practices and selflessly gave his time to others.

For more information about the winning campaigns of ClickZ Connected Marketing Awards 2010, please visit http://www.clickz.com/static/awards

About Connected Marketing Week

The inaugural Connected Marketing Week is a gathering of interactive marketing events aimed to educate marketers on every aspect of the digital industry. This week, VeriSign signed on as a sponsor of Connected Marketing Week, joining almost 100 other companies including but not limited to Google, Microsoft/Bing, iContact, iProspect, Adobe, Bruce Clay, Ask, Open Text, American Express OPEN, Performics, BT, Doubletree Hotels, Virgin America, and tap11.

Because marketing today requires an advanced understanding of how consumers and audiences are connecting, sharing their passions, and influencing others, the program for Connected Marketing Week contains presentations and panels focused on the basics, such as pay-per-click (PPC) and search engine optimization (SEO), and newly designed sessions exploring the search and social media convergence. In addition to thousands of attendees, over 100 companies will be exhibiting their latest products, services, and technologies.

For more information on the festival of events currently taking place at Connected Marketing Week, visit http://www.connectedmarketingweek.com

About ClickZ, Search Engine Watch, and SES
Incisive Media's ClickZ is a unique resource for digital marketing news, information, commentary, advice, opinion, and research. Other Incisive Media resources include SES, a leading global conference and training series focused on search engine marketing, and Search Engine Watch, which provides news and information about search, analysis of the search engine industry, and tools for improving search marketing effectiveness.

Incisive Media is a leading global provider of specialized business news and information, in print, in person, and online. The company's principal markets include financial services, legal services, commercial real estate, marketing services, and risk management. Incisive Media's market-leading brands include Accountancy Age, Computing, Investment Week, Legal Week, Post, Risk, and Search Engine Strategies. For more information, visit www.incisivemedia.com

For more news and event updates visit the SES blog at: https://searchenginesstrategies.com/

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