The best in Web and mobile media, interactive TV, online gaming and digital marketing initiatives were celebrated last night, as the Canadian New Media Awards (CNMAs) named award winners in 19 prestigious categories.
As part of nextMEDIA Toronto, Canada’s leading digital media production and development marketplace, the CNMAs were handed out last night at a gala ceremony held at the Toronto Design Exchange, celebrating the accomplishments of Canada’s most successful digital media companies in the country’s only nationwide competition.
In its ninth consecutive year, the CNMAs spotlight the talents and successes of the country’s interactive media industry in categories such as Hottest New Digital Kid on the Block, Best Mobile Marketing, Best Use of Social Media and Best Web-based Game. New categories introduced this year include Best Online Video Portal, Best Mobile Application, and Brand of the Year.
“We were extremely impressed with this year’s award nominees and their work truly represented some of the country’s best new media strategies,” said Mark Greenspan, Executive Producer of nextMEDIA. “As Canada’s only nationwide new media competition of its kind, we’re proud of the achievements what this country’s innovators have to offer.”
The gala celebration was hosted by award-winning comedian Seán Cullen and more than 200 industry leaders were on hand at tonight’s awards.
Award winners include Cyberplex Inc. as Best Company of the Year, BBDO/Proximity Canada for Doritos as Best Brand of the Year and Syncapse Corp. as Most Promising New Company of the Year. Below is a full list of award winners.
2009 CNMA winners:
· Best Company of the Year:
Cyberplex Inc., Toronto www.cyberplex.com
Cyberplex Inc. is a leader in providing web advertising solutions, online customer acquisition strategies and technology development. The company, through its subsidiaries, leverages its proprietary affiliate network, robust advertising relationships and experience, along with technology design, development and solutions specialists to develop and implement web-based programs and solutions that have a proven record in delivering results.
Best Brand of the Year:
· Doritos
http://www.getaloadofthis.ca/2009/doritoswhitebag/p-integrated/
Doritos invited consumers to take over the brand and name a mysterious new flavour as well as produce an ad. BBDO/Proximity Canada used lo-fi production featuring man-lipped cats, the first 3-D YouTube ad, and never-done-before Facebook/YouTube integration. The results: 1.5M unique visitors, 2,100+ uploaded spots, and one winner receiving $25,000 and 1% of sales.
Promising New Company of the Year:
· Syncapse, Toronto www.syncapse.com
Syncapse is a full service social technology company that helps clients build, measure and monetize their online social media presence and impact. Syncapse builds technology and digital media applications that give companies a stronger voice on the internet through digital monetization, customized social network development, and helping brands better understand media strategy on social media platforms.
Hottest New Digital Kid on the Block:
· ChickAdvisor.com, ChickAdvisor Inc. – Toronto www.chickadvisor.com
ChickAdvisor is a social media platform for women with user-generated reviews on the best products and local services in North America. In addition to their online presence, they host local events, a product review club and videos. Their goal is to help women make better purchasing decisions by getting advice first on a wide range of topics from electronics to electrolysis. Members determine the hottest trends, the best local services, and the coolest products, and ChickAdvisor delivers the location and purchase information to help make shopping easier and more affordable. ChickAdvisor launched in September 2006 by husband and wife duo Ali and Alex de Bold.
Best in Mobile Marketing:
· Brisk ARTwist - Addictive Mobility, Markham http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45939&id=6386724639&ref=mf
Brisk’s exciting new campaign provided a way for the user to be creative by providing Brisk graphics and stencils that represent the brand and a canvas that includes a brand watermark, at the same time allowing for creative freedom in a familiar space. The Brisk ARTwist tool allows Brisk enthusiasts to create brand-related artwork that could further the reach of Brisk. It also allowed the brand build a database and track social analytics. Artwist started as an application on the official website where artwork was submitted as contest entries, and its popularity continued onwards in a Facebook application boasting the same features, but also the ability to sent canvases to friends and refer friends to the application.
Best Mobile Application:
· Air Canada iPhone App - IBM Canada, Markham http://appsto.re/aircanada
Air Canada iPhone Application is the first iPhone App from a North American airline which makes check-in, electronic boarding-passes, flight information, itinerary changes and other flight information available and convenient to retrieve. The app provides a superior customer experience as it is fully optimized for iPhone devices and takes advantage of the iPhone's native buttons, controls and screen transitions. The touch areas are large and easy to use while much of the content and logic is locally cached which reduces network data requirements and improve overall performance.
Best Location Based Service:
· Poynt - Multiplied Media, Calgary www.mypoynt.com
Poynt is a local search application that provides consumers with an all-in-one tool to search for local business, restaurant, retail and movie information as well as a people search feature. Poynt provides information access on mobile smartphones, giving consumers a convenient and easy-to-use method to locate products and services when and where they need them. Results are distance sorted and provide contact information (phone, web, address), mapping and directions; the ability to search movies, read reviews, watch movie trailers and purchase tickets; as well as the ability to book dining reservations and read restaurant reviews.
Best Use of Social Media:
· Invoke Media, creator of HootSuite, Vancouver www.invokemedia.com
Invoke is an interactive agency that specializes in transforming ideas into tangible results executed within a complete interactive brand strategy. They are the creator of HootSuite, the professional Twitter client that lets users manage their entire Twitter experience from one easy-to-use interface. With HootSuite, users can manage multiple Twitter profiles with multiple editors on each, schedule tweets, track stats, feed their content with RSS, and more. Ow.ly is a URL shortener and sharing tool. The ow.ly toolbar allows users to instantly share or retweet links. HootSuite users can track the success of their ow.ly links. Ow.ly and HootSuite currently hold two of the top ten slots on the Peer 1 Canada Startup index.
Best in Interactive Marketing:
· Doritos White Bag - BBDO/Proximity Canada, Toronto http://www.getaloadofthis.ca/2009/doritoswhitebag/p-integrated/
Doritos invited consumers to take over the brand and name a mysterious new flavour as well as produce an ad. BBDO/Proximity Canada used lo-fi production featuring man-lipped cats, the first 3-D YouTube ad, and never-done-before Facebook/YouTube integration. The results: 1.5M unique visitors, 2,100+ uploaded spots, and one winner receiving $25,000 and 1% of sales.
Best Branded Entertainment:
· Worldwide Short Film Festival: Short Attention Span – doug agency, Toronto www.shorterisbetter.com
The Worldwide Short Film Festival challenged themselves to build upon an existing key insight that for an audience of short attention spans - shorter is better. What better way to highlight the benefits of a short film festival than to create a champion of “shorter is better” – a rapping film critic who disses any film that is longer than the length of time that it takes to eat a twinkie. Using the online medium to create a persona, build a fan base, and spread his message, “Critic Cal” was born and appeared on multiple social media platforms.
Best Cross-Platform Project:
· Waterlife Interactive - National Film Board of Canada, Toronto http://http//waterlife.nfb.ca
Waterlife Interactive is the story of the last great supply of fresh drinking water on earth. It is a creative and educational take on a relevant and pressing social issue that directly affects over 350 million people. Developed in conjunction with the documentary Waterlife, Waterlife Interactive builds on the film’s stunning visuals and luscious soundtrack to create an immersive experience that allows users to explore the beauty of water and the danger in taking it for granted.
Best Online Video Portal:
· National Film Board of Canada: Online Screening Room - National Film Board of Canada www.nfb.ca
Available 24/7 in Canada’s both official languages, the new NFB online Screening Room provides Canadians with a unique screening experience: high quality, free viewing of over 700 productions from the NFB’s vast collection – a national treasure of our stories. From historical films dating back to 1928 to current contemporary releases, including award-winning documentaries, animation and fiction, this initiative invites Canadians from all regions, to browse, discover and be entertained by the stories that bind us together.
Best Innovative Web-based Game:
· Junk: Battles - Antic Entertainment, London, ON www.junkbattles.com
Junk: Battles™ is a fast paced free to play real-time action-strategy game where you build a vehicle out of your collected parts, and take it online to battle opponents all around the world earning new parts, prizes, statistics and more. Antic Entertainment was formed in June of 2008 by three industry veterans with more than 40 years of combined game development experience. Based in London, Ontario, their focus is to create fun, innovative casual games for the hardcore player.
Best Kids Interactive:
· Titanium Chef - mod7, Vancouver www.titaniumchef.ca
Titanium Chef is an online educational game designed to teach the Canada Food Guide to Canadian kids in grades 6 to 8 using a carefully-crafted (but transparent) educational strategy to be used by both French and English teachers. Each episode can played in 30 to 40 minutes and is a great Role-playing Game that incorporates virtual worlds and multi-player elements regardless of its educational content. The game uses innovative interactive teaching techniques (including repetition, discovery, application, synthesis) to facilitate retention and internalization of learned information and is a technical achievement, using advanced Flash programming to generate real-time 3-dimensional and immersive worlds.
Best in Canadian Culture, Interactive:
· In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture & Art - ecentricarts inc., Toronto www.textilemuseum.ca
The online Textile Museum of Canada exhibition “In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture + Art” helps visitors explore how textiles are created and to learn about the characters that bring them to life. The highly interactive Web site allows visitors to access a rich suite of thematic multimedia narratives and learn amazing stories of figurative textiles from around the world and across time. Through immersive exploration or imaginative game-play, In Touch sheds light on the nature and meaning of textiles as never before. The site features state-of-the-art technology and design to highlight the special qualities of certain works.
Best Online Comedy Performance:
· Têtes à claques, Montreal www.tetesaclaques.tv
An humourous French online website with funny videos and clips.
Best Online Artist of the Year:
· K-os, www.k-osmusic.com
K-os’ website encourages iTunes purchases of the album, online contests to design merchandise and remix songs from his album Yes! where winners will be featured on Yes! Remix album.
Leader in Social Change:
· Mark Surman, Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation
· Tonya Surman, Executive Director, Centre for Social Innovation
Lifetime Achievement Award:
· Red Burns, "Grandmother" of new media and Founder of the ITP Program at the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU.
Visit http://www.nextmediaevents.com/toronto/cnma.php for more information and details on the Canadian New Media Award winners.
The New Canadian New Media Awards (CNMAs) is Canada's only nationwide competition celebrating the accomplishments of individuals in Canada's most successful digital media companies, in 19 prestigious award categories. This year, the CNMAs introduced new categories and have received impressive entries in each. Categories include, The Hottest New Digital Kid on the Block, Best Use of Social Media, Best Brand of the Year, Best Cross Platform Project, Best in Mobile Marketing and Promising New Company of the Year.
About Achilles Media:
Achilles Media is a business-to-business facilitation company and an international events management company serving the television and digital media industries. Achilles Media enables business community members to succeed by facilitating relationships and knowledge share.