SA's online industry lives up to Bookmarks' tough standards

Judging was based on stringent criteria and both panels agreed that the more than 400 submissions comprised sufficient world-class entries to hand out a range of awards across both the agency and publisher categories.

An indication of the dramatic jump in the quality of the 2010 entries was the fact that the judges awarded six Gold Pixels in the publisher categories this year, compared to none in 2009. Furthermore, 17 Silver Pixels, 14 Bronze Pixels, two Best in Show (Agency) and 10 Individual and Team Awards were awarded across all publishers and agency categories.

"We have very strict criteria for granting a Gold Pixel - it is an extremely prestigious and elite award reserved for only the very best work," says Nikki Cockcroft, chairperson of the Bookmarks awards and deputy-chair of the Digital Media and Marketing Association (DMMA), which organises the awards.

"The fact that our judges awarded six Gold Pixels is testament to the fact that we now have many players in the South African digital landscape that can compete on an international level. We also hold our Silver and Bronze award winners to very high standards so all agencies and publishers that walked away with awards last week can be very proud of their achievements."

Within the agency categories, Pixels were awarded based on the following key criteria:

• Results/campaign success (accounted for 40% of the total score in most categories)
  
• Aesthetics (not applied within the search marketing categories)
  
• Creative and intelligent use of technology and creative idea
  
• Verifiable results data
  
• Winning testimonial from clients

In the publishing categories, key evaluation criteria included:

• Had the site seen meaningful growth?
  
• To what extent were the key objectives met?
  
• Did the site deliver on commercial, aesthetic, content and usability principles?
  
• Most importantly, could it compete with peer sites internationally?

Each finalist was judged against the relevant criteria in that category. If the standard of entries in a particular category wasn't high enough, no awards were handed out for that category.

News24.com was one of the Gold Pixel winners in the "Best Publishing Site" category of the 2010 Bookmarks awards. It was granted a silver medal at the awards evening because of an administrative error during the consolidation of the awards. The publishing judging panel awarded the Gold Pixel based on true excellence in digital publishing with News24.com receiving the highest publisher scores in the category criteria.

"We would like to apologise for the error and congratulate News24.com on winning a well-deserved Gold Pixel," concludes Cockcroft.

BBC, ADTECH and Facebook were the 2010 Bookmarks premier sponsors. For all the 2010 Bookmarks awards information, visit www.thebookmarks.co.za.

FINAL 2010 BOOKMARKS WINNERS LIST

* No awards in other Individual categories