first direct was named a winner in three categories today as Econsultancy announced the results of its 2009 Innovation Awards.

Published 10th December 2009

The online bank was recognised for best innovation in Online PR and Multichannel Marketing, while also winning the Best Online Advertising Campaign category.

The bank, which shows both negative and positive consumer sentiment on its ‘first direct live’ microsite, impressed the judges with its successful use of social media and its integrated advertising campaign to encourage people to talk honestly about its brand.

Tesco, Comet, IBM and eBay were also among the winners in Econsultancy’s annual awards which recognise the smartest new ideas and achievements across digital marketing and e-commerce.

The digital agency Essence won the awards for Most Innovative Digital Agency and for Rich Media and Video. It won the Rich Media category for the YouTube HomeProject Channel, which enabled people to watch a full feature film about the global environmental challenge online.

Tesco.com won the award for Innovation in Email Marketing for its campaigns which provided personalised shopping lists to customers based on their in-store and online purchase history.

IBM won the Innovation in B2B Digital Marketing award for its augmented reality mobile phone technology which enhanced the Wimbledon experience by providing useful data about the tennis tournament as well as information which helped people to avoid queues.

The same technology, called Seer, earned IBM a commendation in the Most Innovative New Technology category.

eBay Partner Network won the Affiliate Marketing award for breaking away from the traditional affiliate cost-per-acquisition payment model and launching a new “quality based” Cost Per Click (CPC) payout method.

Entries were judged by an international panel from companies known for innovation such as Honda, The Guardian, lastminute.com, Orange, Mindshare, Channel 4, Google, Isobar, PHD Media, Unilever and Poke, as well as digital gurus Avinash Kaushik, Jeremiah Owyang, Sidharth Rao and Dr. Dave Chaffey.

The judges also included Econsultancy CEO Ashley Friedlein, Research Director Linus Gregoriadis, Editor-in-Chief Chris Lake, and Senior Research Analyst Jake Hird.
The full list of winners and judges’ comments is on the Econsultancy blog. 
http://econsultancy.com/blog/5095-the-econsultancy-innovation-awards-2009-the-winners

List of winners and highly commended entries by category:

Innovation in Affiliate Marketing 
Winner: eBay Partner Network 
Highly commended: Skimlinks

Innovation in B2B Digital Marketing 
Winner: IBM

Innovation in E-commerce 
Winner: Glasses Direct 
Highly commended: UpClick

Innovation in Email Marketing 
Winner: Tesco.com 
Highly commended: Silverpop

Innovation in Lead Generation Online 
Winner: European Directories and Skype

Innovation in Mobile Marketing 
Winner: Marvellous Ideas 
Highly commended: Incentivated 
Highly commended: KODIME

Innovation in Multichannel Marketing 
Winner: first direct 
Highly commended: DSB Danish Railways / Wunderman / Agillic

Innovation in Online Customer Service 
Winner: CACI 
Highly commended: BT

Innovation in Online Marketing Research or Customer Insight 
Winner: InSites Consulting UK 
Highly commended: Somatica Digital

Innovation in Online PR 
Winner: first direct

Innovation in Paid Search/PPC 
Winner: Summit Media / Comet

Innovation in Rich Media and Video 
Winner: Essence

Innovation in SEO/Natural Search 
Winner: Majestic-12

Innovation in Social Media 
Winner: Storm Ideas 
Highly commended: Independents United

Innovation in User Experience 
Winner: Enhanced Editions Ltd 
Highly commended: MixMatchMe

Innovation in Web Analytics and Optimization 
Winner: Fresh Egg

Innovation in Web Content Management 
Winner: Aqueduct & Poke

Most Innovative Digital Agency 
Winner: Essence

Most Innovative Digital Marketing Team 
Winner: eSpares

Most Innovative Online Advertising Campaign 
Winner: first direct 
Highly commended: Tangent One

Most Innovative New Technology 
Winner: ipadio 
Highly commended: IBM