The awards are judged by an esteemed panel of industry leaders and experts, the judging is a rigorous two-stage process including pre-scoring to determine shortlists and a judging meeting where entries are discussed and evaluated in detail to decide the winning entries.
From a transparency perspective, we may video aspects of the judging session to show on the evening and give entrants an insight into why a winning entry was chosen.
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Judges
Andre Alpar | Investor & enterpreneur
Andre Alpar‘s entrepreneurial activity in online marketing began in 1998 during his studies in economics, computer science and psychology. After building several companies, he served as a strategic online marketing consultant for Rocket Internet for over three years. Parallel to his professional career, he acts as a business angel at more than 40 internet start-ups. Andre created three successful online marketing conferences series in Germany. Also, he is a renowned author with three books and dozens of published magazine articles. 2012 he founded search and content marketing agency AKM3 that got acquired by the publicly listed agency network Publicis. The agency is now part of the performance marketing agency Performics with over 250 employees which he led as CEO in Berlin until mid-2017. Since then he has been active as an investor and keynote speaker on digital marketing topics
Martin SFP Bryant | Media and Tech Consultant
Martin Bryant is a consultant, speaker, writer, and educator in the fields of technology and media. He works to help technology companies craft a narrative around their products and business. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of international technology publication The Next Web, and Community Editor at Tech North, where he shone a light on the stories of startups and entrepreneurs in the North of England.
Arnoldo Cabrera | Global SEO Team Leader | Ikea
Arnoldo has been working in retail with IKEA Global for 7 years. Prior to IKEA, he has worked in a variety of industries such as hospitality, online gaming, and IT Security. Since the beginning of 2000, he’s focused on digital marketing with a high focus on Multilingual Optimisation.
Rachael Courtney | Senior Social Marketing Lead | Virgin Media
Rachael has worked in PR & Events for over 17 years, with 15 years running Social Media for big brands. Previous roles have included heading up social at Cineworld and Three, where she was responsible for a number of award-winning social campaigns. Rachael now leads the social strategy and team at Virgin Media.
Adrian Cutler | Director | Microsoft Search Advertising
Adrian is a regular keynote speaker, award judge and panellist at industry events such as Cannes, Adweek, SMX and DMexco. As a Futurist, Adrian is deliberate in demystifying cutting edge tech such as Quantum and AI to show how not only how tech can save the greatest and most precious commodity to humanity, time, but also how its place in the world can empower us all to truly amplify what we are naturally capable of through our own human ingenuity. Adrian was granted a Fellowship of the Royal Society of Art, Commence and Manufacturing, as he takes the greatest pride in seeing humanity collaborate with each other and how tech can advance this collaboration. A mantra he lives by is "You only think differently if you HIRE different thinkers!"
Jack Dyson | Pure Storage
Words and pictures were Jack’s starting blocks, but its joining the dots across different platforms that makes him tick. Jack spent 15 years in editorial and publishing, writing on business, tech, travel and luxury. After working at GQ and The Week, as well as helping launch WIRED, he left to run his own agency, outsourcing brand and content strategy to major clients and agencies before going client-side. He is co-founder of award-winning RUBBISH magazine as well as Father and Son Day, a charitable initiative with the Royal Marsden. You can also find him on Instagram as @oilandinfamy.
Gianluca Fiorelli | SEO & Web Marketing Specialist
Gianluca Fiorelli started working as an SEO in 2004, after previously having worked in the Italian TV and Audiovisual industry. Amongst the best known International and Strategic SEO consultants, Gianluca helps and helped brands like Iberostar.com, Glassdoor, Outsystems, ActivTrades, Magoosh, Go Overseas and many others to reach the sought success in organic search. Gianluca, who is also the founder of The Inbounder digital marketing conference, spoke at international events like Mozcon, BrightonSEO, SMX, and PubCon. You can find Gianluca on Twitter as gfiorelli1 (https://twitter.com/gfiorelli1) or contacting him at https://www.iloveseo.net.
Dee Goldstraw | SENIOR LECTURER | MANCHESTER METROPOLITAN UNIVERSITY
A senior lecturer in marketing and digital communications at Manchester Metropolitan University, Dee specialist area is content marketing, where she teaches across a number of content strategy units. Reading for her PhD has taken her research into the area of exploring online influencers, in particular on Instagram, and their impact on women. A PR professional for more than 15 years, Dee has worked in a mixture of PR, digital marketing and events agencies across the north of the UK as well as working freelance.
Alex Hamilton | Head of PR & Social | McCann Leeds
Alex has been working in the Northern marketing world for nearly 10 years within agencies and media analytics businesses in Manchester. Most recently Alex joined the senior management team of integrated agency McCann Leeds as Head of PR & Social, working across a number of well-known B2B and B2C brands.
Marc Hermann-Cohen | Sales Development Manager | Bright Data
Marc is a digital marketer, analyst, and researcher with more than 13 years of experience in content creation, writing and localisation across different fields (NGO, governmental & private sector) and industries. He has experience in investigative and data journalism (VOCATIV) analysing the web, social media, deep web, and the dark net. In recent years he has been the localisation expert for start-ups and their content assets bridging language and cultural gaps, helping companies grow. At Wix.com, Marc led marketing content for the DACH countries. Currently at Bright Data he holds the position of Sales Development Manager. He holds a PhD and is presently visiting postdoctoral researcher at Reichman University (Israel) School of Psychology.
Daphne Hoogenboom | Head of Content Marketing | KLM Royal Dutch Airlines
Daphne Hoogenboom is a strategic thinker with the drive to get things done. She has a strong passion for beautiful brands, magazines and travelling. At KLM Royal Dutch Airlines she is responsible for the content marketing vision and the award winning inflight magazine Holland Herald. Daphne previously worked at Lycos, MasterCard and Transavia airlines.
Charlotte Hutton | Head of Digital and Content | Global Brands
Charlotte is a passionate digital marketeer with over 12 years’ experience in-house in the FMCG and hospitality sectors including SIXT, Boohoo, VK, Hooch, Franklin & Sons & Boutique Hotels, starting her career in SEO, she found her love of content marketing, specialising in gen-z target markets via social, influencer, paid and organic channels. Charlotte is now Head of Digital Content at Global Brands Ltd.
Jess Ingham | Head of Content | McCann Connected
Jess is a content specialist with over 10 years of experience in the industry, and is currently Head of Content at McCann Connected. With a background in SEO and digital PR, she has experience working across a multitude of industries and specialisms including finance, travel, FMCG and fashion. Initially starting out as an SEO strategist, her love for teaming creativity with data and logic lead her down the content path. From running award-winning digital PR campaigns to delivering performance-led strategy and insight, Jess has a passion for holistic content that drives true business value.
Dr Brendan Keegan | Assistant Professor in Marketing | Maynooth University
Brendan Keegan is an Assistant Professor in marketing at Maynooth University. Interested in digital placemaking, digital and social media analytics and agency-client relation- ships, his research is published in various journals including European Journal of Marketing, European Management Review, and Management Decision. Brendan is also part of the GOGREENROUTES Horizon 2020 project investigating the role of digital placemaking and its relationship with the psychology of wellbeing through interconnected green corridors in public spaces.
Lucie Kerley | Digital Strategist & Influencer Marketing Consultant
Experienced social-first Creative working in B2B Influencer Marketing, Executive Thought Leadership and Employee Advocacy. Passionate about promoting diversity and equality through storytelling and tech and digital inclusion initiatives. After graduating in 2008 from Birmingham City University, with a degree in Visual Communication (Photography), Lucie specialised in delivering non-profit community outreach programmes. First as part of a small team on the Heritage Lottery Fund funded Full Circle Project, at the Media Archive for Central England, and more recently for the Big Lottery Fund funded programme Grow Wild, at Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Lucie’s career in social media started organically when she began writing her lifestyle blog 'Lucie Loves' [lucieloves.co.uk] back in 2009. After being approached by the award-winning creative agency, Rees Bradley Hepburn via Twitter, Lucie became resident blogger for the Highcross shopping centre in Leicester, which eventually led to her moving to London and taking her blog with her.
Umar Khan | Senior Digital Strategist | Nakheel Malls
Umar is a passionate digital marketer with over 8 years of experience in managing high budget digital marketing campaigns. With experience and expertise on all the verticals of Digital Channels including SEO, Google Ads, Social Media, Content Marketing, CRO UX and others. Umar is currently linked with Nakheel as the Senior. Digital Strategist. He also conducts digital marketing workshops & regular classes for well-known educational institutes in Dubai.
Chris King | AGENCY DEVELOPMENT DIRECTOR | WILDFIRE PR
Chris has spent the last 20 years working in technology PR for a broad range of tech clients ranging from niche start-ups right through to huge global corporations. Part of Wildfire’s senior management team Chris drives a thriving client portfolio while also shaping Wildfire’s evolving service proposition. And as a specialist in international campaigns he is also responsible for Wildfire's membership of the PROI Worldwide network and strategic relationships with partner agencies. In his spare time Chris also co-chairs the PRCA’s International Communicators UK group. Chris' clients include Samsung, Fractal Analytics, Elastic Path and Miller Heiman Group.
Christopher Lehault | Marketing Lead | Lehault
Chris Lehault is a hybrid creative/marketing leader who believes that brands succeed when both work together. Currently, he is the VP of Marketing at Other Half Brewing, where he oversees the marketing function, in-house design studio, and the brand's direct-to-consumer eCommerce platform. His previous roles include serving as the Global Director of Brand Experience at ZX Ventures, the accelerator arm of Anheuser Busch InBev, as well as stints as a creative director at FCB, Sapient Razorfish, and Wunderman. Off the clock, he enjoys doing the most suburban of things with his wife and two kids across the river in New Jersey.
Trond Lyngbo | Senior SEO Consultant & Founder | Search Planet AS
Trond Lyngbø is the founder of Search Planet and a senior SEO Consultant. He has over two decades of experience in SEO, e-commerce, content strategy and digital analysis. His clients include multinational Fortune 500 corporations and major Norwegian companies. Trond has helped grow businesses through more effective search marketing and SEO strategies. He is most passionate about working with e-commerce companies and web shops to develop and expand their omni-channel marketing initiatives.
Krzysztof Marzec | CEO & Technical SEO, Google Ads & Analytics Trainer | DevaGroup
Head of 300+ clients agency with 16+ years of SEM experience. One of the top Google Ads & Analytics Trainers in Poland. Selected by Google for Google Partners Academy project and Big6 project. Certified in both Google Ads and Google Analytics as an individual professional. 7+ years of experience in one of Poland's largest sites - Interia.pl (Head of SEO). Lecturer at Jagiellonian University, AGH University of Science and Technology, and the Tischner European University. Speaker at dozens of conferences recently won 1st place at SEO and 1st place at SEM days at largest polish conference I love marketing. Founder and organizer of semKRK, BarCamp gathering up to 500 participants of the SEM industry.
Rejoice Ojiaku | Co-founder, SEO Manager and Content Lead | B-Digital
Rejoice Ojiaku is an SEO Specialist & Content Strategist, as well as the Co-Founder of B-DigitalUK – a platform for showcasing and empowering black talent in the UK digital marketing scene. Her expertise lies in SEO, Diversity and inclusion, all bolstered by strong personal branding both online and offline.
Dan Petrovic | Managing Director | DEJAN
Dan Petrovic, the managing director of DEJAN, is Australia’s best-known name in the field of search engine optimisation. Dan is a web author, innovator and a highly regarded search industry event speaker.
Plamen Popov | Head of Organic Growth | Acronis
Plamen Popov is an experienced digital marketer & SEO Expert with history of working for internationally renowned brands. He currently is working as Senior SEO Lead in Acronis, world leader in cyber protection & data security company. Plamen joined last year from the marketing team of Management Financial Group, where he lead global marketing strategies for various fin-tech brands inside the holding. Plamen has a genuine interest in marketing and technology and that drives his experience through out consulting start up companies and leading teams in enterprise brands exploring various aspects of marketing activities including PPC, Social Media, Display, Programmatic, App Marketing and SEO. His passion for Search Marketing & SEO always drives him to learn and explore new possibilities of creating better user experiences and results.
Ric Rodriguez | Co-founder and Chief Growth Advisor | Finsu
Ric Rodriguez is an accomplished marketing and growth leader. Ric is Co-Founder and Chief Growth Officer at Finsu, the sustainable fashion marketplace, taking the compromise out of conscious shopping. Ric is driven and his career to date speaks to his ambition - most recently holding a senior strategy role at Vashi, the fine jewellery disruptor - where he built the digital marketing team from the ground-up, launched the Covent Garden flagship store and Innovation Centre and established an accredited approach to ESG. Prior to this, Ric held an evangelist role at the marketing technology company, Yext, where he supported sales and product teams in building new propositions for customers, including delivering an new approach for qualifying deals during the beginning of the Covid-19, which was adopted across EMEA - as well as regularly representing the NYSE-listed firm as an industry expert at events across Europe. Ric has also held significant roles in agency-side positions, at iProspect, where he lead accounts for leading brands such as Santander and Post Office; at Croud, where he was seconded into IWG’s marketing organisation to deliver the company’s digital growth across 110+ markets - work for which he won an industry award. Ric is often invited to speak at industry conferences and is a regular award judge. He has twice been a co-author for the Amazon-Bestselling “Mastering In-House SEO”.
Hannah Smith | Creative Content Consultant | Worderist.com
Hannah Smith has recently traded-in agency life for working in her pyjamas in her flat. In previous incarnations she was Head of Creative at Verve Search; and held various roles at Distilled (including Creative Lead, Content Strategist, and SEO Consultant). Prior to 2007 she worked in offline marketing (they just called it marketing back then). Her work for clients has won multiple awards, and she’s spoken at numerous conferences including MozCon, SMX, SearchLove, and BrightonSEO.
Bianca Spada | Social Media Consultant | Apple
Bianca is a global digital strategy expert with 10 years experience of delivering successful digital strategies and global campaigns in some of the world’s leading and cutting edge companies. She is an expert in consolidating and creating brand new social strategies to significantly increase the visibility of brands online. Bianca has a proven record of radically turning around performance and generating 3-figure growth within 12 months of working in a company.
Andraž Štalec | CEO | Red Orbit
Andraž Štalec is the CEO and Co-founder of Red Orbit, the leading digital performance agency in Adriatic region. Data, analytics and performance run through his veins. He is also a European search awards judge, Google certified trainer and a regular speaker at major international digital marketing events like SearchLeeds, SMX London, inOrbit, Superweek, SMXL Milan, OMCap Berlin, SEMDays, SEOZone, Webmarketing Festival, UK ecommercial conference etc.
Raluca Tudose | Head of Performance Experience | Performics @ Starcom
Raluca is Head of Performance Experience at Starcom Performics, part of Publicis Media groupe. She is leading a multi-disciplinary team delivering industry leading solutions and driving excellence in client performance. Amongst Raluca key’s responsibilities at Performics are to develop a range of products and solution that can be taken to existing clients and the wider market that are industry leading, demonstrating innovation & growth as well bring performance experience into the fold within a media agency context, unlocking the next era of growth for the department & clients.
Purna Virji | Senior Content Solutions Consultant | LinkedIn
Purna Virji is a globally recognized content strategist and Senior Content Solutions Consultant at LinkedIn. She has been crowned the Search Personality of the Year by the US Search Awards, was named by Adweek on their Young Influentials List, and was named by PPC Hero as the #1 Most Influential Expert in the world. She is a columnist and top-rated international keynote speaker who regularly speaks at conferences such as AdWeek, DMEXCO, The Next Web Conference and INBOUND. Prior to joining LinkedIn, Purna led global learning and thought leadership programs for Microsoft. An award-winning former journalist, Purna is an avid traveler, aspiring top chef, and amateur knitter in her spare time.