A total of 11 publishers and digital agencies shared the trophies across 18 categories at a spectacular ceremony at The RoundHouse in London.
Immediate Media topped the list on the night, taking home three awards for Best Digital Marketing Campaign, Best 2014 Launch and Best use of Mobile. Carnyx Group, Dennis Publishing, Hearst Magazines UK, Global Radio and Vice Media all scooped two awards each with AOL, Digital Spy, IPC Media, Sigaria and Unruly Media also amongst the winners.
The AOP’s two flagship awards for the Best Digital Publisher in the Consumer and B2B spaces went to Dennis Publishing and Carnyx respectively. The judges paid tribute to both company’s investment in their staff and the innovation they have showed over the last 12 months to grow their portfolios.
Other notable awards went to Carnyx owned The Drum and to Vice UK, which were crowned the Best B2B and Consumer Editorial Teams respectively. Jonathan Kitchen of Adnostic and Dennis Publishing won Best Digital Commercial Individual, whilst Cosmopolitan’s Kate Lucey took home the award for Best Digital Editorial Individual.
Reflecting on this year’s award and the calibre of entries AOP Executive Chairman Tim Faircliff commented: “On behalf of the AOP I want to offer my congratulations to this year’s AOP Digital Publishing Award winners. The entries received this year were among the best and most competitive the AOP has ever seen, which means being among the winners is a tremendous achievement.”
AOP Managing Director Tim Cain added: “Congratulations to all our winners. This year’s awards ceremony was a chance for the entire digital publishing community to come together and truly celebrate the great shape our industry is in. We’re all already looking forward to next year’s event and an even stronger selection of entries.”
AOP Awards 2014 Winners:
EDITORIAL TEAM 2014 – BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
Winner: The Drum Editorial Team - Carnyx / The Drum
Judges’ Comments: Fantastic growth from an editorial team demonstrating how to adapt and thrive in the digital world.
Highly Commended: Planning Editorial Team - Haymarket Media Group
EDITORIAL TEAM 2014 – CONSUMER
Winner: Vice Uk - Vice Media
Judges’ Comments: Vice have created an entirely new, vibrant genre for a hard-to-reach generation, using all digital media to great effect.
DIGITAL COMMERCIAL TEAM 2014
Winner: Hearst Digital Pureplay Team – Hearst Magazines Uk
Judges’ Comments: The disruption from the recent acquisition of Hachette and subsequent integration and consolidation made this team’s achievements all the more impressive. They have clearly shown innovation and creativity in delivering new revenue streams – ultimately leading to an outstanding commercial performance. Creativity around the Anusol partnership was particularly impressive.
DIGITAL COMMERCIAL INDIVIDUAL 2014
Winner: Jonathan Kitchen – Head of Agency - Adnostic/Dennis Publishing
Judges’ Comments: A fantastic hands-on commercial individual coupled with an obviously focused strategic drive. Tremendous blend of innovation and business acumen. A true entrepreneur – recognised a gap in the market and delivered it within the confines of traditional publishing.
Highly Commended: Nicola Inchmore – Digital Sales Director – Hearst Magazines UK
DIGITAL ADVERTISING OPERATIONS TEAM 2014
Winner: Unruly UK Operations Team - Unruly
Judges’ Comments: By working with industry bodies, Unruly have made a huge and leading contribution to the industry not just their own business. They have demonstrated innovation and entrepreneurial spirit.
Highly Commended: IPC Ad Operations Team - IPC Media
DIGITAL EDITORIAL INDIVIDUAL 2014
Winner: Kate Lucey – Digital Content Lead, Cosmopolitan, Hearst Magazines UK
Judges’ Comments: Kate has been a massive agent for change who’s had a huge impact on her team, site performance and the brand overall.
RESEARCH AND INSIGHT PROJECT 2014
Winner: The Native Age – AOL UK
Judges’ Comments: A research project which directly addresses a live issue in the industry. Demonstrated a great commercial return.
INTEGRATED MEDIA PROJECT 2014
Winner: XFM and Bulmers – Global Radio
Judges’ Comments: Rather than taking the easy option, this campaign took an ambitious approach and has gone the extra mile in integrating across radio, social and digital out-of-home. It delivered real-time dynamic content and social integration. The customer journey over time and through the evening event made the best use of the cross-platform opportunity. Success was delivered with great brand and response metrics.
Highly Commended: The Guardian with Brand USA – Guardian News & Media
LAUNCH 2014
Winner: Radio Times – Discover TV – Immediate Media
Judges’ Comments: An extremely hard-fought category. The winner showed a clear understanding of how to translate a linear product in a digital world.
Highly Commended: IPC Digital Advertising - IPC Media
USE OF MOBILE 2014
Winner: Madeformums & Heinz Baby – Immediate Media
Judges’ Comments: A blend of editorial, commercial and mobile UX design, helping time-poor Mums’ with weaning recipes and content in an “easy to digest format”. Using customer insights to recognise a need and an opportunity to deliver. Working with a brand to create content destination reaching the target audience.
COMMERCIAL PARTNERSHIP 2014
Winner: Global Radio and Bulmers
Judges’ Comments: A true partnership which integrated right into the businesses. The idea became the overall Global Radio experience. More than just a sponsorship, it was created together and felt like something that would have real resonance with the listener. It was clear time had been taken to editorialise the content. A really neat 360-degree campaign.
MEDIA TECHNOLOGY PARTNER 2014
Winner: IPC Media & Radium One
Judges’ Comments: A really strong, really well-written entry with a clear supporting document. Demonstrating the partnership between two companies working together to produce strong results. The test bed of something that has long-term commercial value to the business.
DIGITAL MARKETING CAMPAIGN INNOVATION 2014
Winner: Subscriptions Marketing – Immediate Media
Judges’ Comments: Immediate Media solved a genuine business problem. The innovation came from taking back their data and solving a difficult technical challenge.
USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA 2014
Winner: Vice UK - Vice Media
Judges’ Comments: Vice is a worthy winner as they clearly demonstrated business success through smart use of multiple social media channels. We were particularly impressed with a smart use of all assets across multiple platforms. Vice’s social strategy is both on-going and authentic.
WEBSITE 2014 – BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
Winner: Procurement Leaders - Sigaria
Judges’ Comments: A clear winner. Impressive commercial performance which is clearly a result of the product being spot on for its audience.
Highly Commended: Dezeen – Dezeen
WEBSITE 2014 - CONSUMER
Winner: Digital Spy – Hearst Magazines UK
Judges’ Comments: Innovative and intelligent use of their resources has delivered excellent growth and amazing engagement metrics in a highly competitive environment.
Highly Commended: Mirror.co.uk – Trinity Mirror
DIGITAL PUBLISHER 2014 – BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
Winner: Carnyx Group
Judges’ Comments: Carnyx have seen huge success in the past 12 months showcasing innovation and digital prowess in a highly competitive market.
DIGITAL PUBLISHER 2014 - CONSUMER
Winner: Dennis Publishing
Judges’ Comments: Dennis Publishing focused investment in people and innovation delivered remarkable commercial results across their wide portfolio of brands and products in a competitive sector.
