Apple Ireland won the Digital Media Awards Grand Prix for its iTunes music store last night. The prize was presented by guest of honour Minister Noel Dempsey TD at a ceremony in Dublin’s Burlington Hotel.
More than 600 entrants in 27 different categories were entered for the Digital Media Awards this year. The online marketing agency Cybercom won three awards and the internet advertising firm ICAN won two.
It was notable that several public sector agencies picked up prizes for their use of digital media. The Mental Health Commission won the best non-commercial information site and the Revenue Commissioners won the best business-to-business information site for Revnet.
Other winners included Audiocity.ie for best consumer site and Eircom.net for best news site. Entertainment.ie walked off with the prize for best entertainment site.
More than 500 people attended the event which was hosted by 2FM DJ Dave Fanning. Sponsors of this year’s awards included Ad-2-One, Vodafone, Envi, The Digital Hub, siliconrepublic.com and the Irish Computer Society. Ashville Media Group organised this years’ ceremony.
The full list of winners is: Animation — Zanita Films; Best Business-to-Business Information Site — Revnet; Best Consumer Site — Audiocity.ie; Best Entertainment Site — Entertainment.ie; Best Information Site (Non-Commercial) — The Mental Health Commission; Best Music Site — Apple Ireland (iTunes Music Store) and Best News Site — Eircom Net.
Awards were also handed out to C-Ads for Business-to-Business Innovation; 3V Transaction Services for Business-to-Consumer Innovation; and Aerlingus.com won the Cross Platform prize.
Gongs for design and digital post-production went to Pixelsoup and The Farm respectively. E-Learning Company of the year was WBT Systems while Blackrock Education Centre landed the prize for best E-Learning Product.
Other award winners were: Emerging Technology — Newaddress.ie; Mobile Content — Wildwave/Darklight; Best Online Advertising Agency — ICAN; Best Online Advertising Campaign — Cybercom for the First Active ‘Investors’ Handbook. ICAN’s Vodafone 3G campaign won in the Online Advertising Creativity category. Cybercom won again in the Online Marketing Agency field; Best Online Marketing Campaign was won by Pigsback.com. Cybercom’s third award was for Online Marketing Creativity for the company’s work on promoting the Guinness Hurling Championship.
Rookie of the Year was the University of Ulster’s Kevin Curran; UTV Internet was rated as Best Service Provider; Best Film was ‘Close’ by One Productions. Lastly, Davy Sims of BBC Northern Ireland was inducted into the Digital Media Hall of Fame.
By Gordon Smith
