For the fourteenth year in a row, the Massachusetts Innovation and Technology Exchange—far better known as MITX (pronounced my-tex)—handed out its Interactive Awards tonight, in a sold-out ceremony at the Marriott Copley Place Hotel in Boston. The awards honor the most creative digital advertising and marketing campaigns devised by companies and agencies in the New England region.
The evening’s spotlight shined with extra sparkles on Dunkin’ Donuts, which won the title Interactive Marketer of the Year. The award was partly in recognition of “Create Dunkin’ Donuts’ Next Donut,” a website where donut lovers can literally design potential donut shapes, flavors, and decorations for next-generation pastries. (The 2009 winner: “Toffee For Your Coffee,” a classic toroid donut with sour cream dough, a glaze covering, and a chopped Heath Bar topping.)
Dunkin’ Donuts also won in the “Best Cross Media Campaign” category of the MITX awards. “Being named MITX Interactive Marketer of the Year is wonderful honor and a great thrill,” said Cynthia Ashworth, Dunkin’ Donuts’ vice president of consumer engagement, in a prepared statement. “Along with our loyal fan base, we’re excited about the seemingly endless possibilities within interactive and are intent on continuing to make strides in this area.”
Of course, many other companies and interactive marketing agencies also took home awards, in categories ranging from “Best Use of Social Media” to best biotechnology/pharmaceutical campaign. The full list of honorees is below.
We asked MITX Presidentt Kiki Mills to sum up some of the trends she perceived in this year’s awards, especially the technology-related changes. She sent along the following thoughts:
“Social networks are not a discrete category anymore. Social functionality is now showing up in the most mundane applications, reinforcing the notion that marketers of every stripe recognize that the days of the one-way conversation are over. While many are still unsure how to effectively leverage social technologies to effectively support their messaging, there is a clear realization that there is some evolving role for this fast moving area.
“Video and other rich media are also an increasingly large component of many sites (supporting yesterday’s announcement from Brightcove of their lower cost Brightcove Express solution).
“Campaigns have matured in that they are much more user/use-case driven than in the past. Moving forward, we’re more likely to see analytics framing the creative—focusing campaigns on critical behaviors to influence, shaping what the costs and execution have to be to justify themselves in the face of the likely numbers.
“There is an increasing willingness of companies to experiment and include these technologies. Particularly with tech now so much [more] affordable, it’s easy to work a variety of things into a campaign.”
And finally: “The interactive industry in general has matured to the point where even small companies with (presumably) modest budgets are delivering high quality Web experiences.” (Thanks Kiki!)
Continue to page 2 for the full list of MITX Interactive Award Winners (including project, agency/creator, and client).
