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.
Become a Judge Previous Judges Top Tips from our Judges
Head judges
Cheryl Hill | SkipTheDishes
Cheryl Hill is the Director of Digital Marketing at SkipTheDishes, Canada's leading and largest food delivery network. Cheryl leads Skip's media buying and digital strategy across Search, CRM, Paid Media, SEO, and Social Media via data-driven insights that connect with Canadians. Prior to Skip, Cheryl served at Metric Marketing as Director of Digital Marketing, where she established teams and led the creation of digital products. For more than a decade, Hill also led her own successful digital marketing consultancy and honed her trade in the UK finance industry, where she pioneered a digital marketing team within the largest mortgage, insurance, and loans brokerage in Scotland.
Richard Keenan-Heard | Head of SEO | Trainline
Richard leads Trainline’s in-house SEO and engineering team, focusing on scaling growth through product and UX improvements at scale in markets across the world. With a growth mindset and a passion for trains matched only by his determination to help customers find the best options for sustainable travel, Richard has assembled the team from the ground up. Before joining Trainline, Richard spent five years working at Wavemaker (formerly MEC) delivering scaled, enterprise level SEO for global brands including GE, Tiffany, Michelin, Johnson & Johnson and Pfizer. As a result of his agency and in-house experience, Richard has a diverse background in SEO and Product bringing a wealth of experience to the judges’ panel.
Davina Lines | Managing Director | Mixing Digital
Davina Lines is Managing Director of Mixing Digital and the Ecommerce Club. She brings a wealth of knowledge and a big black book of digital contacts to ensure Mixing Digital’s event management services are of the highest standard. Davina co-founded Netimperative in 1999 and became Managing Director in 2002, stewarding the brand into new product launches and creating one of the most successful events programmes in the digital marketing industry. In the mid 90s Davina cut her digital teeth on New Media Age (now Econsultancy), forming part of the founding team and was responsible for the commercial development of the magazine and its early events from launch in May 1995 to 1999. In recent years Davina launched an ecommerce peer-to-peer community, the Ecommerce Club, which runs regular events in London and Manchester on topics relevant to the retail community.Judges
Lukas Adamec | Consultant
Lukas Adamec has been working within Paid Digital for 11+ years, during which he transitioned from an employee to a freelancer & CEO of Abadam Marketing. In the last 5 years Lukas has focused on Consultancy - working with established agencies to deliver client growth. His focus is particularly on international paid opportunities, from Google to Yandex, from Naver to Baidu, from Yahoo JP to Seznam. Lukas is a firm believer in knowledge sharing and enjoys discussing experiences with established online marketers as well as providing training to new colleagues. During his time off, Lukas recharges his energy by being disconnected from online influences and instead spends his time on wildlife photography.
Pietro Bagnasco | Mobile Apps Partnerships Manager | Google
After leaving Italy, his home country, more than 10 years ago Pietro has cultivated his passion for technology and the digital world by engaging in business experiences across consulting, startups and corporate. He has been with Google over the past 6+ years, where he has consulted Italian advertisers with their investments in Google Ads before moving on to helping kickstart the Mobile Apps business across the EMEA region. He currently leads the Agency Partnerships team, working towards structuring a solid partners ecosystem that can help provide customers with value added solutions in today's thriving Apps economy.
Carlotta Bonafini | SEO Lead | Vodafone
Carlotta is leading the SEO team at Vodafone UK, where she is overseeing the development of their new digital strategy. She started her professional career in the marketing field working for Expedia in the search department. She directed many regional projects before moving into a global position where her initiatives created outstanding results whilst pioneering new processes. She supervised both creative campaigns and technical projects, and launched many impactful ideas. Carlotta graduated from London Metropolitan University and Milan Catholic University and has been living in London for over 9 years. Passionate about high-tech, she is working on improving her coding skills and is always eager to expand her technical knowledge.
Steve Clark | Head of Digital Growth | Tangent
Steve has several years' experience planning and executing cross-channel digital campaigns for a variety of international clients, including DHL, TikTok, Lenovo and Slack. Starting his career copywriting on a creative team, Steve's covered almost all aspects of digital marketing, from SEO and CRO to paid media and influencers, picking up skills in stats, analytics, data science and web development along the way.
Richard Collingwood | Brand & Digital Manager | Riverside
Richard is responsible for developing the digital marketing strategy for one of the UK's largest housing providers, with major stakes in social housing, home ownership and homelessness services. Previous to this role, Richard spent eight years in the policing sector leading on several pioneering digital projects, most notably introducing social media as a key tool for frontline police officers, transforming the way modern policing operates. In sectors which have faced increasing uncertainty in recent years, Richard has enjoyed the challenge of delivering digital initiatives in tough financial and political environments, which have had a genuine positive impact on many people's lives.
Bryan Corbett | Director of Global Operations, Disney+ Originals | The Walt Disney Company
Bryan Corbett is an entertainment industry digital media executive and consultant, most recently serving as the Director of Global Operations for Disney+ Originals at The Walt Disney Company, based in Southern California. In that role, he oversees planning, end to end strategic and operational delivery and launch of all Disney+ Originals series, shorts, and features programming, such as Star Wars The Mandalorian and Marvel Studios WandaVision. Previously, Bryan led product development on Disney.com, StarWars.com and other brand and franchise destinations, as well as content commercialization, ad sales and marketing campaigns for the Disney Digital Network. He spent 7 years based in London leading Disney's EMEA regional digital product team, inclusive of website operations, mobile app development, customer service, analytics, project management, and design, supporting 23 countries in the region while partnering closely globally with other regions around the world. Bryan graduated with an MBA from USC Marshall School of Business in Los Angeles in 2018.
Michael Durey | Head of Digital and CRM | Samsung Electronics
Michael joined Samsung in 2018 and since then has helped to deliver triple digit Ecommerce growth through Samsung’s owned eStore, EPP and Student websites. Aligning Digital Marketing strategies across Search (Paid and Organic), Affiliates, CRM, Paid Social and Programmatic Display has allowed Samsung to maximise in-market traffic through to Samsung.com and ultimately has led to the most successful flagship launch (Galaxy S10) and Black Friday sales period the company has ever had.
Ellie England | Sales Director | Microsoft
Passionate about digital, women in technology and making a lasting impact, Ellie began her career in sales working in an inner city secondary school 'selling' the importance of modern languages to disaffected teenagers. She got in to the world of digital advertising working for Google for 6 years, before eventually relocating to Manchester and joining Microsoft. As a Sales Director for Microsoft Advertising, for the past 5 years. Ellie has been spearheading the continued investment in the North of the UK and beyond, leading a growing team of Account Managers and Directors and juggling life as a proud mother of two pre-schoolers.
Adam GUERGUIS | DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER | AIRBNB
Based in Montreal and currently leads organic growth marketing for airbnb LUX, Adam has more than 10 years in search marketing experience and has been working with very exciting brands in several industries, languages, and sizes like Yahoo!, MSN, Groupon, UNHCR, Skrill, and others. Adam is also a digital marketing trainer, guest speaker, digital marketing blogger since 2010, and a MSc. Marketing Candidate.
Neil Hardy | Digital Director | Shearings
Neil has been involved in commercial, digital and online since 1993. With vast experience in commercial partnerships, product sourcing, online strategy, large travel operations , project management and digital marketing.Danielle Haugedal-Wilson | Head of Technology | Co-Op
Danielle has worked in the technology for over 19 years and is a Head of Engineering and the Office of the CTO at the 150 year old Co-op and has operated in the digital space at the Co-op since 200, across a multitude of sectors. Alongside her career in Technology Danielle is an advocate and practitioner of Enterprise Design and Wardley Mapping. Most recently she lead the transformation of the Technology function at the Co-op bringing Digital and IT into a single function. As well-known passionate, active champion of diversity in technology and prominent figure in the North West Technology community Danielle regularly speaks, runs events and judges technology competitions locally and globally.
Liam Howley | Chief Marketing Officer | musicMagpie
As Chief Marketing Officer at musicMagpie, Liam is tasked with the development and direction of the business's strategic marketing plans to maximize brand growth, customer acquisition, conversion and retention through online and offline channels. This includes control and management of internal digital, marketing and design teams & external agencies, with responsibility for planning, analysing and optimising a multi-million pound marketing budget in the UK for musicMagpie.co.uk and in the US for Decluttr.com.
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 DAMAC Properties as the Digital Marketing Manager. He also conducts digital marketing workshops & regular classes for well-known educational institutes in Dubai.
Steve Kuncewicz | Head of Creative, Digital & Marketing Sector Group | BLM Law
Steve is a Partner and Head of Creative, Digital and Marketing at BLM Law in Manchester. He specialises in intellectual property, media social media and privacy law and is listed as a "recommended lawyer" in the Legal 500’s 2019 edition, and was a Co-founder if the Bulletproof Agency Network. He is a regular media spokesperson, and has given interviews to the local and national press through BBC Breakfast, Sky News, ITV, BBC Radio 2, BBC Radio 4, BBC Radio 5 Live and LBC London. Steve is also the Manchester Publicity Association’s Honorary Solicitor and Co-Chair of Creative ProManchester.
Trond Lyngbo | Senior SEO Consultant
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.
Mazen Mroue | HEAD OF GLOBAL DIGITAL MEDIA AND TECH | Friesland Campina
Mazen is the head of Global Digital Media and Tech, The Netherlands. Leading a team working on specialized nutrition products such as baby formula and his responsibilities cover media, technology, CRM, Website/SEO, Digital transformation and innovation. Mazen oversees media pitches, digital strategies, and design of the technology ecosystem following the JBP with key suppliers such as Facebook, Google, & Tik-tok Before moving to the Netherlands, Mazen worked at the agency side for 6+ years based in Dubai, Singapore, and Beirut. His diverse portfolio covers prominent multinationals such as BlackBerry, Samsung, Emirates, Etihad airlines, and all the Richemont Luxury brands. Besides being a member of the world federation of advertisers, Core member in programmatic taskforce at Iab Nederlands, member of the programmatic committee at iab SEA+India/GCC and holding 100+ certifications across all digital platforms and technologies, Mazen won many prestigious digital awards targeting the MENA region and is looking to score more worldwide. Mazen is a big believer in training both the body and the mind to be strong. So next to his professional achievements, he is a world marathoner and Guinness World Record holder, with more than 60 full marathons completed and many ultras.
Plamen Popov | Senior SEO Lead Manager | Acronis Global
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 fintech 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.
Claire Richardson-Critcher | Digital Business Development Director | McCann Connected
Over the last 15 years Claire has worked in media, creative and digital in multiple capacities, from client service to new business development. Claire’s passion for the industry drives her curiosity in all areas of brand and consumer interaction, and her focus on working in close collaboration with skilled practitioners means she is able to build a story around what they do, how they do it and how this drives a transformational outcome for clients.
Ric Rodriguez | Search Director | Vashi
Ric Rodriguez is an experienced digital marketer, with a background that stretches across agency, brand and vendor-side. Ric is the Search Director at Vashi, the bespoke fine jewellery brand, where he currently leads the performance team. He joined from NYSE-listed technology company Yext, where he was the European search marketing expert. Prior to this, Ric led teams at well-known agencies, most notably within iProspect, where he grew online market share for two high street finance brands - and at Croud, where he oversaw all SEO activity for a well-known B2B business across over 100 markets. He was also a part of iCrossing’s, multi-award winning L'Oreal team. Ric is co-author of the Amazon bestselling book "Mastering In-House SEO" and often speaks at marketing conferences.
Alexandra Severn | Lecturer in Digital Marketing Communications | Manchester Metropolitan University
A digital marketing professional for over ten years, Alex specialises in search, content marketing and analytics; working on multi-channel campaigns across a range of industries and clients, most recently for the luxury travel industry. Alex is now a Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University, where she teaches across several programmes - leading on digital marketing analytics for the Digital Marketing Degree Apprenticeship course and relationship marketing for the MSc in Digital Marketing. She also runs her own consultancy, Digital Alex.
Robert Shaw | Marketing Specialist
Rob Shaw is the CEO of Creative Race one of the longest running independent marketing agencies in the North of England working with household names including ASDA, Greggs and Pets at Home. Previously he was CEO of Jaywing PLC, a data science-led agency and consulting business. With over 30 year’s experience in marketing and technology Rob has managed services for some of the UK's largest brands including Lloyds Bank, Tesco and O2.