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.
Click here to read our judges’ advice and top tips of what makes a stand out entry.
Head judges
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.
Ric Rodriguez | SEO Consultant
Ric Rodriguez is an experienced search marketing consultant with a history of working with internationally renowned brands. He currently works at Yext, a NYSE listed technology company, joining last year from iProspect, where he led a team driving organic search forward for clients that partnered with their sister media agency Carat. Prior to this, Ric held roles at well-known independent digital agencies, most notably within Croud and at Hearst's iCrossing. Ric has a genuine and infectious passion for marketing and technology and is a frequent author and speaker across well-known industry events and publications
Chris Simmance | CHAIRMAN AND FOUNDER | OPTUS DIGITAL
Chris Simmance is a Partner and co-founder of Torque Partnership. He helps enterprise businesses understand their data, build their strategies and transform their presence. Based in London he spends a great deal of time getting cranky at the state of the web and plans to fix it, one business at a time. He solved the BrightonSEO ticketing platform issues, you know, the one that hasn’t gone down on every ticket release day since he changed it. Love the ballot or hate it, it doesn’t fall apart anymore. He’s a big fan of Bill Gates’ quote “I choose a lazy person to do a hard job. Because a lazy person will find an easy way to do it.” as it’s a really good way of getting away with finding a shortcut. Chris is almost entirely much self taught and started working in SEO from a small local agency through to a multinational before deciding to “go it alone” and set up for himself. 5 years later and 2 regional offices and he’s winning work from some well known established high street brands.Judges
AZEEM AHMAD | DIGITAL MARKETING MANAGER | STAFFORDSHIRE UNIVERSITY
Azeem is currently the Digital Marketing Manager at Staffordshire University. He has spent several years working in the industry, beginning in a paid search focused role before moving into a multi channel specialism. He is experienced in various aspects of online marketing activity, including PPC, Social Media, Display, Programmatic, App Marketing and SEO. He has previously spoken at conferences in the UK including MeasureFest, and BrightonSEO, and also on podcasts and webinars too.
Tracy Archer | SALES AND MARKETING DIRECTOR | PURE COTTAGES
Tracy is Sales and Marketing Director for the Pure Cottages Group- A holiday cottage agency with 6 leading brands across the UK, that has welcomed over 150k holiday makers over the last year. Her remit is to transform the group into a digital driven business, maximising revenue and delighting the customer at every opportunity in their journey. She has over 30 years of marketing experience working in both local and global agencies in London, Leeds and Manchester.
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.
Jamie Boulger | Head of EMEA Digital Marketing | JLL
Jamie was appointed Head of EMEA Digital Marketing at the global property and professional services firm JLL in August 2019. He arrived at JLL from Bruntwood where, initially as Digital Marketing Manager and then as Group Head of Digital, he launched several lead generation and customer experience projects which were a first for the property sector. At JLL, Jamie’s role is to oversee digital marketing operations and activities across Europe, Middle East and Africa as well as having strategic input into global digital marketing operations, campaigns and projects. Jamie gained experience with in-house marketing roles at Genting and United Utilities. Jamie has also held the role of President at Manchester Metropolitan Students’ Union and Non-Executive Director at MMU between 2004 and 2006. He currently lives in Altrincham, is a keen runner and supporter of Everton Football Club.
Martin SFP Bryant | Media and Tech Consultant
Martin Bryant is a consultant working to help technology companies craft the 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 start-ups and entrepreneurs in the North of England.
Kirstie Buchanan | Sales and Marketing Director | CTI Digital
As Sales and Marketing Director, Kirstie provides insight and leadership for the business development strategy and direction of CTI Digital and many of its major clients. Driving growth in client services, new business and marketing functions, she is known for being a big idea conceptual thinker who sees and harnesses market-shaping opportunities.
Steve Clark | Head of Digital Growth | Tangent
Steve recently joined Tangent as Head of Digital Growth, having spent the past five years in the media industry working across multiple disciplines – SEO, UX, social media, talent, and content marketing – for a long list of well-known clients that includes TikTok, Britbox and DHL. Specialising primarily in organic brand strategies and incremental optimisation, Steve’s primary focus to date has been helping start-ups and scale-ups to grow quickly and sustainably, particularly where budgets and available resource are constraints
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.
Arianne Donoghue | Founder | Founder
A veteran of 14 years’ experience in the industry, Arianne has worked for some of the UK best-known agencies and most-loved brands. She's passionate about helping teams and businesses do the best work they can, through driving strategy, integration and inclusion. Arianne now runs her own small consultancy where she helps agencies and brands maximise their potential.
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.
Jemma Edwards | Digital Marketing Manager | Don't Panic Projects | @dontpanicevents
Born and bred in the North with ten years experience in the industry, Jemma lives, eats and breathes conversion rate optimisation. Working for a variety of big brands such as ISP’s to bespoke gate services, she’s touched on everything from eCommerce, influencer marketing, SEO and social ads. Now with a passion for B2B marketing & PPC, she heads up the digital marketing for Don’t Panic and the International Search Awards series, which can be found as far as MENA and the USA.
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.
Steph Hamill | Partner / Head of Creative, Brand and Digital Marketing | Capita Consulting
Steph champions the blend of art and science in a digital world, making brands and causes famous, while making a difference. A bespoke, but out-of-the-box creative, her experience blends human behavioural and neuro-sciences, tech, brand and narrative storytelling, digital transformation and traditional media and marketing. Her projects are seen, and loved, worldwide, and she proudly puts her name to several international awards. A digital transformation advocate, Steph’s positivity reflects her outlook in the role digital plays in improving our futures and how business and industry can be encouraged to think from a human-centric perspective. After working in European and US cities, Steph again resides in London. When not heading up her department, she’s found giving lectures at Central Saint Martins, speaking at global events such as Khoros at The Guardian, DMEXCO, SheSays, MadFEST and on Radio, is a judge for several industry awards and has advised various charities.
Neil Hardy
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.
Lada Kalashnickova | International SEO Consultant
Lada has worked in digital marketing since 2003. Previously worked as a Head of SEO at SEMrush. Worked as A Head of Global SEO at Acronis. She specializes in all aspects of Search Engine Optimization (SEO), with a focus on technical SEO, multilingual search and mobile optimization. Lada enjoys lifetime studying; most recently on topics around data, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine Learning. Her favorite tools are Excel, GWT, GA, Yandex Metrica and brains. Outside of work, she enjoys travelling, yoga, and Japanese Art. Definitely a cat person.
Thierry Ngutegure | Data & Insights Manager | Rise at Seven
Thierry Ngutegure is the Data & Insights Manager at Rise at Seven, born and raised in Rwanda and an avid motivational speaker. This upbringing strengthens Thierry’s love of multiculturalism, both in his workplace and industry. At Rise Thierry’s work aligns with operational management, reporting strategies for SEO/PR, data-led content creation, data journalism and consumer research. An expert in data-led insight, Thierry’s roots in biological sciences and consumer economics makes sure the audience is always at the core of everything. Thierry’s client experience spans Berghaus, MyHermes, Missguided, PrettyLittleThing, Gocompare, Uswitch, Ladbrokes and Badoo/Bumble.
Polly Pospelova | Head of Search | Delete
Polly is the Delete agency’s digital marketing director. She works with SEO consultants, PPC managers, content & PR consultants, and technical developers. Polly works on digital strategies and solutions for major brands in sectors including higher education, sport, property, travel and more. She is also a search marketing conference speaker on SEO, page speed and performance and digital marketing.
Declan Reilly | Head of SEO | Evoluted | @declanjreilly
Declan has worked in digital marketing for over eight years with a specific focus on SEO. He has successfully managed many high-end SEO projects and previously led a team of 20+ account managers. Declan was recently appointed Head of SEO at Evoluted, a digital agency based in Sheffield, England.
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.
Peter Richman | MANAGING DIRECTOR | PLUG & PLAY
As the founder and Managing Director of web design agency Plug & Play, Peter has worked within the industry for over 15 years. During this time Peter has partnered with a large number of internal marketing managers to overcome their business challenges and drive growth. By focusing on the delivery of high performance websites and the enablement of internal teams, Plug & Play clients thrive within competitive markets.
Janusz Stabik | Digital Agency Coach and Mentor | GYDA Initiative
Janusz is a coach and mentor to ambitious digital agency owners across the globe. His clients earn more money, gain more time and freedom, and more have fun doing it. He's an ex-agency man and currently plans and directs digital agency growth programs for Google across EMEA.
Richard Trigg | Experience Design Director | Tangent
If you like chatting about removing assumption from the design process – you’d probably enjoy a pint or two with Rich! As Tangent’s Experience Design Director, Rich’s leads the end-to-end design process from framing problems, prototyping and testing solutions to measure effectiveness.
Juliette Van Rooyen | Head of SEO | VR Squared
Juliette has been an SEO Specialist for 15 years, working on both client-side and agency environments in London & Cape Town. Starting in 2005 as a developer, she was lured to the dark side of SEO with the promise of being more creative. After getting a taste for SEO, Juliette moved to London and spent 6 years working for various agencies with clients including Nintendo, Samsung, COI & Shell. In 2012 Juliette moved back to Cape Town where she worked in the gambling industry on the client-side, spearheading multi-region and multi-language strategies for global casino brands. After 6 years of working in that arena, Juliette returned to London in 2018 to lead UK SEO for a multinational ecommerce brand.
Nick Wilsdon | SEO LEAD - GLOBAL CHANNEL OPTIMISATION | nick@wilsdon.co.uk
Nick has worked in digital marketing since 1998. Moving to Russia in 2003 he specialised in multilingual search and broadening his knowledge across digital channels, content and PR. During this time he contributed to the Russian digital startup community; working with Yandex, the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and the US State Department. Returning to the UK in 2011, Nick then built and led marketing teams at Arena Media, Havas Media Group and the Dentsu Aegis Network. As the technical SEO lead at Vodafone Group since 2014, he has improved online performance and customer experience across 22 international markets. As an advocate for raising standards in online marketing, Nick judges the UK Search Awards and EU Search Awards. He enjoys speaking at conferences on the topics of mobile/data-first marketing, cross-channel campaigns and technical SEO. Outside work, he enjoys cycling and taking part in Prince’s Trust cycling events.
Anna WIlson | Head of Digital | Tangerine
Anna works day-to-day to build brands online, creating audience-first social media activity integrated with the wider digital footprint to deliver meaningful results for the brand. Over the last 12 years Anna has worked with the team to create multi-award winning campaigns with brands like Yorkshire Bank, Thomas Cook Sport, Virgin Media, Pizza Hut Restaurants and Specsavers.