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Mobile awards play a very important role. They showcase best practice in mobile Web, marketing and services, bringing great kudos for the winners and inspiration for the rest of us. But with dozens of mobile awards around the globe, with vastly varying quality, coverage and price, where should you be entering your mobile site, app, campaign or service, and from which awards are we likely to learn the most?

The yardstick of quality awards, in mobiThinking’s opinion, is the legacy. After the glitzy dinner and the press release, what is left? Is there a valuable resource detailing why these sites, campaigns, services deserved to win? All awards should précis each of the winning campaigns with video case studies, where available, and provide links to further information – this way we can all learn from these best-practice campaigns and winners get to show off their achievements to potential clients. Cannes Lions has been providing full details of every entry for years. Some mobile awards are starting to emulate this, but many do little more than put out a press release listing the winners. With Cannes launching its mobile category in 2012 those that continue to do the lowest common denominator will look increasingly pointless.

Where they are not provided by the awards organizers, mobiThinking collects links, descriptions and/or videos for the winning campaigns. mobiThinking is gradually adding all the major mobile awards to this guide.

So why should you want to win an award?
• For the brand – it’s great publicity for your mobile service. Highlight your innovation to consumers. Share your success with your peers – remember if no one shared best-practice campaigns, no one would learn.
• For agencies – there’s no better way to advertise your exceptional services.
• For both – if the judges love it, so should the consumers. How better to validate your mobile strategy is on track?

A word of warning…
Many awards focus on creativity rather than effectiveness. This is why a flashy novelty mobile app with a 10,000 downloads might beat a messaging-based CRM campaign which delivered 100,000 opted-in subscribers or a US $1million in revenue. All brands should make certain that the advice they receive from their agency is motivated by driving incremental business for the client, rather than the likelihood of the agency picking up an award. Read this:
• Why your ad agency likes mobile apps

For some tips from awards judges, see:
• How to create an award-winning mobile campaign

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Other guides in this series:
• Guide to mobile agencies • Guide to mobile ad networks • The insiders' guides to world’s top mobile markets • Compendium of global mobile stats

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Recent winners, finalists, upcoming awards and entry deadlines

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Global Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership (also known as ‘The Smarties’)

• Founded: 2004.
• Organized by: Mobile Marketing Association.
• Nominations start: June, each year.
• Deadline for entries: August, each year.
• Winners announced: November each year, at the Global Awards Ceremony in Los Angeles.
• Categories in 2011: Best use of mobile marketing for… brand building; cross-media integration; direct response; product/services launch; promotion; relationship building; social impact; plus awards for: innovation in mobile marketing; mobile marketing academic of the year; outstanding individual achievement; and overall excellence. In each category there is an award for best in North America, Latin America, EMEA, Asia Pacific, as well as the Global Award.
• mobiThinking verdict: The MMA Awards are well-respected and in the past has drawn in a broad range of mobile campaigns from big brands around the globe. Many agencies go to considerable lengths to showcase their best work, often putting together video case studies.
In 2011, the MMA provided links to video case studies and images for some of the winning campaigns, which is a lot more useful than the simple list of winners and finalists of previous years. However, there are no descriptions of the winning campaigns or links to case studies. So for those campaigns with no video – more than half – we don’t know why they won.
The MMA awards have become increasingly dominated by novelty mobile apps, neglecting other forms of mobile marketing. It is unclear why this is – perhaps most entries are mobile apps or maybe the MMA judges prefer apps to mobile ads, messaging or mobile Web-led engagement.
In 2011, the MMA rebranded the awards ‘The Smarties’. While this name might sound catchier, it may cause some confusion, not least as Smarties is not an acronym for Global Mobile Marketing Awards for Innovation, Creativity and Leadership.
• 2011 Winners include: Old Navy (Crispin Porter + Bogusky) Coca-Cola (McCann Worldgroup), Converse (R/GA), OMO (Brandtone) Petrobras (FingerTips), Pringles (Crispin Porter + Bogusky), Nike (Groupo.mobi), Garanti (Rabarba), Situation Sthlm (Mobiento), Lawry's (R/GA), HBO Go (PHD and BBDO), Mini (Mobile Dreams Factory), Mars M&Ms (Proximity Canada), Coca-Cola (Scholz & Volkmer), Pepsi (Rabarba), Samsung Galaxy (InMobi and Starcom), NOO Mag (Ginga), YoungAfricaLive (Praekelt Foundation).
• Full details of 2011 winners, with 16 excellent video case studies.
• Full details of 2010 winners, with 22 excellent video case studies.

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The Effective Mobile Marketing Awards (EMMAs)

• Founded: 2010.
• Organized by: Mobile Marketing Magazine.
• Deadline for entries: September, each year.
• Entry fee: free (though originally there was a fee).
• Winners announced: November, each year at an awards dinner in London, UK.
• Categories in 2011: Most Effective Mobile… Site; Couponing or Barcode Campaign; Sales Promotion/Direct Response; Ticketing; CRM; Ad Campaign; Mobile Charity Campaign; mCommerce Solution; B2B App; B2C App; Tablet App; Ad Platform/Network; Mobile Operator Campaign; Travel & Tourism Solution; Publishing Solution; Mobile Payment Solution.
• mobiThinking verdict: The quality of the entries for EMMAs have been quite impressive for a newcomer to the awards circuit. The entries tend to be skewed towards the UK and Western Europe. The distinguishing feature of these awards is the focus on effectiveness. That means that these winners have been honored because they delivered ROI for the client, not just because the creative looked nice. The organizers went to some trouble to précis the winning campaigns in a special magazine, which is a lot more useful than the list of winners that some awards think is acceptable.
• Judges include: David Murphy, Mobile Marketing magazine; Helen Keegan, technokitten.com, Mobile Monday; John Mew, IAB; Peggy-Anne Salz, MSearchGroove; Rob Thurner; Andy Favell, mobiThinking; James Cameron, Camerjam; Nick Lane, mobileSQUARED; Michael Nutley, journalist; George Cole, journalist.
• 2011 Winners include (brand/agency): The Guardian; Sainsbury’s (Groupe Aeroplan); BSkyB; Pepsico (Rabarba); Auto Trader; New Look (MIG); TripAdvisor; British Airways (Incentivated); Debenhams; Chiltern Railways (Masabi); Disasters Emergency Committee (OpenMarket); Txtlocal; Sony Columbia Music (Fetch Media); Buongiorno; Mippin; Rippll; Flexion.
• Full details of 2011 Winners with descriptions and nine videos.
• Full details of 2010 Winners with descriptions and videos.

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Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival

• Founded: 1954.
• Deadline for entries: early March each year.
• Entry fee: starts at €350 (US $454).
• Winners announced: late June each year.
• Prize: (much coveted) Lion trophy.
• mobiThinking verdict: A Lion trophy brings a lot of kudos for the winners; and great publicity for all entrants – every entry has a dedicated page, with a description of each campaign. These detailed summaries (often with videos) are an inspiring and educational read for observers. This would be a great showcase of mobile campaigns if only there were a mobile category. In 2010 and 2011, mobiThinking went some length to pick out all the winning mobile campaigns from the various categories, so you don’t have to. The main disadvantage for entrants is the level of competition – there were 28,800 entries in 2011.
• The big news (announced November 2011) is that there will be a mobile category at Cannes in 2012.
• Categories in 2012: The Mobile Lions will reward creative excellence in categories for Creative Use of Technology; Mobile Websites and Web Apps; Mobile Apps; Tablet Apps; Games; Rich Media Mobile Advertising; Integrated Campaigns led by Mobile.
• 2011 mobile winners include (brand/agency): Homeplus (Cheil Worldwide), Mini (Jung Von Matt), Heineken (AKQA), Viv Magazine (Alexx Henry), Starhub (DDB), Reporters Without Borders (Publicis), Commbank (IKON), Converse (R/GA), Nike (AKQA), Airwalk (Y&R), Audi (Neue Digitale/Razorfish), UNICEF (Serviceplan), Domino's Pizza (Hakuhodo), Westpac (Colenso BBDO)
• Full details of 2011 mobile winners with descriptions and 14 videos.
• Full details of 2010 mobile winners with descriptions and eight videos.

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Mobi Awards

• Founded: 2009
• Organized by: DIGIDAY
• Deadline for entries: July, each year.
• Early-bird deadline: June, each year.
• Entry fee: (in 2011) US $195 for early-bird submission, thereafter US $295.
• Winners announced: September 21, 2011, at the Mobi Awards Gala in New York City.
• Categories in 2011: Best mobile… branding campaign; location-based campaign; direct response campaign; promotion for a product launch; tablet advertising campaign; creative. Best integrated… mobile/social campaign; mobile/cross media campaign. Best mobile app for… editorial content; branded content; advertising/marketing; social media; ecommerce/retail; push notifications; UGC content; OCR, imaging, camera; location. Best…. branded mobile game; mobile video; mobile website; location-based mobile website; mobile platform innovation; mobile ad network; mobile agency.
• mobiThinking verdict: The Mobi Awards attracts a good caliber of participant. In common with many mobile awards, entries tend to be dominated by smartphone apps, often only for the iPhone/iPad platform.
There’s an in-depth report on each of the winners and finalists – as good as those provided at Cannes – but these are only available for a limited time to non-subscribers. All awards should provide details of each campaign – not only do such reports provide excellent publicity for the winners/finalists, and help educate the rest of us to the DNA of an award-winning campaign, but also adds to the authenticity of the competition – i.e. you can judge for yourself if they are worthy winners.
• 2011 Award winners include: Volvo (Mobext), GOL Airlines (Grupo.Mobi), Bravo, Expendables (Initiative), White Collar (Glow Interactive), Bing (Point Reach), National Geographic, HBO Go (Huge), Fandago (Trilibis), Mobext, PHD, InMobi, Target (Ubermind), Intel, Purina (Triad), Expedia TV.com (CBS Interactive)
• Full details of 2011 Mobi Awards winners with descriptions and 12 videos.

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The Meffy Awards (Meffys)

• Organized by: Mobile Entertainment Forum (MEF).
• Founded: 2004.
• Deadline for entries: May 6, 2011 (closed).
• Entry fee: UK £350 (US $575) per submission; £150 ($247) for MEF members.
• Finalists announced: June 02, 2011.
• Winners announced: July 07, 2011 at the Meffys Awards Ceremony and Gala Dinner.
• Prizes: Meffy Award trophy.
• Entry categories (2011): Best… ad campaign; blockbuster app; brand on mobile; content; content discovery & personalization; game; innovation in a mobile first market; innovative app; innovative business model; m-commerce service; mobile connected device; mobile Website; music service; social media service; technology innovation; TV & video service.
• mobiThinking verdict: The Meffys has been running for seven years, making it one of the more established mobile award ceremonies. But the Meffys lets itself - and the winners - down by simply listing the winning campaigns. There are no links, no description of the entry, no case studies or videos (even when available) and no indication of what the judges liked about any of them.
• 2011 Winners include: Sprite Slam Dunk (Coca Cola); BlackBerry Travel (RIM); A&N Mobile CRM (Velti/Ericsson IPX); Nigella Quick Collection (AKQA); Shazam for TV; Dead Space (Electronic Arts); Message Optimiser (ForgetMeNot Africa); Onava Data Shrinking App; Vishal & Shekhar Mobile Music Concert (Hungama); Karen Millen Mobile Gift Vouchers (Eagle Eye Solutions); iPad2 (Apple); CBS.com; Music for WiMP (Aspiro); Movellas; Onstar Mobile App; Media Hub (Saffron Digital)

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Money in Mobile (MiM) Award

• Founded: 2011
• Organized by: Business Leaders Network (BLN) – United Kingdom.
• Deadline for entries: May 31, 2011 (closed).
• Entry fee: N/A.
• 2011 Winner (announced June 14, 2011): Masabi.
• 2011 Finalists (announced June 07, 2011): Cogenta Systems; Eagle Eye Solutions; HyperBees; ParcelGenie; Paythru; Qriously; Roulette Cricket; Screenreach interactive; StrikeAd; TouchType; VouChaCha.
• mobiThinking verdict: This competition is free and ridiculously easy to enter. Fill out your details and explain in 100 words how your business uses mobile to make money for other companies. But it is only for privately-held UK companies. In 2011 it attracted 48 entrants, which is pretty good for an awards newcomer. From these 12 were selected to present their product or service during the Money in Mobile Forum (London, June 14, 2011) in front of the conference audience all of which is good for finding potential investors, partners and customers – making this an attractive format. The winner was announced at the end of the forum. The judging panel is mostly VCs as well as journalists, such as mobiThinking.
• Check out: winner and finalists, with links and a description of each. Plus how to enter in 2012.

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Mobile Research Awards

• Founded: 2011
• Organized by: Mobile Research Conference/Globalpark.
• Deadline for entries: March 15, 2011 (closed).
• Entry fee: N/A.
• Winners announced: April 18, 2011 at the Mobile Research Conference:.
• mobiThinking verdict: With so many awards ceremonies trying to be all things to all folk, it is pleasing to find awards focused on key verticals. The awards organizers went to the trouble of detailing why each of the winners and finalists had been commended, which gives the rest of us considerable insight into mobile research as well as providing good publicity for the winner.
• 2010 Winners: APPCAST (Ipsos, Lumi Mobile); Highly commended: Good Quality Mobile Panels: Possibilities and Pitfalls (Olena Kaminska, University of Essex); Honorable mentions: Using Mobile Digital Ethnography to Measure the 2010 World Cup (Nielsen Company/Techneos); Case study with music copyright society Teosto (Zokem).
• Check out: The winners of MRC Awards, with useful descriptions

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World Summit Award (WSA) for Mobile Content

• Founded: 2010
• Organized by: International Center for New Media – United Nations (Austria).
• Deadline for entries: September 30, 2010. The next contest is in 2012. Entries have to be nominated by the expert in your country.
• Winners announced: December 6, 2010, in Abu Dhabi.
• Categories in 2010: m-health, m-government, m-learning, m-inclusion, m-commerce, m-media and m-entertainment.
• mobiThinking verdict: One of the best, if not the best, of the many mobile awards of 2010. A sensible choice of awards categories. Entrants are nominated by an expert in each country, which ensures there is a perfect spread of the best in mobile from across the globe. For each winner, there is a description and a video (prepared by the WSA). It is impossible not to be educated and inspired by these winners, many of which were new to mobiThinking and the vast majority of which are using mobile to make a real difference to people’s lives. It would have been good to have links to the winners, but that is a minor quibble. The WSA mobile awards sets the standard by which all other mobile awards ceremonies should be judged: a big thumbs-up to the truly international WSA Awards.
• 2010 Winners include: Guatemalan Emergency Relay; Mobile Link; Bahrain Mobile Portal; M-Mantra for Forest Management; BBC Janala; Marks & Spencer; YouReporter; Sekai Camera; Angry Birds; The Guardian; Wikitude World Browser; SmartMuseum; Consumer Reports; Omlet.ru; Eko m-banking and lots more.
• Check out: all 40 winners come with a descriptions and/or video for each. Plus how to enter in 2011.

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The Effective Mobile Marketing Awards (EMMAs)

• Founded: 2010.
• Organized by: Mobile Marketing Magazine.
• Deadline for entries: September 24, 2010
• Entry fee: free (though originally there was a fee).
• Winners announced: December 7, 2010, London, UK
• Categories in 2010: Most effective mobile… site; advertising campaign; operator opt-in subscriber database campaign; CRM campaign; sales promotion/direct response campaign; application - b2c; application - b2b; m-commerce solution; location-based service/campaign; Bluetooth marketing campaign; couponing or barcode campaign; mobile search campaign.
• mobiThinking verdict: The quality of the entries in 2010 for the EMMAs was quite impressive for a newcomer to the awards circuit. This was probably helped by dropping the entry price. The organizers did provide details of the winning entries, though could also have included links to further information on the winners sites and/or video where available.
• 2010 Winners: M&S (MIG); McDonalds (NAVTEQ); Unilever Cornetto (BlisMobile); Procter & Gamble (Sky Sports); Skåne (Ericsson IPX, LINK Mobility); ClearMen (Turkcell, Rabarba); MTN (Upstream); SwiftKey (TouchType); M&S (Incentivated); Lions Baseball (Fancharge); NXP SemiConductors.
• Check out: the winners, with descriptions and some videos. Plus how to enter in 2011.
• P.S. mobiThinking is a member of the judging panel.

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Smaato Mobile Advertising Awards

• Deadline for entries: September 3, 2010
• Entry fee: free
• 2010 Finalists announced: September 24, 2010
• 2010 Winners announced: October 8, 2010
• 2010 Winners: Lufthansa Mobile App (CLANMO); Soundhound; Spotify; SPB Mobile Shell; Cnectd; Vampire Weekend by Medialets; Clikbrix.
• Check out: how to enter, past winners and case studies
- Includes summaries of the 2010 winners and plenty of video.

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The Webby Awards

• Deadline for entries: December each year
• Entry fee: starts at US $295
• Winners announced: May each year
• 2010 Winners include: (brand/agency) Nokia/R/GA; MLB; Target; Volkswagen/AKQA; WWF/BBH; New York Times; Standard Chartered Bank; Barnes & Noble; BBC News; Foursquare; Evernote
• Check out: how to enter, latest winners and case studies
- including five excellent videos.

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• Be the first to know about mobiThinking guides, competitions etc… follow mobiThinking on Twitter: @mobithinking.

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And don’t miss:

• Ten video interviews with leading mobile experts
• The insider’s guide to mobile device security
• The mobile city project – the blueprint of a truly mobilized city
• The insider’s guide to device detection
• The insiders' guides to world’s greatest mobile markets
• Guide to mobile agencies
• Guide to mobile ad networks
• Guide to mobile industry awards
• The big compendium of global mobile stats

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