We bring you the winners of the third annual ASPY awards recently presented at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, California.
The Aspen Group, an informal association of interactive media directors, strategists, planners and buyers, announced the winners of the third annual ASPY awards at the iMedia Agency Summit in La Quinta, California Tuesday night.
The ASPY awards were created by the Aspen group to salute the best work performed by advertising media sales organizations each year.
ASPY 2005 Award winners at the iMedia Agency Summit
"In the early days of iMedia the relationship between buyers and sellers could sometimes get contentious. We created the ASPY's as a way to accentuate the positive relationships we have with some of the vendors. We're very pleased with how well it's been received by the publishers and appreciate the support from iMedia in providing a forum for this," says Michael Comins, senior vice president, director of client services, ID Media, co-presenter of the ASPYs with Dave Smith, chief executive officer, Mediasmith.
Yahoo! was awarded the ASPY for Best Customer Service; Electronic Arts, for Most Creative Ad Solution; AOL, for Most Improved; PointRoll, for Best Technology Solution; Google won the ASPY Best Overall award.
ASPY award nominations and voting are confined to member agencies.
Smith told iMedia that the first round of nominating and voting was conducted on Sunday at the Summit and then the winners are selected on Tuesday. "This is the third annual ASPYs and we added a new category: Best Technology Solution," says Dave Smith.
Dave Smith (left), Yahoo!'s Chris Karl and Michael Comins
Comins adds that the new Best Technology Solution award was created because "it's not just site publishers we rely on to deliver solutions for our clients. In winning the Best Technology Solution award, PointRoll exemplifies the type of service and creativity that media people look for from our vendors."
Smith commented that Electronic Arts winning the award for the Most Creative Ad Solution was a "great surprise because the client is now a media vendor and now the industry landscape is always changing and shifting."
David Smith (left), Electronic Arts' Jana Friedman and Jennifer Duddy, and Michael Comins.
Both Smith and Comins say they are looking forward to presenting future ASPY awards, which they hope will inspire industry creativity and innovations.
"The APSY's are the only award given to website publishers that are voted on directly by their customers -- the media buyers and planners. Our hope is that the publishers who do not win will go out of their way to emphasize service and creativity during the year in the hopes of contending for the award next year," says Comins.