The Web Marketing Association is pleased to announce the call for entries for its 27th annual international WebAward competition. The WebAwards are the standards-defining competition that sets industry benchmarks based on the seven criteria of a successful Web site. This esteemed award program recognizes the individual and team achievements of Web professionals in 90 industries all over the world who create and maintain outstanding Web sites. The deadline for entry for the 2023 WebAwards is May 31, 2023. A complete list of past winners and this year’s entry form can be found at www.webaward.org.
“Website development is constantly evolving to take advantage of new technology and better meet the needs of the online audiences,” said William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association. “Excellence deserves recognition and the WebAwards look into all aspects of website development, It’s not just a beauty contest for Websites. Our expert judges evaluate the entire interactive experience and reward those sites that are best in their industry. The goal of the WebAwards is to both recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing some of the most effective Web sites on the Internet today and also provide valuable feedback to entrants on how their sites stack up against their peers and their industry’s standards of excellence.”
Websites are judged on seven criteria, including design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copy writing and ease of use and receive a numeric score. Each WebAward entry is judged against other entries in its industry category and then against an overall standard of excellence. Entrants also benefit from receiving valuable feedback from the WebAwards professional judging panel on their Web site development efforts.
WEBAWARD WINNERS NFTS
Winners of the 2023 WebAward Competition will receive a commemorative NFT to recognize their success. The Web Marketing Association WebAward Competition is the first award program to provide its winners a limited-edition Ethereum-based Non-Fungible Token (NFT) hosted on the OpenSea Platform to commemorate their award-winning website achievement.
Non-Fungible Tokens (NFT) are digital assets traded over the internet that represents real-world objects, in this case recognition for outstanding website development. NFTs are popular today because they offer a unique marketplace to collect digital assets. NFTs are an exciting part of Web3 and allow individual contributors to have a digital reminder of the achievement of their “award-winning” hard work.
See the entire WebAward NFT Collection at https://opensea.io/collection/webawards.
Best of Industry Statues
As in past years, WebAward Best of Industry winners will also receive an impressive statue which will stand out in anyone’s trophy case. It was designed for the Web Marketing Association by the world-renowned artists at Society Awards, makers of awards for MTV Video Awards, Golden Globes, Country Music Awards and other notable award programs.
Representing sculptural art with our iconic W in a flame motif, our WebAward trophy is a symbol of achievement for our industry. Crafting of the award combines elements of art and technology as well, using heavy machinery to inject molten zinc at thousands of degrees Fahrenheit into its steel molds, but then finished and polished to mirror brightness by hand. The award is electroplated with 24kt gold and lacquer sealed to preserve its brightness for generations.
Winners of Outstanding and Standard of Excellence WebAwards will receive an 8.5”x11” Certificate of Achievement.
NEW INDUSTRY CATEGORY
This year, the Web Marketing Association has updated its industry list and added new industry category for Customer Service Portals to recognize the growing importance of customers having access to fix problems quickly online. See the WebAwards website for a complete list of industry categories.
TOP AWARDS
This year’s top awards will include:
A “Best of Industry” WebAward will be given in each of the 86 industry categories, including financial services, medical, small business, travel, advertising, transportation and government.
The competition’s highest honor, the 2023 WebAward “Best of Show,” will be given to the one site that the judges believe represents the pinnacle of outstanding achievement in Web development. Last year’s Best of Show winner was presented Australia-based Hughes PR for their outstanding work on Madderns Website. The site was also recognized as Best Professional Services Website.
The Web Marketing Association will also recognize the interactive agency winning the most awards in the competition with the “Top Interactive Agency” WebAward Australia-based welcome. was named Top Agency at the 2022 WebAward Competition, taking home 10 WebAwards and earning 38 quality point this year. The Top Agency Award is given to recognize the consistently outstanding development going on at interactive firms.
The WebAward Top Agency award recognizes consistency of effort and is given to the interactive agency that wins the most WebAwards in a given year. All locations and offices of a specific agency will be consolidated for the purpose of determining the winner of this award. Each entrant will be awarded points based on the level of award for each award received. A Best of Show will be worth 10 points, Best of Industry 5 points and each Outstanding award 3 points and a Standard of Excellence 1 point. The agency with the most points will be awarded the Top Agency Award for 2023.
Each year, many agencies and some corporations win multiple awards and deserve additional recognition. This year, we will recognize each organization that wins 6 or more WebAwards with an Outstanding Interactive Developer trophy. In 2022, there were 8 agencies/companies recognized with this prestigious award: Vital Design, WSI, Thomson Reuters – FindLaw, Miles Partnership, Radancy, Forum One, UP Hotel Agency and Risdall Marketing Group.
Judging for the 27th annual WebAwards will take place in June through August and winners will be announced in September. Judges will consist of a select group of Internet professionals who have direct experience designing and managing Web sites –including members of the media, interactive creative directors, site designers, content providers and webmasters – with an in-depth understanding of the current state-of-the-art in Web site development and technology. Past judges have included top executives from leading organizations such as Universal McCann, SapientNitro, T Rowe Price, Bridge Worldwide, Disney, Euro RSCG, Boeing, Huge, ING Direct, IBM, VML, Facebook, J. Walter Thompson, Gartner, Possible Worldwide, YUM!, Cuker Interactive, PayPal, Razorfish, Munich Re, Refinery, Ernst & Young, Magellan Health Service, Microsoft, New York Times, R/GA, Family Cookbook Project, Saatchi & Saatchi, SAP, Starwood Hotel, and Website Magazine.
The 2023 WebAwards are sponsored by the following leading organizations: iContact, PR.com and eTailConferences. The Web Marketing Association thanks these companies for their commitment to the entire online marketing community.
To enter the 27th annual WebAward Competition for Website Development, please visit our website and create a nominator account.
About the WebAwards
The Web Marketing Association was founded in 1997 to help define the standard of excellence for online marketing. Our internationally known award programs, such as WebAward Competition for Website Development, Internet Advertising Competition and the MobileWebAwards, recognize the people and organizations responsible for developing the most effective online marketing programs on the Internet today. Entrants benefit from assessment of their marketing efforts by a professional judging panel and the marketing opportunities presented by being recognized as an award-winning web developer.