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.
You can see the 2023 panel below.
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.
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Judges
Lukas Adamec | Performance Marketing Manager | DACH at Zendesk
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.
Jesse Alter | Head of Social Media and Video | Imperial College London | @jesse_a
Jesse Alter has been working in social media since the days of the Fail Whale. He is currently the Head of Social Media and Video at Imperial College London, setting the strategy and leading a team of content creators across a range of social platforms. Prior to higher education, Jesse worked in the museums sector in a variety of digital and social-focused roles. You can connect with Jesse on Twitter (@jesse_a) and LinkedIn.
Lauren Auguste | Social Media Manager | Howden
Lauren kick-started her marketing career with an apprenticeship and is now the Social Media Manager at Howden, a global insurance group with employee-ownership at its heart. Lauren is widely recognised as a LinkedIn expert, specialising in company page strategy, employee advocacy and paid ads. Key LinkedIn follower growths she’s responsible for include Turner & Townsend (90-380k), David Howden (0-7.5k) and Howden Broking (6-65k). As a huge supporter of personal branding and DE&I, Lauren will be looking for authentic, diverse and accessible content submissions.
Gabriele Bertucci | International Marketing Manager | BrewDog
Gabriele is a London-based marketing specialist, consultant, award-winning contemporary communicator, and drink industry professional. He has worked in some of the world's leading beverage companies - most recently with Carlsberg Group and BrewDog. In 2020 he founded What's In The Glass?, a drinks-led marketing consultancy and media agency. He is a member of The British Guild of Beer Writers, an Accredited Sommelier by The Beer & Cider Academy and a professional beer judge.
Sophie Boyden | Head of Social Media | INK GLOBAL
Sophie Boyden has over eight years of experience with all aspects of social media content creation and strategy, developing the social presence of some of the biggest media brands and networks in the world, including Cosmopolitan, Hearst, MTV and Comedy Central. Her current position is Ink Global’s Head of Social Media, leading the strategy across social platforms for multiple travel accounts and in-flight magazines.
Sarah Cook | Group Head of Social Media and Content Strategy | Legal & General
Sarah has worked in communications for over 15 years: both in-house and for agencies. She is currently responsible for social media and content at Legal & General. Established in 1836, it is a leading financial services and investment management company
Ellie England | Commercial Director | Microsoft
As a Commercial Director for Microsoft Advertising, for the past 7 years. Ellie has been spearheading the continued investment in the North of the UK and beyond, leading a growing team of talented media sales consultants and juggling life as a proud mother of two children, 5 and 3.
Kelly Friend | PR Manager - UK & US | WithSecure™ | @KellyFriendPR
Kelly is the UK & US PR Manager for cyber security company WithSecure. With almost 15 years in the industry, Kelly has led technology PR campaigns across industries including healthcare, aviation, subsea oil and gas, and maritime defence. You can find Kelly on Twitter @KellyFriendPR and on LinkedIn.
Elyssia Gill | Social Media Manager | Mortgage Advice Bureau
Elyssia started her career in social media whilst studying for a degree in International Fashion Business at Nottingham Trent University. Since graduating, her career has taken her from a role as a Celebrity and Brand Partnership Executive - working with brands such as Legal and General and Studio.co.uk - to a role in an agency as a Senior Digital PR Executive. Her current role is in-house as a Social Media Manager for Mortgage Advice Bureau, a multi-award-winning broker and one of the UK’s leading mortgage intermediary brands. Elyssia enjoys harnessing the transformative potential of social media to connect, inspire, and shape a valuable online experience for people.
Andy Green | Co-founder | AndyGreenCreativity
Andy is a co-founder of the Dublin Conversations, a non-commercial initiative which is co-creating new thinking and doing to transform communications industries’ practice. He has run pilot trials around the globe on new programmes to enable individuals, teams, and organisations to identify their character and purpose, which will be freely shared when launched this year. Andy has written six books, translated into eight languages on purpose, creativity, social capital, organisational change, and creativity. His wrote book, ‘Creativity in Public Relations’, was the first in the world on the subject and he continues to be at the forefront of new thinking and doing. Andy is a working practitioner and academic teaching innovation, communications and public relations at several universities including Boston University. He is co-founder of social enterprise ‘Grow Social Capital’ that is developing new thinking and doing for community activists and how shared social identities can tackle growing social division. Believing we can all gain inspiration from the unlikeliest of sources, Andy even runs creativity classes on the London Tube.
Jaime Hill | Ecommerce Director | Hurtigruten Group
Jaime has over two decades of experience as a Marketing & Ecommerce professional with a successful track record leading teams and developing strategy to transform organisations’ digital capability and channels to market. She has had success in roles at brands including Avis, Barclays, Dairy Crest and Oak Furnitureland, and across a wide range of B2B and B2C vertical markets. Most recently, she joined Hurtigruten Group as Ecommerce Director for HRN & Shared Services in January 2023.. A graduate of the Institute of Digital Marketing and qualified Executive Business Coach, Jaime's professional passion is for making life easier for the customer at every touch point.
Steve Hilton | CEO | Liberty Apps
Founder of an agency started in 2008 to produce life changing smart phone applications. We've grown organically to create apps for big names including Warburtons, Microsoft & IBM. Recently spoke at TedX and International Business Festival Invited by the British Computer Society to deliver talks around the UK Presented technology talks at 20+ events regarding Culture, Chatbots & Mobile Apps Recent personal recognition includes: * Winner of the NHS Hackday * Winner of the Homeless Hack * Winner of Hacking the Future of Energy * Most notable app at the Public Health England HackX Lives to improve lives across the globe using smart phone technologies.
Claire Hoang | Head of Social Marketing | ITV Studios
Claire Hoang is currently Head of Social Marketing at ITV Studios and has over 17 years of experience working in the world of social media. She's worked for a range of different companies including the BBC and Fremantle. As well as her day to day job, she also loves supporting new talent into the industry by mentoring with Creative Access. She was also one of the first Breakthrough Leaders in TV when the scheme was announced in 2021.
Neville Hobson | SOCIAL STRATEGIST, COMMUNICATOR, PODCASTER | @jangles
Neville Hobson is a social strategist, communicator, and podcaster. He works independently, consulting with a number of organizations to help them create and build foundations for authentic engagement that enable them to develop and expand their online presence, reach and influence. He is also a non-executive director of a Web3 start-up that’s bringing innovation to NFT marketplaces. He has been helping organizations leverage his experiences, knowledge and subject-matter expertise over a 20-year period of social networks, social media strategy development, marketing, analytics and insights reporting. He connects this expertise with a 15-year career in traditional public relations, marketing communication, corporate communication, employee, compensation and benefits communication, and investor relations.
Veronika Höller | Global Senior SEO Manager | CompuGroup Medical
Veronika is a Global Senior SEO-Manager and has worked in SEO and PPC marketing for over 14 years. She started as a copywriter and PPC Manager in a little Ads Agency. She has continuously developed herself further into the direction of SEO. Over the years, she has worked as a digital marketing manager in agencies and international companies, including CompuGroup where she is now. International SEO and PPC Strategies are Top of her priority list. She views SEO as a whole puzzle and not just individual sub-areas, hence why she trained herself in all areas – content, technology, PPC, SMM and UX. Today she spreads her knowledge as a speaker on the stages of international digital marketing conferences such as BrightonSEO, SMX advanced, International Search Summit etc. For her all digital marketing channels have to be united to get the best of your website.
John Jones | Corporate and Forensic Partner | Beever and Struthers
John leads Beever and Struthers' Corporate Team, having been made a Partner in 1999. Beever and Struthers is an award-winning firm of Chartered Accountants and Business Advisors in Manchester, Blackburn and London, and currently rank in the Top 50 firms nationally and Top 10 firms in the North West. John is a local council member of Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce and has been co-opted to the Partnership Steering Group of the Business Growth Hub. He was Chairman of Pro-Manchester from 2014 - 2015.
Shashank Katare | Senior Engagement Manager, Digital Strategy Group | Adobe
Shashank Katare is a Senior Engagement Manager and a leader in the Digital Strategy Group (DSG) at Adobe. Shashank is a seasoned technology and strategy leader with 13+ years of highly diversified experience across a mix of business industries including Retail, Travel & Hospitality, and Consumer Goods. He works with senior client executives, leading digital transformation & customer experience initiatives for Adobe's enterprise retail clients and provides data-driven strategic thinking to C-level executives to define vision for business transformation, personalization at scale and business value. Shashank leads opportunity identification and data driven analyses, and drives cross-functional collaboration, alignment and execution across the organization. He is an experienced people leader and is passionate about building high performing teams and building a strong organizational culture. He holds an MBA from NYU Stern and HEC Paris and a B.E (Hons) in Mechanical Engineering from BITS Pilani, India.
Steve Kuncewicz | Partner and Head Of Creative, Digital & Marketing | Glaisyers ETL | @
Steve is a Partner and Head of Creative, Digital and Marketing at Glaisyers ETL in Manchester. He specialises in intellectual property, media social media and privacy law and is listed as a "recommended lawyer" in the Legal 500, and was a co-founder pf 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.
Phoebe Lebrecht | Head of Social Media | Vitality | @phoebelebrecht
Phoebe has been working in social media for over 10 years – gaining experience in different industries including financial services, gaming, and health & wellness. They have played every role on the social media team, both in-house and agency side. They are currently leading the social media team at Vitality. You can connect with Phoebe on Twitter (@phoebelebrecht) and LinkedIn.
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.
Abbi McGregor | Social Media Manager | Barclays
Abbi has had a long career in Financial Services which has given her a deep understanding of customer needs, motivations and behaviours. An avid consumer of social media herself, she has lead on a number of social media campaigns for Barclays UK across a range of segments from home-ownership to wealth management and everything in between. Most recently her focus has been on engaging at an ultra-local level with customers and communities across the UK working with agencies, professionals and colleagues to build the value of the Barclays brand.
Anastasia Nicholl | Industry Lead, Technology and Gaming Partnerships | TikTok
Anastasia Nicholl is TikTok's Industry Lead for Technology and Gaming Partnerships where she leads the team that supports brands with their marketing and advertising campaigns on TikTok. In her role, Anastasia is responsible for delivering client success and driving revenue for TikTok, building a team that consults brands including Apple, Samsung and Microsoft on how to be successful on TikTok. Joining TikTok in October 2018 just a few months after the company was launched, Anastasia has had roles across CPG and Beauty before assuming her current position. Prior to TikTok she was Head of Client Services at Facebook and Linkedin Marketing Partner Driftrock, and was a Client Partner at Facebook for two years before that.
Erin Portsmouth | Director of Corporate Affair | Oldham Cares
Erin is a Chartered public relations practitioner who started her career in private sector marketing and communications consultancies, but for the past eleven years has worked in the National Health Service. She is currently Director of Corporate Affairs at NHS Oldham Clinical Commissioning Group where she oversees a portfolio including communications, engagement, public affairs, equality and diversity, organisational development and governance. She has a Masters degree in public relations, and served on the Chartered Institute of Public Relations North West Group Committee as a volunteer for ten years, also holding a three year term as Chair. She was appointed to the Board of Trustees of homelessness charity Emmaus Salford in 2017.
Charlie Wheeler | Senior Social Media Manager | BP
Charlie Wheeler (he/him) is a driven and creative senior social media manager for bp. Motivated by data-driven, excellent creative and pushing the boundaries, Charlie is also a mentor and advisor to many with a passion for upskilling those around him. A fierce advocate for equality, he’s also the brains behind social media at Trans in the City – a global network for businesses to learn about and implement trans inclusion - a One Young World alumni and mental health champion.
Luan Wise | Independent Social Media Consultant and Editor | The Lighthouse
Luan Wise is a chartered marketer and fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing (FCIM) with more than 20 years’ experience in agency, client-side and consultancy roles. She has worked with clients across B2C and B2B, providing both hands-on support and strategic consultancy. In addition, Luan writes and delivers social media marketing training programmes for in-house teams, plus organisations including LinkedIn, Facebook, Google, professional bodies, and university business schools.
Will Wood | Social Media Lead | DBVL | adidas | Red Bull
Will is the current Social Media Lead for a global public figure in the sports industry. His previous experience covers some of the biggest brands in the world, working with Red Bull and more recently adidas on global events including the 2019 Rugby World Cup, Euro 2020 and the Tokyo Olympics. Outside of his professional career, Will graduated from Leeds Beckett University with a Sports Marketing degree and is the proud co-host and producer of his own rugby-themed podcast. He enjoys the unrivalled access Social Media can provide to people and communities, and is passionate about producing content and publishing strategies which can add value to people’s online experiences.