Marketing excellence awards
- Awards night: Wednesday November 13th
Entries open: 17 July
Entries close: 20 September
Shortlist announcement: early October
Awards night: 13 November
Why enter The Dotties?
The Dotties showcase true marketing excellence across Dotdigital's 4000+ customer base.
Our awards are judged by industry leaders who are at the cutting edge of marketing. This is your chance to show off your marketing superpowers to the world.
We’re looking for brands that can showcase how they’ve used Dotdigital to enable demonstrable growth and ROI. We’ll be looking not only for creativity and effectiveness, which is the essence of marketing excellence, but also for marketing stories that can inspire us all and make us proud to represent the industry.
Award categories
Customer experience
Best use of personalization in email
Best use of personalization on web
Best customer lifecycle journey
Breakthrough CX award
Best customer retention or loyalty strategy
Best multi-product customer experience
Best use of personalization in email
This award recognizes innovative techniques in employing personalization to elevate the effectiveness and engagement of email campaigns, leading to outstanding results and a more individualized customer experience.
Entry questions:
- Can you give us a snapshot of your company’s background and the key products or services you offer?
- What was the challenge you were trying to overcome through personalized email campaigns?
- Can you describe the email campaign, including the personalization techniques employed?
- What tools or technologies did you use for personalization?
- How did these personalization techniques contribute to the success of your campaign? Please provide specific metrics or KPIs, if applicable.
Best use of personalization on web
This award honors brands that have successfully implemented personalized experiences or content on their websites, resulting in enhanced customer engagement, improved user experiences, and increased conversion rates.
Entry questions:
- What objectives or challenges were you looking to address through website personalization?
- How did you implement personalization on your website? Please describe the specific techniques or tools used.
- How did the personalization impact customer engagement, user experiences, and conversion rates on your website? Please provide any relevant metrics or examples.
- What learnings did you take away from this experience, and how do you plan to further optimize and enhance personalization on your website in the future?
Best customer lifecycle journey
This award celebrates brands that have created and executed an exceptional customer lifecycle journey, integrating multiple touchpoints and ensuring seamless customer experiences from acquisition to loyalty and retention.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your customer lifecycle journey – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your customer lifecycle journey’s components, such as the stages, channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your customer lifecycle journey a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like customer retention rates, increased loyalty, or revenue generated?
Breakthrough CX award
This award acknowledges a new customer who has shown significant progress, creativity, and innovation in their marketing and customer engagement efforts within a short span of time on the Dotdigital or Fresh Relevance platforms.
Nominees for the award will be handpicked by our internal team, no entry submissions are necessary.
Best customer retention or loyalty strategy
This award appreciates brands who have developed effective strategies for customer retention and loyalty, using targeted initiatives or incentives to create long-lasting relationships and encourage repeat business.
Entry questions:
- What challenges or objectives were you looking to address with your customer retention/loyalty strategy?
- Please describe your customer retention/loyalty strategy, and the specific initiatives or technologies involved.
- How has your retention or loyalty strategy been successful in creating long-lasting relationships with customers and encouraging repeat business? Please provide any relevant metrics.
Best multi-product customer experience
This award recognizes outstanding customer experiences achieved using the combined power of Dotdigital and Fresh Relevance, showcasing seamless integration and innovative strategies that drive engagement and business success.
Entry questions:
- What challenges or objectives were you looking to address with your multi-product customer experience strategy?
- Please describe how you utilized Dotdigital and Fresh Relevance to create an outstanding customer experience by integrating multiple products or services. Include examples of both platforms
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Platform awards
Best use of WinstonAI™
Most advanced automation campaign
Outstanding email creative
Most effective cross-channel campaign
Best SMS campaign
SMS API communication champion
Best use of WinstonAI™
This award recognizes the exceptional use of Dotdigital’s AI engine, WinstonAI, in creating innovative campaigns that leverage AI and machine learning for success and problem-solving. WinstonAI enables data-driven revenue growth, efficient cross-channel campaign creation, predictive analytics, and smart segmentation, thus emphasizing the importance of AI in today’s marketing landscape.
Entry questions:
- What challenges or objectives were you looking to address by using WinstonAI in your campaign?
- Please describe the specific features of WinstonAI that you utilized in your campaign, such as generative AI, built-in editor, cross-channel campaign creation, predictive analytics, smart segments, AI-powered product recommendations, product data enrichment, send-time optimization, and responsible artificial intelligence.
- Can you provide any relevant metrics or examples showcasing the impact of WinstonAI on your campaign outcomes, focusing specifically on data-driven revenue opportunities, reduced workload, and overall campaign effectiveness?
Most advanced automation campaign
Has automation transformed your marketing results? Are you triggering intelligent messages based on customer actions? We want to know the ins-and-outs of your best marketing automation. It could be a high performing loyalty program or a rule-based event series. To bring home the award you should show how program builder has benefited your business. Inspire other users to work smarter.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Outstanding email creative
This award recognizes original, visionary creative talent. We want to see your most glittering campaign; a visually inspired email that engages your audience and makes your competitors think twice about their own designs. This category isn’t about open rates or ROI – it’s pure show. Does your email campaign look drop-dead gorgeous?
Entry questions:
- What challenges or objectives were you looking to address with your outstanding email campaign?
- Please describe your standout email campaign and the creative elements that distinguished it, such as design, visuals, content, and overall aesthetic.
- Can you provide any relevant metrics or examples showcasing the success of your outstanding email campaign, focusing specifically on audience engagement and creativity?
Most effective cross-channel campaign
This award is for brands who have shown some multi-channel flair. The Dotdigital platform connects seamlessly with other systems to join up the customer experience. Let us know which tactics and tools you’ve used to meet audiences in their own moments. We want to know how you’ve engaged the right customer at the right time on the right channel.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Best SMS campaign
With 91% of customers wanting to receive test messages from businesses, it’s no surprise SMS campaigns are becoming more and more popular every day.
Have you designed and executed impactful SMS-based strategies that engage audiences, enhance brand loyalty and drive tangible results? Then this is the award for you. Showcase your best SMS campaign that highlights the significance of SMS marketing in today’s cross-channel world.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?mult
SMS API communication champion
With over 15 billion mobile devices globally receiving SMS messages and open rates as high as 98%, SMS has become the channel of choice to deliver crucial messages to a vast audience.
Whether your business is delivering empowering SMS messages in times of need, building loyalty with real-time API powered sends, or keeping customers informed and engaged, we’re searching for thoughtfully designed and strategized messages that stand above the rest.
Nominees for the award will be handpicked by our internal team, no entry submissions are necessary.
Sector awards
Best not-for-profit marketing campaign
Best travel and hospitality marketing campaign
Best higher education campaign
Best campaign for professional services
Best ecommerce campaign
B2B campaign of the year
Best not-for-profit marketing campaign
The winner of this award will demonstrate their commitment to delivering excellence for a charitable cause or social movement. Show us how you identified a specific audience – it might be donors, volunteers, supporters, or members – and created a meaningful campaign that ultimately helped others. Whichever the medium, whatever the creative, we want to celebrate those pushing the boundaries of NFP marketing.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Best travel and hospitality marketing campaign
This category highlights the outstanding accomplishments of the execution of well thought-out marketing strategies within the travel and hospitality industries. Award winning campaigns stand out for their unique combination of visual appeal, audience engagement, storytelling and functionality, which is why we want to recognise the winners efforts of a successful campaign, resulting in data-driven results.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Best higher education campaign
The best higher education campaign award is to recognise your campaign efforts through a blend of data driven strategies comprised into content that reaches your specific audiences whether that be pupils, students, or to reinforce your overall brand presence. We can’t wait to see your submissions and to celebrate those who have created industry-leading campaigns within the education sector.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Best campaign for professional services
The lucky winner of this award would have shown outstanding marketing efforts that spotlight the value and expertise of individuals within the professional services sector. Sound like the category for you? Show us your award-winning worthy campaign which shows your industry-leading knowledge and elevated brand reputation in today’s increasingly competitive professional landscape.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Best ecommerce campaign
Does your ecommerce or retail campaign cut through the noise? Have you used welcome programs, abandoned cart triggers, and preference centers to entice customers into buying from your online store? If your mission is to create a stellar customer experience, this category is for you. We’re on the lookout for aspiring brands who are taking ecommerce by storm.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
B2B campaign of the year
This award celebrates outstanding marketing achievements within the media and publication sector. The winning campaign should showcase a clever combination of compelling storytelling, unique content, and strategic engagement with its target audience. Whether it’s through digital or print media, the campaign should amplify the brand’s message and leave a lasting impact on its readers or viewers.
Entry questions:
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- Give us an inside look at your campaign’s components, such as the channels, messages, and tactics you used. How did clever data usage contribute to its effectiveness?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Excellence awards
Digital marketer of the year
Team of the year
The responsible marketing award
Visionary marketing leader
Tech partner of the year
Services partner of the year
Customer lifetime achievement award
Digital marketer of the year
Have you or another team member empowered your brand using Dotdigital? This award is for an individual who has demonstrated personal development while advancing their brand. Who has furthered your team’s marketing zeal to meet targets, execute strategy, and engage audiences? The winning candidate will be someone with a steadfast work ethic who’s determined to succeed.
Entry questions:
- Can you provide a brief description of the nominee’s role and responsibilities within the company?
- What key achievements or successes did the nominee accomplish this year?
- How has the nominee used the Dotdigital platform creatively and effectively to meet business goals and drive results?
- Please provide an example of how the nominee demonstrated exceptional personal development and has contributed to advancing your brand.
- Any additional information or context about the nominee’s performance, work ethic, or impact on the team or company?
Team of the year
Calling all trailblazer teams. This category is for marketers who’ve demonstrated practical and innovative ways of reaching targets and engaging customers. How has your team used the Dotdigital platform to generate outstanding results? We want to know the areas where your team has upskilled and improved. Teamwork makes the dream work.
Entry questions:
- Please provide an overview of your team’s function, roles, and responsibilities within the company.
- What major successes or achievements has your team accomplished this year, and how do these align with the company’s goals?
- Can you provide an example of a particularly innovative or impactful campaign, project, or initiative your team has worked on this year?
- How has your team demonstrated outstanding teamwork, collaboration, and collective growth, and how has this contributed to the company’s success?
The responsible marketing award
Responsible marketing is an approach that ensures you’re not only meeting customers’ needs but also having a positive impact on them and the community you’re both a part of. It’s about building trust, and there are several ways brands can do this. Showcase your best responsible marketing campaign, which covers one or all of these themes:
Sustainable marketing: For any brand who is doing their part for sustainability. This could be related to a new product range, an existing CSR project, or education for your customers on how to make their product last longer.
Ethical marketing: Brands who have responsible practices and demonstrate their commitment to improving social and economic crises and form strong connections with customers. Brands support causes and movements close to their hearts, which could reflect areas of diversity and inclusion
Data stewardship: One of the biggest and hardest to overcome is the growing importance of a brands’ handling of customers’ data and privacy. Are you open, honest, and transparent when collecting customer data? Do you ensure subscribers are fully informed and know what you plan to do with their data?
Philanthropic marketing or cause-related marketing: Brands that are going above and beyond to support non-profitable causes, raising awareness for underrepresented groups or contributions to the local community.
This award is brought to you by Dotvoice
At Dotdigital our employee internal community and wellbeing is incredibly important to us, that’s why we created Dotvoice. It empowers employees to make a difference by encouraging them to come together to discuss their experiences, passions and enlighten each other to make changes and start new initiatives.
The four pillars of Dotvoice are – Wellbeing, Diversity & Inclusion, Sustainability and Community – each connects employees around the global with a common passion.
Entry questions:
- Which theme does your campaign or initiative focus on?
- Sustainable marketing
- Ethical marketing
- Data stewardship
- Philanthropic marketing
- Describe this initiative in more detail. What was the desired outcome?
- Share with us the primary objectives and challenges you faced in your campaign – what was the driving force behind it?
- What factors made your campaign a winner, and can you provide any noteworthy metrics like open rates, revenue generated, or customer satisfaction?
Visionary marketing leader
This award honors a strong leader within a marketing team, one who guides, supports, and drives their team towards success. The winner will be someone who is in a leadership position, consistently inspiring their team while setting strategies to achieve outstanding marketing results. This marketing leader will be recognized for their expertise, vision, and ability to steer their team in meeting goals, engaging audiences, and making a significant impact on their brand’s success.
Entry questions:
- Can you please give an overview of the nominee’s leadership role and responsibilities within the marketing team?
- How has the nominee inspired and guided the team towards success, and what innovative strategies or visions have they implemented?
- Can you provide examples of the nominee’s impact on the brand’s marketing results and achievements?
- How has the nominee demonstrated foresight and adaptability in response to industry changes and challenges?
Tech partner of the year
The true benefits of partnership are the shared successes that come from common goals. Has your agency worked with dotdigital on a truly successful project? Why does this story merit this award? Whether it’s a campaign, program, or an onboarding, we want to know the ins and outs of its success.
Nominees for the award will be handpicked by our internal team, no entry submissions are necessary.
Services partner of the year
The true benefits of partnership are the shared successes that come from common goals. Has your agency worked with Dotdigital on a truly successful project? Why does this story merit this award? Whether it’s a campaign, program, or an onboarding, we want to know the ins and outs of its success.
Nominees for the award will be handpicked by our internal team, no entry submissions are necessary.
Customer lifetime achievement award
As Dotdigital celebrates 25 years of marketing excellence, we’re recognizing the achievements of our longest standing customers. This prestigious honor recognizes a loyal customer who has achieved remarkable success using Dotdigital’s platform and services over the years.
By partnering with Dotdigital, the recipient of this award has demonstrated unwavering loyalty, as well as outstanding growth and innovation in the marketing industry. This award highlights the synergy between customer dedication and Dotdigital’s commitment to empowering businesses, which together can lead to enduring and remarkable achievements.
Nominees for the award will be handpicked by our internal team, no entry submissions are necessary
Meet the judges
Our expert panel of judges is well-versed in customer experience. We’ve selected eight industry professionals who are passionate about all things marketing, and know a great campaign when they see one.
Tink
Taylor
President and Co-Founder,
Dotdigital
Kath
Pay
CEO, Founder & Author,
Holistic Email Marketing
Nick
Crawford
Owner & Principal Consultant,
Twist Consultancy
Dela
Quist
Founder and CEO,
Alchemy Worx
Jeanne
Jennings
Founder & CEO,
Email Optimization Shop
Adeola
Sole
Senior Consultant,
Holistic Email Marketing
Kate
Barrett
Founder & CEO,
eFocus Marketing
Jenna
Tiffany
Founder & Strategy Director,
Let’s Talk Strategy
The venue
Troxy
- 490 Commercial Rd, London E1 0HX
- 17th November, 2022
- 6:00pm to Midnight
Dotties FAQs
You must be an active Dotdigital customer to enter and your campaign/entry must have taken place between August 2023 and November 2024.
It’s totally free!
Yes, you may include supporting documents for our judges to review, this can be in the form of images and videos.
First you need to register with our awards platform, then select a region, and then select your award. The rest is down to you!
Yes, of course, you can save and come back to your entry as many times as you’d like.
The shortlist will be announced in late October 2024.
Sponsorship is reserved for official Dotdigital partners. If you’d like more information please contact: events@dotdigital.com
The awards night will be in November 2024 – exact date to be announced!
