Everything you need to know about The DANI Awards 2018
26th Mar 2018
It’s that time of year again and bigger than ever, it’s the DANI Awards 2018. An award ceremony celebrating the expertise and talent of the digital and creative sector across Northern Ireland. The DANI Awards pride themselves on being fair in awarding individuals based purely on their digital and creative talent. So, here is all you need to know about this year’s awards:
The DANI Awards have decided to remove the ‘Best Mummy Blog’ and ‘Best Campaign in Finance’ from this year’s categories. But, don’t worry you can still enter your mummy blog in the ‘Best Lifestyle, Fashion & Beauty Blog’ category. This year they are mixing things up and have removed the ‘highly commended’ awards.
That means winner takes all.
The competition is heating up and with the application date closed, the judging panel is reviewing over 300 applications (That’s nearly double the number of entries from last year!)
The categories to contend for and 2018 shortlisted, include:
Wurkhouse
The Sun & Polemic Digital
Profile Tree
MyCareNeedsA.com
Best Digital Advertising Campaign
The Transfer Tutor
Queens Uni Belfast & Search Scientist
The Tomorrow Lab
Loud Mouth Media
Best Social Media Campaign
Strictly Boardroom
Babocush & Digital 24
Taggart Homes
Belfast City Airport
Best Multichannel Campaign
Clearbox
Smarts Communicate
Housing Executive
W5
Best Lifestyle, Fashion & Beauty Blog
Lifestyle, Arts & Entertainment Blog
The Style Edit
Holiday Ninja
Katie Andrews
Belfast Bites
Eating Ideas
Down the Hatch NI
NI Explorer
Best Business & Tech Blog
Glaze Digital
Fathom
Catalyst Inc.
Rezoomo
Spar NI
Target Dry & Loud Mouth Media
Total Hockey
SkirtingsRUs & Polemic Digital
Best Campaign in Travel, Hospitality & Leisure
Connolly Cove & Profile Tree
Galgorm Resort & Spa
Sport Changes Life & Velocity Worldwide
The Bushmills Inn
Best Campaign in the 3rd Sector
W5
Queens Uni Belfast & Search Scientist
The Transfer Tutor
Education Authority
Best Campaign in Healthcare
Polemic Digital
Analytics Engine
Sugar Rush Creative
Best Campaign in the 3rd sector
Boardroom Apprentice
W5 & Eyekiller
Cash for Kids & GCD
Madlug & Fathom
Electric Ireland & The Tomorrow Lab
Strictly Boardroom
BA Components
JP Corry & i3 Digital
Property News
Galgorm
Kitchen Stori & Eyekiller
Clearbox & Myth Digital
PBNI & Sugar Rush Creative
BBC Pandemic & Big Motive
Belfast Live & Mirror Media
BA Components
Velocity Worldwide
Analytics Engine
And, of course, the main awards of the night:
Fathom
Loud Mouth Media
The Tomorrow Lab
The Web Bureau
Best Young Digital Person
Ryan Farren, Director at IMAC iT Solutions
Emma Gribben, Digital Marketing Consultant at Google
Viki McAdoo, Digital Marketing Manager at The Web Bureau
Digital Business Person of the Year (the one we at Corvus sponsor)
Gavan Wall Director of The Wall Group
Louise McCartan, MD at Search Scientist
Kim Constable MD at The Ultimate Yoga Detox
- Best Campaign in Finance
What does it mean to win a DANI award?
We caught up with Niamh Taylor, winner of Digital Business Person of the Year 2017. As we are long-time sponsors of the award we wanted to know what it was like to win. The Digital Businessperson of the year is a peer-nominated award which means you can nominate fellow professionals in your field via social media. This year, the DANI awards are increasing the difficulty of winning and the top 3 nominees will come in for an interview before the winner is chosen.
Niamh describes winning the award as ‘the best achievement in her career to date’. Niamh has won other award categories in previous years but expresses being ‘personally rewarded for her efforts’ was a ‘huge achievement’. Niamh believes the DANI award is a very important aspect of the digital industry in Northern Ireland.
Watch the full interview with Niamh Taylor below:
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How can I win a DANI Award?
We had an exclusive interview with Naomh McElhatton, the founder of the DANI Awards at the launch party in January to find out how you can stand out against the competition in your application.
1. The aesthetic of your application can get the judges attention from the onset
2. The results of your campaign are really important from Naomh’s experience working with the judges. Naomh says, ‘people are very quick to give the narrative of this is what we did and we’re brilliant, but nothing to back it up’. The key to success for this year especially is results, as the DANI awards had over 160 entries in 2017.
3. Have a start, a middle and an end to your application. Outline when you started, what the initial levels of engagement were, put in the facts and figures and finish with the results from the campaign, for example we grew the business by X%
This year to make a difference, you need to show results!
Watch Naomh’s full interview here
Corvus and the DANI Awards
The awards have been running for 8 years and Corvus have been sponsoring the Digital Business Person of the Year for the last 5 years.
Meet the Judging panel for the DANI Awards 2018
A panel of highly influential and talented individuals, whose knowledge, combined is resolute.
Ciaran Carmichael - With over 10 years’ experience as Digital Strategy Director with global media agencies such as Carat, OMD, and IPG Mediabrands.
Steven Woods - is the Senior Commercial Manager at the Digital Catapult – an innovation agency funded by InnovateUK. Steven is responsible for the engagement between the Catapult and industry.
Paul Farrell - As VP of Commercial at Virgin Media, Paul is a very experienced commercial marketer who has worked on client side, media side and agency side.
Peter Guest - Peter has a wealth of management experience in companies such as IBM, British Telecom, Capita & Logica CMG, holding numerous Director & VP roles. He has also been a founding member and investor in many start-ups in the UK, Ireland and the Nordics.
Henry Joseph Grant - Recently appointed COO at Big Dish Ventures. Henry has built and scaled innovative cross functional and commercially driven teams. With a deep expertise in technology led marketplaces, local & on-demand (Ex JUST EAT from startup to $2.44Bn IPO & Gett formerly GetTaxi).
Professor Jonathan Wallace - Professor of Innovation at Ulster University. He has for the last 15 years been Director of Knowledge and Technology Transfer for the Faculty of Computing and Engineering, with direct responsibility for the commercialisation of the Faculty’s research, industrial collaboration and consultancy provision.
Donna Parker - As Managing Director of Diamond Recruitment Group, Donna has worked in recruitment for over 20 years. The Regional Director for the Recruitment and Employment Confederation in Northern Ireland, Donna’s expertise is in creating innovative recruitment solutions to provide both large managed workforces and talent acquisition strategies to both public and private sector employers in Northern Ireland.
Robert Farrell - Robert is the Course Director with the Digital Marketing Academy of Ireland (part of the Further Learning Group). Robert is responsible for course design, assessment, staffing and operations.
Michael Curran - With over 20 years Executive Management experience in sales & marketing roles in software companies including Apion, Openwave, Aepona, Intel & DisplayNote my current interest is in helping Northern Ireland software companies grow.
And our very own Ian Weatherup is judging again. Ian is the MD of Corvus Recruitment who specialise in Digital, Sales and Management recruitment, working with candidates & companies throughout the UK & Ireland.
The shortlist will be announced on the 16th March 2018!
As always, Black Tie (the fancier the better!)
Check out this picture of the Corvus Team (well part of it) enjoying the DANI Awards in 2017:
From Left to Right: Gareth Stirling (Senior UX/UI & Web Development Recruiter), Alex Devenney (Marketing Executive), Ian Weatherup (Managing Director).
Drinks reception, three-course meal, awards ceremony, entertainment and afterparty.
Whitla Hall (Queen's University)
Everyone from Corvus would like to wish good luck to all entries, we’ll see you on the big night.