The awards will be judged by a panel of industry leaders and experts in 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 winners.
The 2020 judging panel is as follows:
Dawn Anderson | Founder | Bertey ltd
Dawn Anderson lectures on search and digital marketing strategy at Manchester Metropolitan University, is an international conference speaker (UK, US, AUS, IT), a trainer, and runs a digital marketing and international SEO consultancy agency, Bertey based in Manchester, UK. Dawn has spoken at some of the leading UK and global search marketing conferences, including Pubcon (Las Vegas and Florida), SASCON (Manchester, UK), European Search Conference (Liverpool, UK), Search Leeds (Leeds, UK), Brighton SEO (Brighton, UK), SMX London (London, UK), SMX East (San Jose, US), Ungagged London (London, UK), Ungagged Las Vegas (Las Vegas, US), MozCon (Seattle, US) and State of Search (Dallas, US). Dawn has also spoken at conference across Europe and as far afield as Australia. Dawn has been in digital marketing and SEO for 12+ years and works with leading brands providing digital marketing and SEO strategy and consultancy across a number of sectors. She is a Northern Digital, UK, EU and US Search Awards Judge. Dawn also contributes to leading search marketing industry publications such as Search Engine Land, Search Engine Journal, The SEMPost, State of Digital and Smart Insights. Dawn also supervises Masters dissertation students undertaking their MSc in digital marketing strategy at Manchester Metropolitan University and also lectures and undertakes workshops on search and marketing analytics teaching International Fashion Promotion students at Manchester Fashion Institute
MARTIN BRYANT | | Media and Tech Consultant
Martin Bryant is a consultant, speaker, writer, and educator in the fields of technology and media. He works to help technology companies craft a narrative around their products and business. He was previously Editor-in-Chief of international technology publication The Next Web, and Community Editor at Tech North, where he shone a light on the stories of startups and entrepreneurs in the North of England.
Simon Butterworth | VP Digital Marketing | MAG-O
Simon joined Manchester Airports Group (MAG), the UK’s largest airports group, as VP Digital Marketing in July 2017. The Group serves 59 million passengers across three airports (Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands), which contributes £7.1 billion to the UK economy. He sits on the leadership team at the Group’s digital division, MAG-O, which was created with one driving mission; to create the world's most customer-centric and stress-free digital travel experience. Simon has led MAG-O through a period of digital transformation. After a phase of intense growth, hiring 40 digital marketers in 12 months, all digital acquisition channels are now managed and optimised in-house. This includes Paid Search, Organic Search, CRM, Affiliates, Display, Paid Social and Content Marketing. After the acquisition of two digital businesses, MAG-O is now entering its next exciting phase of growth as industry-leading platforms are deployed in airports internationally.
Max Hopkinson | Joint MD | Bind
Max is joint MD of digital marketing agency Bind. He has previously held C level marketing positions at TyresOnTheDrive, Iceland Foods and various technology startups. He learned his trade working as an Industry Manger at Google. Outside work Max is a hands on Dad, teaches children to ski and is governor of Manchester primary school Old Hall Drive Academy. His long term ambition is to change how business (and marketing) is taught in schools by leveraging talent and experience from the private sector.
Brendan Keegan | Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing | MMU
Senior Lecturer in Digital Marketing, Manchester Metropolitan University Business School Brendan has taught digital marketing at Manchester Metropolitan University Business School for eight years after a short career in agency land. With a background in communications and web development, his research interests centre around strategic digital marketing in the services industry. Recently awarded a PhD in Social Media Marketing Campaign Development, he utilised networks of digital agencies in the North West to develop a conceptual framework of campaign strategy development using new and emergent technologies.
Mark Kuhillow | FOUNDER | R.O.EYE
Starting his career on 1994, Marks media roots are firmly planted within the offline direct response world, moving online in 1999. Seeing the opportunity to apply a digital direct response agency model to affiliate and performance marketing campaigns, Mark founded R.O.EYE in 2004. Now seen as the largest specialist in its sector, R.O.EYE counts the likes of HMV, Best Western and Jessops amongst its clients.
James Lees | Marketing Director | Mabo
James has worked in digital marketing since 2014 and has delivered huge success for both retailers and agencies alike. Although his career has been predominantly based around search, he has managed campaigns through numerous digital channels with some fantastic results. James is the Marketing Director of Mabo and oversees all external marketing operations for the company; something which saw Mabo be crowned as Best Small PPC Agency at the 2018 European Search Awards.
Neil McKay | CEO | Endless Gain
For more than 15 years, Neil has been helping businesses here in the UK, Europe and USA grow their online profits. He started his career at publisher Media Ventures Group (MVG), helping to build and sell Global Media GmbH to private equity firm The Carlyle Group before leading the UK acquisition of Bigmouthmedia (now part of DigitasLBi). He later led Lakestar Media to success before it was acquired by McCann Worldgroup in 2012. Neil's latest venture is Endless Gain – a Conversion Optimisation Agency which launched in January 2016.
Katrina Michel | Non-exec Director and Business connector
Katrina has recently stepped down from Marketing Cheshire to focus on consulting and non-executive roles. While at Marketing Cheshire, she reformulated the business model to ensure the longevity and commercial viability of the organisation, overhauled its digital channels and footprint , developed its relationship with the Cheshire and Warrington LEP and Visit Britain and helped Marketing Cheshire to win five separate funding bids from Visit Britain and Arts Council England to help raise the profile of Cheshire in culture, heritage, sport, youth travel,food and drink and business tourism. Prior to Marketing Cheshire Katrina worked for a number of multinational communications agencies - Ogilvy, J Walter Thompson, Publicis on campaigns for clients such as HSBC, Unilever, American Express, Reckitt Benckiser and the UK Government. She started her career in HM Diplomatic Service where she worked in Paris and Brussels. Katrina studied languages at the University of Bristol and has an MBA from INSEAD. https://www.linkedin.com/in/katrinamichel/
PAUL MORRIS | HEAD OF MARKETING PLANNING & PERFORMANCE | Marshalls PLC
Paul has over 19 years’ experience leading Marketing and Digital both agency and Brand side and currently heads up planning and performance at Tesco Bank. Paul was previously global Digital/ Ecommerce Director at PZ Cussons (brands including St Tropez, Imperial Leather & Original Source), led Digital marketing, content and social at the Co-op Group (Food, Pharmacy, Electrical, Bank, Insurance, Legal Services & Funeralcare) and has Digital/ through the line experience of working both client and agency side with brands including Wickes, Laterooms, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Cash Generator, Stagecoach and Silverstone.
Erin Portsmouth | Director of Corporate Affairs | Oldham Cares
Erin is a Chartered public relations practitioner who has worked in the communications industry for over 15 years. She started her career in private sector consultancy but for the past nine years she has worked in the National Health Service. She is Head of Communications and Engagement for two NHS clinical commissioning groups in Lancashire, where she also has portfolio responsibility for customer care, complaints, patient experience, Freedom of Information, legal claims, HR, organisational development, and equality and diversity. She has a MA in public relations, is a member of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations, and served on the CIPR North West Group Committee as a volunteer for ten years, also holding a three year term as Chair. She is currently a Trustee and board member for the homelessness charity Emmaus Salford.