Canadian New Media Awards Announces 2009 Winners

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) December 1, 2009 -- Canadian New Media Awards Announces 2009 Winners
Award winners include Cyberplex Inc. as Best Company of the Year, BBDO/Proximity Canada for Doritos as Best Brand of the Year and Syncapse Corp. as Most Promising New Company of the Year among others

Toronto, ON (December 1, 2009) - The Canadian New Media Awards (CNMAs) , the country’s only nationwide competition celebrating the accomplishments of Canada’s most successful digital media companies, has just announced this year’s award winners in 19 prestigious categories. As part of nextMEDIA Toronto, Canada’s leading digital media production and development marketplace, the CNMAs were handed out tonight at a gala ceremony held at the Toronto Design Exchange.

In its ninth consecutive year, the CNMAs spotlight the talents and successes of the country’s interactive media industry in categories such as Hottest New Digital Kid on the Block, Best Mobile Marketing, Best Use of Social Media and Best Web-based Game. New categories introduced this year include Best Online Video Portal, Best Mobile Application, and Brand of the Year.

“We were extremely impressed with this year’s award nominees and their work truly represented some of the country’s best new media strategies,” says Mark Greenspan, Executive Producer of nextMEDIA. “As Canada’s only nationwide new media competition of its kind, we’re proud of the achievements what this country’s innovators have to offer.”

The gala celebration was hosted by award-winning comedian Seán Cullen and more than 200 industry leaders were on hand at tonight’s awards.

Below is a full list of award winners.

2009 CNMA winners:

Best Company of the Year:
• Cyberplex Inc., Toronto www.cyberplex.com

Cyberplex Inc. is a leader in providing web advertising solutions, online customer acquisition strategies and technology development. The company, through its subsidiaries, leverages its proprietary affiliate network, robust advertising relationships and experience, along with technology design, development and solutions specialists to develop and implement web-based programs and solutions that have a proven record in delivering results.

Best Brand of the Year:
• Doritos
http://www.getaloadofthis.ca/2009/doritoswhitebag/p-integrated/
Doritos invited consumers to take over the brand and name a mysterious new flavour as well as produce an ad. BBDO/Proximity Canada used lo-fi production featuring man-lipped cats, the first 3-D YouTube ad, and never-done-before Facebook/YouTube integration. The results: 1.5M unique visitors, 2,100+ uploaded spots, and one winner receiving $25,000 and 1% of sales.

Promising New Company of the Year:
• Syncapse, Toronto www.syncapse.com

Syncapse is a full service social technology company that helps clients build, measure and monetize their online social media presence and impact. Syncapse builds technology and digital media applications that give companies a stronger voice on the internet through digital monetization, customized social network development, and helping brands better understand media strategy on social media platforms.

Hottest New Digital Kid on the Block:
• ChickAdvisor.com, ChickAdvisor Inc. – Toronto www.chickadvisor.com
ChickAdvisor is a social media platform for women with user-generated reviews on the best products and local services in North America. In addition to their online presence, they host local events, a product review club and videos. Their goal is to help women make better purchasing decisions by getting advice first on a wide range of topics from electronics to electrolysis.

Best in Mobile Marketing:

• Brisk ARTwist - Addictive Mobility, Markham http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=45939&id=6386724639&ref=mf
Brisk’s exciting new campaign provided a way for the user to be creative by providing Brisk graphics and stencils that represent the brand and a canvas that includes a brand watermark, at the same time allowing for creative freedom in a familiar space. The Brisk ARTwist tool allows Brisk enthusiasts to create brand-related artwork that could further the reach of Brisk.

Best Mobile Application:
• Air Canada iPhone App - IBM Canada, Markham http://appsto.re/aircanada

Air Canada iPhone Application is the first iPhone App from a North American airline which makes check-in, electronic boarding-passes, flight information, itinerary changes and other flight information available and convenient to retrieve. The app provides a superior customer experience as it is fully optimized for iPhone devices and takes advantage of the iPhone's native buttons, controls and screen transitions.

Best Location Based Service:
• Poynt - Multiplied Media, Calgary www.mypoynt.com
Poynt is a local search application that provides consumers with an all-in-one tool to search for local business, restaurant, retail and movie information as well as a people search feature. Poynt provides information access on mobile smartphones, giving consumers a convenient and easy-to-use method to locate products and services when and where they need them.

Best Use of Social Media:
• Invoke Media, creator of HootSuite, Vancouver www.invokemedia.com

Invoke is an interactive agency that specializes in transforming ideas into tangible results executed within a complete interactive brand strategy. They are the creator of HootSuite, the professional Twitter client that lets users manage their entire Twitter experience from one easy-to-use interface.

Best in Interactive Marketing:
• Doritos White Bag - BBDO/Proximity Canada, Toronto http://www.getaloadofthis.ca/2009/doritoswhitebag/p-integrated/
Doritos invited consumers to take over the brand and name a mysterious new flavour as well as produce an ad. BBDO/Proximity Canada used lo-fi production featuring man-lipped cats, the first 3-D YouTube ad, and never-done-before Facebook/YouTube integration. The results: 1.5M unique visitors, 2,100+ uploaded spots, and one winner receiving $25,000 and 1% of sales.

Best Branded Entertainment:

• Worldwide Short Film Festival: Short Attention Span – doug agency, Toronto www.shorterisbetter.com
The Worldwide Short Film Festival challenged themselves to build upon an existing key insight that for an audience of short attention spans - shorter is better. What better way to highlight the benefits of a short film festival than to create "Critic Cal," a champion of “shorter is better” – a rapping film critic who disses any film that is longer than the length of time that it takes to eat a twinkie.

Best Cross-Platform Project:
• Waterlife Interactive - National Film Board of Canada, Toronto http://waterlife.nfb.ca

Waterlife Interactive is the story of the last great supply of fresh drinking water on earth. It is a creative and educational take on a relevant and pressing social issue that directly affects over 350 million people. Waterlife Interactive builds on the film’s stunning visuals and luscious soundtrack to create an immersive experience that allows users to explore the beauty of water and the danger in taking it for granted.

Best Online Video Portal:
• National Film Board of Canada: Online Screening Room - National Film Board of Canada www.nfb.ca
Available 24/7 in Canada’s both official languages, the new NFB online Screening Room provides Canadians with a unique screening experience: high quality, free viewing of over 700 productions from the NFB’s vast collection – a national treasure of our stories.

Best Innovative Web-based Game:
• Junk: Battles - Antic Entertainment, London, ON www.junkbattles.com

Junk: Battles™ is a fast paced free to play real-time action-strategy game where you build a vehicle out of your collected parts, and take it online to battle opponents all around the world earning new parts, prizes, statistics and more.

Best Kids Interactive:
• Titanium Chef - mod7, Vancouver www.titaniumchef.ca
Titanium Chef is an online educational game designed to teach the Canada Food Guide to Canadian kids in grades 6 to 8 using a carefully-crafted (but transparent) educational strategy to be used by both French and English teachers. Each episode can played in 30 to 40 minutes and is a great Role-playing Game that incorporates virtual worlds and multi-player elements regardless of its educational content.

Best in Canadian Culture, Interactive:

• In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture & Art - ecentricarts inc., Toronto www.textilemuseum.ca
The online Textile Museum of Canada exhibition “In Touch: Connecting Cloth, Culture + Art” helps visitors explore how textiles are created and to learn about the characters that bring them to life. The highly interactive Web site allows visitors to access a rich suite of thematic multimedia narratives and learn amazing stories of figurative textiles from around the world and across time.

Best Online Comedy Performance:
• Têtes à claques, Montreal www.tetesaclaques.tv
An humourous French online website with funny videos and clips.

Best Online Artist of the Year:
• K-os, www.k-osmusic.com
K-os’ website encourages iTunes purchases of the album, online contests to design merchandise and remix songs from his album Yes! where winners will be featured on Yes! Remix album.

Leader in Social Change:
• Mark Surman, Executive Director, Mozilla Foundation
• Tonya Surman, Executive Director, Centre for Social Innovation

Lifetime Achievement Award:
• Red Burns, "Grandmother" of new media and Founder of the ITP Program at the Tisch School for the Arts at NYU.

Visit http://www.nextmediaevents.com/toronto/cnma.php for more information and details on the Canadian New Media Award winners.

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Media Contact:
Yvonne Chiang
Jive Communications
T. 604.880.5090
yvonne@jivecommunications.ca

More information can be found online at http://www.cnma.ca

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