Award Review: Web Marketing Association’s Web Award
The Web Marketing Association’s Web Award seems like a prestigious and popular web design award at first glance. The web site explains the requirements and purpose of the award.
The WebAward Competition is open to all organizations and individuals involved in the process of developing web sites for organizations, companies and the government. Web sites entered must have been in general use for at least part of calendar year 2006 or early 2007. Sites that have won awards in past WebAward Competitions are eligible for the current competition.
The cost of entry into the Web Awards is $199, while non-profits can submit their web site for $99. The winner receives a plaque or certificate with the name of their web site, company and award level.
Like the Webby Awards, the Web Marketing Association’s Web Award has some very reputable sponsors, including PRWeb, Burst Media and more.
There are 96 different categories for the awards. The categories include Advertising, B2B, Entertainment, TV and many more. Each category has its own unique criteria, though the criteria for most of the web sites is the exact same.
Unlike the Webby Awards, the Web Marketing Association’s Web Awards takes a different approach to judging. The web site does not mention any famous people, but it does mention the countries, companies and jobs in which they come from. There are 37 countries listed, 140 job roles and more than 250 companies.
So is entering the Web Award worth it? After a review, it seems that the Web Award is actually more worthy of mention than the Webby Awards. The Web Award provides feedback about your web site even if you don’t win. You are provided with benchmark data, showing how your web sites compares to others in your industry according to the judges. You are also provided with judges comments.
Whether these features are worth the $199 entry fee is up to you, but at worst the entry fee serves as a survey comparing your web site to other companies. From there, you can learn how to make improvements and make your web site better. That service, in and of itself, it worth something for many web sites that don’t have the budget to test their web site with the public before launch.