The cream of the North West digital sector gathered at Manchester’s Palace Hotel to celebrate the 2010 Big Chip Awards. The North West’s annual awards for digital excellence were hosted by Manchester broadcaster Terry Christian, with 62 entries competing for 20 prestigious awards. Manchester Digital, the trade association for the region’s digital sector, organised the event and it was backed by media partners Insider and New Media Age.

Chairman of Manchester Digital and Big Chip organiser Shaun Fensom said: “There is a highly-skilled and very creative pool of talent in the North and North West region and Big Chip provides a showcase for the very best projects and organisations.” Enda Carey, sector lead for games, digital & creative services at headline sponsor Vision+Media, said: “The Big Chip Awards recognise and reward excellence in the region’s digital industry, which continues to go from strength to strength thanks to the immense amount of digital talent we have here.”

Winner: 11 Out Of 10 with Pure Gym

Shortlist: KMP Digitata with Jetparks.co.uk, Manchester Airport budget car parking; KMP Digitata with ‘Amy’; Asda’s virtual assistant, Stardotstar with Nosey Parker

The new system replaced processes that required human intervention or hindered clients accessing facilities with automated user-friendly procedures, and it is now being rolled out to support 20 more new gyms.

Winner: Lightbox Education with MP for a Week

Commended: Manchester Museums Consortium & Visit Manchester with Creative Tourist

Shortlist: Pennine Telecom with Bridging the Digital Divide Net@BOSC; Studio Distract with Wrecked

The ‘MP for a Week’ game places the player in the shoes of an MP, experiencing first-hand the personal and professional dilemmas of a week in politics, taking responsibility for their decisions, and then seeing the implications on their careers.

Winner: Cahoona with Band on the Wall Website Redevelopment

Shortlist: Fudge with English Rose; LOVE with Acting on Impulse website; Sigma Consulting Solutions with CABlink service extranet; Wilson Cooke with Adactus housing website

Band on the Wall reopened in 2009 after five years of closure and required a new cutting-edge website to help market the venue and its offering. Cahoona won the contract to develop the website, incorporating a social network, archive and event CMS, all wrapped in a modern clean design.

Winner: Stardotstar with Things to Come

Shortlist: Shira Rubin with learn2lingo

Things to Come is a pilot project for use at school on laptops or whiteboards before visiting live performance by the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra.

Through interaction and creative engagement children are familiarised with the piece, offering a heightened appreciation of the music they will later experience in the live concert.

Winner: Digital Blah Blah with Adam Rix Website

Shortlist: Cahoona with the Cahoona website; Fudge with English Rose; RealtimeUK with LG’s Behind the Picture

The most important part of the brief was that Rix wanted his work to be displayed to its maximum impact without compromising speed or letting creative decisions impact on SEO benefits. That meant fullscreen images but no Flash. He also wanted the entire site to be driven by a CMS system.

Winner: Stardotstar with Nosey Parker

Shortlist: 4i Security with the OMC Online Security System; Code Computerlove with myebook.com – digital technologies for online automated tailoring service; Scraperwiki with Scraperwiki; Stephen Henesy with PiP Interactive

Nosey Parker iPhone app helps people find the closest, cheapest or safest car park anywhere in the UK, with a database of over 13,450 car parks and 1.8 million spaces. In the first week of its launch on the app store, the app was purchased more than 2,266 times and rose to position 21 in the overall UK App Store.

Winner: The Neighbourhood with Nord Anglia

Commended: Craig Knowles and David Ridges with Bon Appetit

Shortlist: MediaCityUK with Take Note; RealtimeUK with LG’s Behind the Picture; The Neighbourhood with Angel

This category was open to any animation created exclusively using digital techniques and delivered via a digital medium. Entrants had to demonstrate exceptional innovation, creativity or originality.

Winner: PushON with Love Those Shoes

Shortlist: Lakestar Media with Parcel2Go.com’s SEO campaign; PushON and The UK Wedding Shows with The UK Wedding Shows' campaign

Love Those Shoes sell a wide range of healthy and comfortable shoes online. The strategy was highly integrated with SEO to generate long-term rankings across brands, PPC to deliver rapid-response campaigns and social media to build brand loyalty and generate SEO benefit.

Winner: iris Manchester with Wonderbra – Ultimate Strapless

Shortlist: Mobious with Carling weekly email; PushON and Brazen PR with 30 Beats: Mechanical Music; Righttxt with Mobile for a Small Organisation

Submissions had to include a significant use of online or digital technology to promote a product or service. Entrants had to demonstrate the effectiveness of the campaign in generating business, directly or indirectly. The winner was launched with just a microsite, digital marketing and PR.

Winner: Manchester Museums Consortium & Visit Manchester with Creative Tourist

Shortlist: IAS b2b Marketing with Beat the Wolf; Mando Group with United Utilities rebrand; Xentum with X marks the spot

Creative Tourist was developed by Manchester Museums Consortium. It is the digital delivery tool for a strategic communications strategy that aims to enhance Manchester’s image as a culturally credible city, impress key influencers, increase visitors, drive tourism and support the sustainability of the museums and galleries sector and tourism businesses.

Winner: Wooshi.com

Shortlist: 4i Security; Cahoona; Digital Blah Blah; Stephen Henesy; WebVideoMarketing (webVM)

This category was open to any freelancer/contractor or enterprise that has started in business since March 2009 and is based in the North West. The award recognises enterprises that show particular promise of becoming successful.

Winner: Digital Blah Blah

Shortlist: Fat Heads Creative Studio; Kilogramme; Moo Marketing; Robin Hayward

Entries in this category were open to any freelancer/contractor or enterprise with five or fewer employees or partners, working in the digital sector in the North West.

Winner: Stardotstar

Entrants for any of the North West awards could choose whether to be considered for Best New Media Agency. Stardotstar’s Things to Come impressed the judges en

Winner: The DTP Group with Managed Print & Copy Services at Leeds Metropolitan University

Leeds Metropolitan University wanted to replace its fragmented mix of printers and copiers with a consolidated and unified print solution that would reduce costs, improve services, reduce its carbon footprint and better meet the needs of students and staff.

Winner: Andreas Linden, University of Central Lancashire

The Big Chip award for student work returned this year. The category was open to higher and further education institutions from across the north of England. Entries had to be a digital artefact, such as a website, mobile application or animation, that could be used to promote some aspect of the entrant's educational institution.

Winner: Connect2Media with Arachnadoodle

The Game of the North Award celebrates the fact that some of the best games work in the UK is done in the north of England. Submissions could be stand-alone electronic games working on any platform that demonstrate innovation, outstanding design or playability.

Winner: Studio Liddell and Magic Lantern for BBC Children’s Bugbears

The Bugbears website provides children aged 6-12 with a unique platform to talk about their issues, concerns, hopes and fears. The website facilitates anonymous self-expression in a deeply engaging way via richly, animated creatures which the children create themselves and which use their own voices.

Winner: Cahoona

www.cahoona.co.uk

Entrants for any of the North West awards could choose to have any website associated with their entry considered for the Tasty Website Award, which was decided on the night by a live text vote, recognising that the best websites often are a matter of taste. Cahoona also won the Best Not For Profit Project with with Band on the Wall Website Redevelopment.

Winner: Lightbox

The Grand Prix is chosen by the judges from all the shortlisted entries as the one that impressed them the most. Lightbox wowed with its MP for a Day game.

Winner: Kilogramme

The Anthony Wilson Original Modern Award is chosen from the shortlisted entries by a special guest judge, this year being Andy Davy, project director for BBC FM&T’s moves to BBC North at MediaCityUK and to the new BBC Broadcasting Centre being created in London. This year’s winner was Kilogramme, shortlisted for the Best Freelancer / Micro Enterprise award.