The hottest night in the digital calendar The North West’s hottest digital companies gathered for last night’s Big Chip Awards, the annual awards ceremony for digital excellence, held at The Palace Hotel in Manchester and hosted by broadcaster Terry Christian. The big winners included Liverpool technology company New Concept Gaming and Manchester creative agency Love. Organised by Manchester Digital, the trade association for the region’s digital sector, and supported by media partner Insider, the awards attracted a record number of entries - 226 in total from 134 companies – and a shortlist of 55 entries. “These are exciting times for the region’s digital and creative sector,” said Mark Hughes, executive director of economic development at the Northwest Regional Development Agency. “Despite the current economic conditions the winners are testimony to the can-do attitude of North West companies, who continue to produce an innovative range of products and services.” The panel of judges, chaired by Michael Nutley, editor of New Media Age, included Alasdair Rawsthorne of Manchester University, Alasdair Scott of The Bright Place and Matt Locke, commissioning editor at Channel 4.

Best E-Business Project

Winner TBWA/Manchester for the ghd website
Shortlist Amaze for Snazaroo.com; Carmony.co.uk for Carmony.co.uk; Creative Spark for the Manchester United Soccer Schools project; Dolphin for the Marshalls Garden Visualiser; Motionlab for the Plumbs website; Reading Room for Taste The Glenlivet

TBWA/Manchester, which was appointed to the Central Office of Information roster in May, completed a series of projects over two years with haircare brand ghd, including the launch of a new website that was intended to improve website sales conversion and encourage repeat visits.

Best Use of Animation

Winner AHD Imaging/Ian Hogg for the ahd168 Christmas viral about a robot
Shortlist Fluid Creativity for its promotional video Slime & Pinball; RealtimeUK for Sony PSP Go!; Smoothe for Snow Globe (Highly Commended); The Neighbourhood for bagel maker New York Bagels; The Neighbourhood for Sony PSP’s The Whole World In Your Hands campaign

Salford's AHD Imaging, which makes CGI films, created its robot friend AHD168 for Christmas 2008 in a viral campaign for the company itself. The computer-generated character was originally created to feature in a promotional campaign for a major retailer but, when the budget was cut AHD was left with an unemployed android on its hands. It's now an internet hit.

Best Public Sector Project

Winner Lightbox Education for the web portal Teacher Training Resource Bank
Shortlist Junction K for Showcase, a website for the Homes & Communities Academy; Mickey & Mallory for urban renewal website Houldsworth Village; Stardotstar of Manchester for hearmanchester.com, an audio guide to the Rochdale Canal (Highly Commended)

Entrants in this category had to demonstrate how the project has achieved objectives for the public sector in a cost-effective way. A developer and retailer of educational software, Lightbox Education is based in Cheadle and specialises in creative software applications for education. It is one of the largest educational software businesses in the UK.

Best Not-For-Profit Project

Winner Mando Group for the Liverpool Biennial 2008 project
Shortlist Bollington Festival website; Lightbox Education for the Key Stage 3 Maths Case Study - 'Outbreak'; Reading Room for its project for the Dulwich Picture Gallery; Stiff Rowlands for the Manchester International Festival website.

Mando Group is a leading digital agency based in Liverpool and London. Recognised in the top 10 per cent of agencies nationwide, Mando has an impressive track record and is a preferred supplier to the BBC, Health and Safety Executive and NHS Institute.

Best Use of Visual Design

Winner Love for lovecreative.com
Shortlist Carmony.co.uk; Flame Digital for The Gate Lab; Fudge for industry website Creative Times; Reading Room for its website for The Doyle Collection; RealtimeUK for its work on Sony PSP Go!; Stardotstar for hearmanchester.com (Highly Commended)

Submissions for this award had to demonstrate how visual creativity had enhanced the appeal, effectiveness or usability of a project, product or service in any digital medium. Love is a creative agency in Manchester working for a wide range of businesses from Microsoft, Christian Aid and Playstation to Dr Martens. The agency has won more than 170 communications awards since it was founded in 2001, but it scooped this award for its own innovative and cutting-edge website.

Best Application of Technology

Winner New Concept Gaming for the jOG gaming add-on
Shortlist 15secondTV for its Becomestreetfighter campaign; AdInsight for the AdInsight call tracking solution; Continum Group for the My Amego monitoring technology; Everton Football Club for the Everton Bluetooth service; Matmi for its The Colour of Money online game

Liverpool company New Concept Gaming has developed an attachment for the Nintendo Wii. The jOG enables gamers to benefit from aerobic exercise while playing on Nintendo Wii titles and is the brainchild of managing director Brendan Ludden, who set the business up in 2005.

Best Use of Search

Winner PushON for The Little Greene
Shortlist Fast Web Media for its Bravissimo search engine marketing; Feather Brooksbank for the Lakeland Leather search launch

Online marketing agency PushON, based in Manchester, worked on the advertising campaign for The Little Greene Paint Company, a Manchester company with a high-quality range of paints and wallpapers. Entrants in this category had to demonstrate how a project to attract traffic from search has improved the ability of a business or other organisation with an online presence to achieve its objectives.

Best Online Brand Development

Winner Code Computerlove for www.crownpaint.co.uk
Shortlist Axon Garside Creative for The Factory; Code Computerlove for shower brand Original Source, part of PZ Cussons; Love for its work with Dr Martens

An entry in this category had to include a significant use of online media to develop or build a brand. Manchester digital agency Code Computerlove was last month tasked with its second major project for paint brand Crown, following the success of Crown's new consumer website produced by Code last year, which featured a ground breaking 3D visualisation tool that allows the consumer to view five types of photo-realistic room sets in colour schemes of their choice.

Best E-Learning Project

Winner Lightbox Education for the Licence to Cook project
Shortlist T3D for the Virtual Learning Gallery

Lightbox’s second win of the evening, this award recognised innovation or excellence in the use of digital technology to deliver e-learning or training. Licence to Cook is a Department for Children, Schools and Families project.

Best Digital Marketing Campaign

Winner Love for its campaign for Dr Martens
Shortlist Amaze for its Odeon Top 5 campaign; Axon Garside Creative for The Factory (Highly Commended); Code Computerlove for its campaign for Transpennine Express

No stranger to the Big Chip podium, Love scooped three awards last night, including this win for its work with boot-maker Dr Martens, which also helped it pick up a couple of gongs last year. Love’s work on the For Life microsite follows the successful Design a Boot site that the agency created last year. It is also working on a number of other projects for the iconic brand, which will be launched later in the year.

Best Newcomer (Enterprise)

Winner AdInsight
Shortlist Juice Digital, MadeWith, STAN

AdInsight in Manchester has created a telephone sales/lead and call tracking and recording solution for businesses looking to optimise the performance of their advertising investments. The product was launched for small businesses on 1 October 2008 after extensive beta testing. This award recognises enterprises that show particular promise.

Best Established Freelancer/Micro Enterprise

Winner Flashtemple
Shortlist Phil Thompson; Vanilla Storm

Freelance designer and Flash developer Matt Booth is based in Chorley. His recent work includes working on a project for new t-shirt brand Boom! and the website for monthly Manchester meet-up group Northern Digitals.

Big Green Chip Award

Winner Melbourne for its green datacentre environment initiative
Shortlist Lightbox Education for its educational technology product Eco-Builder; Transport4, which provides environmentally-friendly logistics services.

An entry in this category could be any application of digital technology that has helped improve or preserve the environment. Manchester-based Melbourne, a provider of hosting services, has conducted a large-scale review to improve the efficiency in its data centres and reduce energy requirements, choosing to take pragmatic steps to reduce energy consumption on a real basis rather than going carbon neutral.

Big Chip New Media Agency Award

Winner Love
This category was open to any new media agency that had been entered for another Big Chip award and recognises exceptional professionalism, originality or innovation. Manchester's Love, a serial award winner that scooped this title last year, works for businesses from Microsoft, Christian Aid and Playstation to Dr Martens.

Game of the North

Winner Evolution Studios for MotorStorm: Pacific Rift
Shortlist Connect2Media for Go! Go! Rescue Squad! and Guitar Hero Backstage Pass (Highly Commended)

The shortlist for this pan-northern award was handpicked by a panel of judges, including Ian Livingston, founder of Games Workshop and creative director at Eidos. Enda Carey, who spearheads Northwest Vision and Media’s games and digital content department, and gaming expert Thayer Prime, also joined the panel to select stand-alone electronic games working on any platform that demonstrated innovation, outstanding design and playability. Runcorn’s Evolution Studios Motorstorm: Pacific Rift, for Sony Playstation III, features off-road racing on a dangerous and unpredictable tropical island, and features four-player split screen play all in high definition.

Big Chip International Award for Innovation

Winner New Concept Gaming for the jOG gaming add-on
Shortlist 4X Solutions of Brighton and Leeds for its 4X Dealer foreign exchange software

Here New Concept scooped another of its three awards of the evening. Now in its second year, the International Award for Innovation is a truly global affair, open to any project from anywhere in the world. The category, which was launched last year to celebrate ten years of the ceremony and 60 years since the invention of the first stored program computer in Manchester, was open to projects that demonstrate exceptional innovation in digital media or digital technology.

Anthony Wilson Original Modern Award

Winner AHD Imaging for the ahd168 animated robot film
Selected from entries to the 11 main categories, the AHD film that won the Best Use of Animation award was selected by this year’s special judge, former ITV Granada managing director Sue Woodward, now of the Sharp Project. This award is given to a business that excels in the use of IT and digital technology and encompasses an innovative ethos.

Tasty Website Award

Winner Code Computerlove's site for Original Source
Shortlist Code Computerlove's sites for Crown Paint and Original Source; Love's own website and its site for Dr Martens; Stardotstar's Hear Manchester site

The shortlist was unveiled for the Tasty Website award in May, taken from the websites shortlisted throughout the rest of the awards. The winner was decided by text vote right up until the night of the awards itself in a project won by mobile marketing company Mediaburst as text messaging partner.

Grand Prix

Winner New Concept Gaming
The Grand Prix award is given to the best of the best, chosen from all the other winners on the night. This year Liverpool’s New Concept Gaming scooped the top prize for its innovative jOG add-on for the Wii, a product that has already been widely acclaimed.