Two agencies have gone from strength to strength after winning Digital Entrepreneur Awards in 2015.
That was the message from Cheshire-based Space 48, which won the Digital Business of the Year (small) and Edinburgh-based Digital Six, which walked away with the Web Development Project of the Year titles.
The DEAs champion the country’s finest digital entrepreneurs and businesses and the deadline for this year’s entries close on July 29.
Now in their 12th year, the 2016 awards ceremony takes place on November 9 at Manchester’s Palace Hotel.
Space 48 focuses on creating Magento platforms for retailers and since its inception in 2008, the business has grown to a team of 37 staff with a turnover of £1.85m.
Web development work and digital marketing services for clients including Better Bathrooms, Charlotte Tilbury and Naylors Equestrian supported their 2015 win of the Digital Business of the Year (small) Award.
“Winning a DEA was great for our business,” says commercial and marketing manager Alex Shepherd.
“The team love to be recognised for their hard work and it also offers a form of endorsement which certainly helps when approaching clients from a new business perspective.”
Following the accolade, Shepherd says Space 48 has gone from strength to strength.
“We saw significant growth last year and are on track to see even greater growth this year with several new business wins not to mention growth in projects from the existing customer base,” he says.
Digital Six is one of the UK’s longest-standing digital agencies focused on e-commerce with more than 12 years’ experience in the industry and has some clients they’ve been working with for more than ten years.
They won their DEA in 2015 for a project for Athleat, an online fresh meat supplier targeting the fitness and health industry.
To allow Athleat to provide a fully-customisable experience, Digital Six completely redesigned their website on Magento to provide a more user-friendly interface, with a particular focus on the checkout and subscription processes.
As a result of their work, the client saw a 26 per cent rise in revenue and a 710 per cent increase in subscriptions to their Active RepBox service.
Digital marketing manager Claire Vickers says the DEAs have given the company exposure throughout the industry and beyond.
“It has also resulted in a number of enquiries for e-commerce based web projects both north and south of the border,” she explains.
“It also provided an excellent opportunity to network with other nominees and winners on the night, and gain valuable insights into the vast array of projects submitted to the DEAs.”
This exposure has allowed the company to both expand its team and take on new projects, and Vickers says the company plans to enter the awards in 2016.
A number of new judges have been confirmed for 2016. They include: Steve Purdham, chairman and founder, 3Rings Care; Claire Braithwaite, tech advisor at Manchester Growth Company; Richard Law, chief executive, GB Group; and Paul Bason, Director Digital Innovation, MMU. Other confirmed judges include Lawrence Jones, CEO and co-founder of UKFast; Jonathan Wall, controller, Radio 5 Live and 5 Live Sports Extra; and Tom Bloxham, chairman and co-founder, Urban Splash.