The Markie Awards

Eloqua Acknowledges the Best of the Best

Welcome to our sixth year of formally honoring excellence in marketing. Yes, even before the Eloqua Experience event came into being we started celebrating your accomplishments in an official ceremony. Each year it’s become a little bigger with more bated breath moments and more ecstatic smiles, and now the Markie Awards dinner is an integral part of our annual conference.

2012 Dates and Deadlines:

• July 11: Submission period begins
• September 5: All submissions due
• October 12 October 18: Finalists announced
• November 7: Winners announced at the 6th Annual Markies Ceremony

The 2012 Markie finalists listed alphabetically in their respective categories are:

• Best Customer Lifecycle Program: McGraw-Hill Construction, SurePayroll Inc., Trend Micro, XpertHR - a part of Reed Business Information
• Best International Campaign: D&B, Rockwell Automation, Sage Accountants Network, Western Digital
• Best Lead Nurturing Program: Automatic Data Processing, DocuSign, FIS, Herzing University
• Best Lead Scoring Program: FIS, LinkedIn, OpenText, STEMCELL Technologies Inc.
• Connecting in the Eloqua AppCloud: immixGroup, Mercury Computer Systems Inc., Thermo Fisher Scientific, Trend Micro
• Data Clean House: Ariba, Iron Mountain Inc., Motorola Solutions, Synopsys
• Event Nirvana: KPA, Manhattan Associates, McAfee, PerkinElmer
• Extraordinary Email: Digital Benefits Advisors, a division of Digital Insurance; Govdelivery; Regis University's College for Professional Studies; Treasury Wine Estates
• Fastest Time to Value: Genworth Financial, PTI Marketing Technologies, The Dow Chemical Company, Treasury Wine Estates
• Getting to Know You: Crowe Horwath LLP, National Instruments, PTI Marketing Technologies, Wolters Kluwer Financial Services
• Integration Innovation: EMC Isilon, NetApp, NXP Semiconductors, Reed Business Information
• Marketing and Sales BFF: Arrow S3, Cincom Systems Inc., Cvent, Thomson Reuters
• Marketing Center of Excellence: Adobe, Computer Sciences Corporation, Hewlett-Packard, Lenovo
• Marketing Visionary: Hubertus Devroye, The Dow Chemical Company; Nicolas Draca, LinkedIn; Diane Walker, McAfee; Heather Zynczak, Domo
• Most Creative Marketing Campaign: Eaton Corporation, Sage Fixed Assets, Vertafore, Western Digital
• One View of the Truth: Blackboard Inc., Domo, inContact, TELUS Corporation
• Revenue Growth: Cvent, Perceptive Software, ReadyTalk, Salesify
• Rookie of the Year: AT&T, Compendium, Dex One, dotloop
• Sales Impact: DocuSign, D&B, inContact, ReadyTalk
• Social Media Innovation: Avalara, Avid Technologies, Infoblox, LifeSize Communications

 *2012 Markie award winners appear in bold.

See how it feels to be a Markie winner:

Frequently Asked Questions:

What are the Markie Awards?
They celebrate and recognize excellent marketing -- when right-brain creativity and left-brain analytics combine together for greatness. The winner in each category receives a beautiful statue to announce to the world what they’ve accomplished. This is your chance to shine and earn the recognition that you deserve.
 
Who can enter?
Any marketer anywhere that has demonstrated results from their marketing activities.
 
If I cannot attend the Awards Ceremony at Eloqua Experience can I still enter? Can I still win?
Absolutely. Several past winners have been unable to attend and instead designated someone to accept on their behalf.
 
What is the deadline to enter?
All submissions must be received by Wednesday, September 5. We will be unable to accept submissions after that date.
 
How many finalists will be announced in each category? And when will they be announced?
Due to the number of high-quality submissions we expect to receive, we plan to announce four finalists per category this year on October 12. All finalists will receive a crystal plaque to honor their achievement during the awards ceremony at Eloqua Experience 2012 (or mailed to them after that date if they are unable to attend).
 
Can I enter more than one category?
Yes. For example, you may want to submit your lead scoring program and your lead nurturing program, each into their respective categories. However we ask that you enter a specific campaign into only one category. (If the judging panel thinks it is mis-categorized you will be notified that it is being moved into a new category.) As an example, if you’ve done a highly personalized nurturing campaign, you need to select to enter it into either “Getting to Know You” or “Best Lead Nurturing”, but not into both. Please note that no single company will be selected as a finalist or winner in more than three categories.
 
Can I enter an older campaign that started two years ago?
We ask that you limit your entries to programs or campaigns that had the bulk of their work or results since August 2011.
 
What makes a winning entry?
This answer varies per category. In general, our judging panel gives preference to submissions that are able to show measurable and strong results. It is perfectly acceptable to include charts, graphs and other items that visually represent performance. Also remember that a 3-page entry may sometimes be more effective than a 20-page entry, especially if you’re able to distill the important facts clearly for the judging panel. You can view the 2011 judging criteria on our Topliners community. 

Categories:

This year's awards feature the following 20 categories. Download a zip file containing all entry forms or download individual forms below.

Best Customer Lifecycle Program - Are you marketing to customers at different stages in their lifecycle with you? This could be focused on renewal, upsell or cross-sell, loyalty, reference, and much more. Share your program details and your metrics with us.
Download entry form

Best International Campaign - Impress us with a campaign you've run outside the United States. It may have been in multiple countries in multiple languages, a modification of program originally created in the US and re-launched in another country, or any variation in between. Measurable results – especially in comparison to non-localized campaigns – will be critical in demonstrating success.
Download entry form

Best Lead Nurturing Program - Do you have a sophisticated lead nurturing program that has measurable results? Does your program make decisions that matter and result in actions that are compelling? Do you have creative workflows or interesting segmentation? Tell us about it and you might take home the Markie.
Download entry form

Best Lead Scoring Program - If your organization has improved sales targeting through automated lead scoring, we want to know about it. Tell us about increased win rates, shorter sales cycles, increased revenue, better sales and marketing alignment or any positive outcomes of your scoring program. People, process and technology all come into play in this award.
Download entry form

Connecting in the Eloqua AppCloud - Have you impacted your business by extending Eloqua's capabilities? Tell us about the successful ways you've built or used Cloud Connectors and the Eloqua AppCloud store to streamline marketing campaigns, clean data, manage events, and more.
Download entry form

Data Clean House - Every marketer knows that an inaccurate, inconsistent or out-of-date database decreases campaign effectiveness, but solving the problem is no simple matter. This award recognizes organizations that have made clean and accurate data a strategic priority – and have seen that investment pay off with higher conversion rates, more opportunities, bigger deals and increased ROI.
Download entry form

Event Nirvana - Events are a critical lead generation tactic for most marketers, but more often than not, events run marketers instead of the other way around. Not so for nominees for this award, who have significantly automated their event communications program to squeeze every opportunity out of tradeshows, conferences, online and field events. Show us how you've increased event efficiency, maximized attendance, and boosted conversion to opportunities to win a Markie.
Download entry form

Extraordinary Email - Yes, email can be extraordinary. In fact, there are some email communications that are so well written, so masterfully designed, that it's only a question of when people will respond, not if. Achieving extraordinary response rates isn't luck – it's the result of great targeting, content, personalization and timing. Show us your best performing emails – whether they're fancy HTML or simple text – and the response they drive to compete for this Markie.
Download entry form

Fastest Time to Value - You purchased a marketing automation system for a reason. If you're able to clearly articulate your purchase goals and demonstrate fast fulfillment of those goals, this award is for you. Show us how you have already demonstrated return on your investment in the first quarter of usage in terms of increased revenue or efficiency, or other measurable gains. Like our Rookie of the Year Award, this Markie will be given to someone who has implemented marketing automation since August 2011.
Download entry form

Getting to Know You (Personalization) Award - We'll give this award to an organization that uses advanced personalization and profiling techniques in campaigns to build stronger connections with their prospects or customers and topple industry-standard response rates.
Download entry form

Integration Innovation - Have you taken advantage of Eloqua's flexible integration options to develop processes that enhance your business or improve your analytics? We want to hear about your connections to web services, interesting uses of the API, as well as the details around time or money saved and increased response times.
Download entry form

Marketing and Sales BFF - Can Marketing and Sales really be Best Friends Forever? It takes more than words. If your company has translated words into action through tighter organizational alignment, shared goals and reporting, new communications strategies or innovative approaches to compensation, you've taken a strong step toward Revenue Performance Management and we want to hear about it.
Download entry form

Marketing Center of Excellence - If your business has developed a Marketing Center of Excellence to ensure adoption of marketing best practices, organizational alignment and consistent standards for measurement and reporting, you could take home this award. Winners of this award have developed a process and model for marketing process decision-making and planning, developed internal champions and subject matter experts, and have promoted the pervasive adoption of best practices in marketing communications, automation and measurement.
Download entry form

Marketing Visionary - Just as great people are the foundation for successful businesses, innovators are often the driving force behind exceptional marketing. You know who they are – the passionate senior people that push their teams to succeed, lead decisive change, set the vision for the entire marketing organization and introduce innovative concepts. Tell us about their achievements to secure their own personal Markie statue! (Please note that this award will be given to an individual, not an organization.)
Download entry form

Most Creative Marketing Campaign - Sometimes all of the pieces align to create a fantastic marketing campaign – the perfect idea, the right target, the memorable artwork, the personalized follow-up, and of course, the measurable results. Inspire us by sharing your creativity in screenshots or links.
Download entry form

One View of the Truth (RPM) - This award recognizes a business that has significantly developed its reporting infrastructure to align marketing and sales in an integral step of Revenue Performance Management. Candidates will have developed a common set of management dashboards across the revenue cycle – from first contact to close - to reach one view of the truth and understand the business impact of every sales and marketing decision. Submissions must include example dashboards and descriptions.
Download entry form

Revenue Growth - Has your marketing team cracked the code on explosive revenue growth? Share your formula for success to earn a Markie for this prestigious award. Nominations must demonstrate a specific quarter-over-quarter or year-over-year revenue growth rate driven in large part by marketing campaigns and processes.
Download entry form

Rookie of the Year - Building a high performance revenue engine isn't always easy. For most organizations, it can take time to master the intricate blend of messaging, segmentation, data, organizational alignment and other disciplines. So how do some businesses make it look easy in their first year? The Rookie of the Year award honors the fast starters for their superb planning, execution and automation. (This award is open to those who have purchased a marketing automation system since August 2011.)
Download entry form

Sales Impact - Perhaps the greatest marketing achievement on the road to Revenue Performance Management is getting SALES to sing your praises. If you've given your sales team the tools, technology and techniques that improve win rates, sales velocity or competitive advantage, we want to hear about it – in their words. Nominations for this award must include testimonials from sales professionals in addition to improvements in sales-related KPIs and metrics.
Download entry form

Social Media Innovation - If Social Media is more than just a buzz word at your organization, tell us about it. We want to hear the creative ways you're making the most of the newest marketing mediums to build sustained dialogs with your customers or prospects. Have you used the common players (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) in new and interesting ways? Have you tapped into the Next Big Thing? If you've had a viral campaign with strong results, this is the category for you.
Download entry form

Download a ZIP file containing all 20 entry forms

Video Submissions

New this year:
This year we are adding an optional additional video submission to allow you to tell the best, most memorable parts of your success story in a more personal way. This is not simply meant to be a verbal recap of your submission document, but rather a complementary part of the submission process. We want to know about the real-world people and details behind your Markie accomplishments. Be creative, be memorable, and have fun!

What makes a great story?
According to Chip Heath, co-author of Made to Stick, the best stories have these elements: real people that others can identify with, concrete details, an unexpected element, and an emotional pay off. Think of your story in three parts: the big problem that needs to be addressed, something that made the problem even worse, and then a satisfying ending where everything is resolved. Questions to ask yourself as you build your story: Who is the main character and how can others relate to him/her? Is there a villain? What "solution" did you try that actually made the problem worse? Who were your trusty companions along the way? Did you do something that you didn't think was possible? Describe the victory: both the emotional reaction and the metrics.

How will these videos be used?
The judging committee will watch them and take them into account in the judging process. We may show them during the Markies ceremony at Eloqua Experience 2012, and they will become part of the 2012 Markies Hall of Fame website. In the future, they may also be shared on our Topliners community or perhaps shown at future user group events.

Video Guidelines and Details:
Videos should be no more than 1-minute in length. You will be asked in your submission document to share the URL of your video, so please post it on YouTube, Vimeo, or some other similar service. If you're an iPhone user you can also try minit to record and share your video.

Sample Markies Video