The Performance Marketing Awards has unveiled its shortlist today (March 1), ahead of its 10th anniversary at London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on April 26.

Hosted in association with Bing Ads, the awards represent the performance advertising industry’s benchmark of success – a recognition of the innovation, technologies and individuals driving forward the concept of measurable marketing year on year.

The 2016 shortlist – available here – features some of the UK’s most-recognised brands, including TUI (with CJ Affiliate by Conversant), John Lewis (with Affiliate Window), Tesco (with Sociomantic), New Look (with Criteo) and many more.

Judging process

The final list was decided following a rigorous judging process by leaders in their respective digital fields. This year’s panel was formed of representatives from Arcadia Group, Facebook, Microsoft, Google, Quantcast and Ve Interactive, to name just a few.

Entries were assessed on their ability to meet strict criteria, including pre-set campaign objectives, execution, return on investment, innovation and feasibility. Here is a snapshot of the process from our judging day.

Fresh off the back of sifting through the entries, Jon Myers commended those shortlisted on the achievement, given the competition that continues to “raise the bar” year on year.

“To be shortlisted truly puts you at the top of your industry and recognises the brilliant work and strength in depth within performance marketing,” said Myers.

“As part of a judging panel of industry experts this year it has been as hard as ever to decide on the winners due to the strength of the entries in each category. Being shortlisted is a huge achievement, but it’s now onto the awards evening and revealing the winners.”

Nominated categories

With the shortlist announced, two categories remain open for nominations until April 8.

This year’s Industry Choice accolades span four demographics – Advertiser, Network, Publisher and Tech Solution – recognising those within each who were key to driving the success of clients’ campaigns.

Celebrating the next generation of performance marketing, the Hotshot Rising Star award is reserved for an individual who has shown great potential within the early stages of their career.

Anyone wanting to cast their vote on each of these categories can do so here, with the shortlist available in full here.