And the Sergey Goes To ... 2010 Inbound Marketing Awards

By Keith Moehring | Posted Mar 8, 2010 | 2 Comment(s) | Filed in: Internet Marketing

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In honor of the 2010 Oscars, we created our own award ceremony to pay tribute to those Inbound Marketers who have made the biggest contribution to the growth and success of our industry over the past year.

The Inbound Marketing Award, or Sergey, is named after Sergey Brin, one of the two founders of Google. (We contemplated naming it after Larry Page, but “And the Larry goes to” doesn’t have the same ring to it.)

Best Original Screenplay

And the Sergey goes to ... Dharmesh Shah and Brian Halligan for their book, “Inbound Marketing: Get Found Using Google, Social Media and Blogs.” “Inbound Marketing” is an inspiring tale of how an ordinary marketer can transform his or her company’s Website into an awe-inspiring, lead-generating machine. It’s a heroic how-to for any little guy looking to make a big difference.

Runner Up – David Meerman Scott for “The New Rules of Marketing and PR: How to Use Social Media, Blogs, News Releases, Online Video, and Viral Marketing to Reach Buyers Directly, 2nd Edition.”

Best Ensemble or Cast

And the Sergey goes to ... Mike Volpe and Karen Rubin, hosts of HubSpot TV. Every Friday, these two dazzlers of the computer screen deliver all the latest inbound marketing news of the week. In a short amount of time, their show has grown in popularity so much that it now draws A-List guests, including Twitter founder Biz Stone and MC Hammer.

Runner Up – MC Hammer and his back-up dancers for their contribution to the Addams Family movie soundtrack. (The tie in to Inbound Marketing is YouTube. It is a stretch, but we make exceptions here at the Academy for catchy, but forgotten tunes.)

Best Actor/Actress

And the Sergey goes to ... Danny Sullivan and Search Engine Land. Sullivan and his team have received rave reviews for their performance at bringing marketers around the world the most useful tips and information when it comes to search engine optimization.

In addition, they host the Search Marketing Expo (SMX) Conference Series, which brings together the biggest stars in the industry to collaborate and expand upon SEO best practice.

Runner Up – Rand Fishkin and SEOmoz for creating great, useful tools complemented with blog posts full of insightful SEO tips, such as Whiteboard Fridays.

Best Director

And the Sergey goes to ... Bald Matt Cutts. Under his direction, thousands of unknown Websites have become stars, gaining both local and national exposure to millions of potential customers. These sites have been able to seize the spotlight and notoriety amongst their peers. If you haven't already, check out Matt's Google Webmaster Help YouTube Channel.

Runner Up – Matt Cutts with hair. Just as informative, but not as sleek.

Best Picture

And the Sergey goes to ... Google.com. Google gives thousands of unknown, talented businesses the opportunity to share the stage with their top competitors in a way that was not possible 15 years ago.

The "Avatar" (highest grossing film of all time) of Inbound Marketing, this search engine dominated its competition this year, securing a whopping 66.3% of all searches. In addition, what separates Google as a master of its craft is the unique ability to evaluate its own performance.

Google also reaches beyond the computer screen into the political/human rights arena, making a stirring social statement on the suppression of the Chinese government over its people.

Runner Up – Bing.com for their homepage picture usage.

In Memoriam

MySpace.com — The first real dominant player in Social Media, MySpace brought together millions of people regardless of age or location. This true trailblazer paved the way for sites like Facebook and LinkedIn to really give companies the reach they need to effectively communicate with their target audiences. And, while the site would eventually be infiltrated by millions of porn sites, we remember it for the doors it opened. Rest In Peace Tom. 

Keith Moehring is a consultant at PR 20/20, a Cleveland-based inbound marketing agency and PR firm. Follow Keith on Twitter @keithmoehring.

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