Don’t Panic MD, Helen Barklay, sums up the 2022 European Search Awards

What an incredible week we have had in Barcelona celebrating the very best in Search across Europe.

The 2022 European Search Awards celebrated its 10^th anniversary, the return of a face-to-face live event and 74 incredible winners across a multitude of categories. We also celebrated a record number of entries, and a completely sold-out event, which after two years of virtual celebrations was a huge achievement and a very emotional one to share with all our attendees, sponsors and judges.

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Each year we welcome entries from across Europe, and the standard and quality each year improves exponentially. This is a true testament to the amazing agencies, teams and individuals that continue to excel in Search across the continent. This year our judges were put through their paces and had some incredibly difficult decisions to make, but I would like to thank them for their tireless efforts in ensuring each entry was scored and reviewed in the most ethical and transparent way.

I would also like to thank our incredible sponsors whose support made the European Search Awards the most extravagant to date. Our drinks reception sponsor Clever Ads, paparazzi red carpet welcome sponsored by Majestic, the ever-popular photo booth sponsored by Advanced Web Ranking and of course the social wall which was sponsored by five elements.

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Personally, it was incredible to see so many faces, both old and new, in person at the event, but we also had over 900 views on our live stream, which is going to be a huge challenge to beat! As such we are already working on a 2023 venue large enough to hold all our wonderful entrants, sponsors and judges at a location that will be revealed in due course!

So next we move on to the Global, US, and UK Awards before the last 2022 Search celebration of the year MENA.

We have limited sponsorship packages available across the remaining 2022 Search Awards and are already taking enquiries for the 2023 calendar of events. If you would like to get involved, please email me helen.barkley@dontpanicprojects.com

Likewise, if you are interested in demonstrating your work in front of our esteemed panel of judges, please email our Search Awards account manager Stephanie.gianfriglia@dontpanicprojects.com

Don’t Panic are excited to be working with connective3 on The Marketing Mixer, and we think they feel the same way, but we can let them speak for themselves!

Introducing connective3…

connective3 is a digital marketing agency, and we create market leaders. We do this through the application of SEO, Content Strategy, Digital PR, PPC, Display, Social Media and CRO. We were founded in October 2019 by CEO Tim Grice, and in just two years have grown to a team of over 80 marketers across Leeds, London and Manchester. We’ve already achieved multiple award nominations and wins for our work across Organic and Paid search – something we’re immensely proud of. 

Headquartered in the north, with growing teams in both Leeds and Manchester, we’re proud of the incredible northern digital community. With the north boasting some of the best agencies and marketers in the UK, being part of and investing in the northern digital community has always been something we’ve supported and promoted. There’s so much to be gained when marketers get together to share knowledge and network, and there’s no better way to do this than at events. That’s why we’re so excited to be hosting our first in-person event in Manchester in partnership with Don’t Panic.

The Marketing Mixer is happening on 27 April and is free to attend for marketers working in the north and beyond! The event provides the perfect opportunity for us to get together, hear from leading marketers in the northwest and enjoy an evening of relaxed networking.    

Grab you free space here: https://dontpanicprojects.com/marketing-mixer/

Earlier this month the Event Team headed to London for the International Confex.The event left us all feeling incredibly inspired.

The full team was back in force as we were joined by our lovely Head of Events, Alex Rimmer. It was a fantastic opportunity to attend talks and meet with suppliers to discuss the new and exciting event inclusions they have been working on.

Some personal favourites discovered by the events team were alcoholic mist orbs, edible balloons, tipsy fountains, roll up ice creams and 360 photo booths.

At Don’t Panic, we feel it is super important to keep up with new and exciting industry initiatives to allow us to adapt aspects of our awards to make them more engaging for our audience.

It is safe to say we have taken away lots of new ideas for our upcoming events. After a full two days attending the Confex, we had a lovely team meal and drinks to finish off a successful trip!

Kicking the 2022 Live Award Season off with a bang has been a priority for Don’t Panic since the shortlist for the Northern Digital Awards was announced in December 2021! 

Following a date move due to continued covid restrictions, the event finally happened at the Royal Armouries, Leeds on Thursday 17^th March. And it was worth the wait!

Northerners know how to party, no offence meant to our southern award entrants, there are opportunities in London to prove the North you can do it better! 

Dressed to impress the glitz and glamour pervaded from everybody in the room who and host, Jenny Powell, took it to another level, which the paparazzi loved! Even ‘Our Jordan’ looked the business in his check 3 piece suit! 

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Starting with welcome drinks and photo opportunities galore, finalist gathered to sip something sparkly, hit the gif booth and pose in front of the infamous Don’t Panic neon angel wings, before sitting down to a gala dinner. The menu included, according to Jenny, ‘massive chicken breasts’ served with confit leg and carrot, pea, and broadbean pine nut ragout, followed by the most incredible Which Chocolate Tarte with Sable Biscuit and Raspberry Bonbon. (Sadly, mine was whipped away before I could finish it!)

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On to the ceremony! Winners were welcomed on stage by Northern Digital Awards judges, partners and digital celebrities to receive their trophies! Congratulations to all our winners and finalists, not only have you produced outstanding work you made our first live event of 2022 a night to remember!

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In attendance were the whole Don’t Panic Team, except Steph who was working on the Global Agency Awards early bird deadline (she will be attending the European Search Awards in Barcelona to make up for this). It was great for us all to meet the Northern Digital community, put names to faces, and we were honoured to be able to join in the celebrations. We really hope you enjoyed the evening, and we look forward to doing it all again next year! 

Meet our finalists on the Northern Digital Awards website and peruse the picture-perfect moments here. 

“My own definition of a feminist is a man or a woman who says, yes, there’s a problem with gender as it is today and we must fix it, we must do better. All of us, women and men, must do better.” – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

Empowering women is a value we hold high at Don’t Panic. With 72% of our full-time workforce being female we wanted to take the opportunity for International Women’s Day to learn which women influence and inspire our team. 

I asked our team members to reflect on women who have made a lasting impact on them whether that be a family member, colleague or person in history. This exercise has been profound given it has allowed us to gain an insight into the values each of our team members hold dear but also helped us understand their history and why they are who they are today.

Here is what our amazing team had to say about the influential women in their lives….

“My mother is my biggest inspiration, she firstly moved cities all on her own to provide a better life for my brother and I while simultaneously working, raising us and studying towards her degrees in BCom Business Management and Executive Development, which is not an easy feat with two young kids who need your attention all the time. She also put us through prestigious universities where we both achieved our honours, in the fields of our choosing without adding pressure on us, and she’s still going today, being an amazing mom!”

Leenesha Friend, Marketing Manager

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“The woman I admire is my daughter. She is 16, suffers from anxiety, panic attacks and catastrophising, yet she still challenges herself and the people around her. Despite her thought process, she puts herself out to try new things, join new clubs and meet new people – none of which are easy, at the best of times. She commits to engage with political and controversial topics to broaden her understanding of the world around her, and speaks out when she sees wrongdoing. With all the world has shown her she remains committed to improving the environment for the future, educating friends and family in relation to LGBTQ+, the empowerment of women, and equal and fair rights for all. Her strength astounds me.”

Sue Johns-Chapman, Content Manager

“There are many women that inspire me, but at this current moment in time, my biggest inspiration is Don’t Panics working Mums! Seeing first-hand how these amazing women can juggle the trials and tribulations of raising children and managing a career, and excelling in both, even when they probably don’t feel like it, is a huge inspiration. They’re women I feel incredibly proud to be working with – and I will definitely be learning from them!”

Sarah Power, Operations Manager

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“Strong and independent women rule the world. It’s true. Whilst I’m sitting at a desk, messing around with graphics on the computer, my wife is raising, educating and basically moulding our two children into lovely human beings. She’s doing an amazing job. My little girl, Aoife Grace, is already a formidable and independent spirit. When her older brother starts a fight, it’s Aoife who finishes it. When I have the audacity to suggest bath time is over, it’s Aoife who informs me it’s not, and that I still need to wash behind her ears. Don’t let her grin fool you, she is feisty and she is fierce. And those are beautiful things to be.“

James Harding, Graphics Guru

“My Grandma is my inspiration 90 years young and still going strong after recently over coming Coronavirus. She is the best listener and gives great advice, she calls a spade a spade and we love her for that. At 90 years old she still dresses impeccably and has been the best baker and cook! She’s lived through so much being evacuated to Wales during WW2 and being a business owner in her 30s, running multiple children’s clothing shops. She a STRONG lady and is known affectionally in our family as ‘The Boss’. Here she is with my two wonderful children being, a fabulous Great Grandma!“

Steph Gianfriglia, Account Executive

For me, the first women who had a profound influence on me are my late grandmother and my mum who are both empathetic and fierce in equal measure. They both bucked every trend for their time and I am pretty sure had they been alive during the suffragette movement they would have been at the front of the line. Both have taught me to have a voice and to always remember that no one is better or lesser than yourself so treat everyone as equals and not fear difficult scenarios.

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Aside from my grandmother and mum, there are two little ladies who empower and influence me every day and they are my daughters. As children, they both have a beautiful innocence and an unwavering sense of patience and forgiveness for others which inspires me. 

When we were talking, in the office, about what IWD means to us the conversation led us to believing in, and taking inspiration from, ourselves. With that in mind Sarah Belcher our event manager shared a little inspiration of her own.

“I am ‘Little Saz’ from Salford. Not a qualification to my name, but running events around the world, including my fav venue, Sydney Opera House. I’m a full-time working Mum and I am fab at both, my son is gorgeous and I made him! (well 50% of him) At work I fill the day with laughter, I am gameshow host and comedian. Day to day, I strive to be the best woman I can, and do you know what – I’m a belter!”

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I am lucky to be surrounded by inspirational women every day at Don’t Panic. So, my hope on International Women’s Day, for my daughters, colleagues and all women is that they do not still have to have the conversations we do today around equal opportunities and women’s rights, and that they will hopefully benefit from the years of hard work women have put into paving the way for a better future for women.

“Here’s to strong women: May we know them. May we be them. May we raise them.”

Helen Barkley, MD

Company Culture Awards Judging – It’s a job taken seriously!

I had the pleasure of joining the Judging session for UK Company Culture Awards. 

As the Don’t Panic Content Marketing Manager understanding all aspects of the business is invaluable, so thank you to the Events’ team for inviting me and thankyou to Tiago, Janet, Hannah, Dawn and Anna for letting me observe you at work.

Sitting quietly and listening intently I learnt that our Judges are passionate about company culture, best practice and awarding only deserving winners. The robust two-step process ensures every category is pre-scored by each judge prior to the session. At the session every category was discussed thoroughly, and all judges shared their feedback, which often prompted further discussion and challenge takes place – entries are championed where necessary! Collaboratively they award winners and, in some cases, when the competition is so tight there is just a point between submissions, a silver award. 

Our judges are cultural ambassadors, senior leaders in their field and committed to cultural transformation. Whatever the outcome of the awards, it is clear the judges have been impressed by what businesses are doing to grow, develop and look after their people. 

If you are entering the European Company Culture Awards 2022 or thinking of entering the UK Company Culture Awards next year here are the top tips from the panel. 

1. Include your objectives and your financials, to show what you achieved on your budget. 
2. Demonstrate how you implemented your intitiatives/programmes and the challenges you faced. 
3. Diversity is important, but don’t just say you do it. Show and prove what you are doing. 
4. Aspirations need to be supported with frameworks that show they can be achievable
5. Include data, it helps judges understand the what, how and results 

Judging is a ruthless business and let me say that winning and shortlisting in a category is a major achievement. If they don’t believe any entries deserve the award, they close the category! This may seem harsh, but Don’t Panic pride themselves on delivering ethical industry awards that are worth the trophy they are printed on, and that can be trusted by clients and employees. 

Thank you again to Dawn Osbourne, Janet Houlis, Tiago Perdiago, Hannah Butcher & Ama Africa-Tchie for sharing your expertise, and to Event Manager, Kate Humphries for inviting me.

Categories for the European Company Culture Awards can be found here.

Are you having trouble managing all your campaigns and those of your clients due to the overwhelming number of platforms and interfaces? Clever Ads’ Slack, MS Teams and Google Chat Bot integrations offer high-value features designed to provide our users with maximum usability and productivity in their work environments. 

Once users install any of the 3 integrations, they gain access to their own personal dashboard where they can configure the bot, schedule reports and set up alerts. Users can also invite additional team members to use the application and enjoy the integration features.

These are three great tools not only for marketing teams managing ad campaigns for their own businesses, but also for ad agencies managing campaigns for other companies.

You can use the alerts features to be sure you won’t miss a thing. Set up as many alerts as you want by selecting your preferred advertising account, and then the preferred metric you want to track. 

Smart Reports will be your greatest ally when it comes to analyzing your own data and that of your customers. You won’t waste time jumping from one platform to another, downloading data and organizing it into clunky spreadsheets. With these automatic and customized reports, you will get daily/weekly summaries on metrics and data, through your preferred channel. Keep these Smart Reports on file and share them with your team. It is completely up to you!

Best of all…they’re free! Yes, you read that right — these three integrations, with which you will receive your desireddata and alerts in the channel of your choice (Slack, MS Teams or Google chat) are downloadable on our website, free of charge and 100% secure. Clever Ads promises you that the process is quick and easy. Both your own accounts and those of your customers will be safe and sound — this from a Premier Google Partner!

The Digital City Festival is taking place from 7^th – 11 March across Manchester. 

The festival features a Digital City Expo, awards, live music, cultural events, speakers and much more. 

Digital City Festival will gather thought-leaders from around the world to address the key challenges facing people, businesses and governments as we emerge from the Covid-19 pandemic. 

Starting at Media City with its official opening, the festival moves to some iconic venues across the city including the Science and Industry Museum, Beehive Mill Jersey Street, the Central Convention Complex and the Weston Building on Sackville Street. 

Don’t Panic will be at the Digital City Expo on Wednesday, 9^th and Thursday 10^th March. Come along and meet some of the Sales and Events team who will answer any questions you have about our Digital Awards and our event management services. We are sure to have some Don’t Panic goodies to share too! 

We look forward to seeing you there!

Senior Event Manager, Sarah, and MD, Helen headed to Barcelona for 24 hours on Thursday to finalise all the details for the European Search Awards.  Sarah took over the Don’t Panic Instagram and gave live updates of the day which started “too early!”

Sarah fills us in on a Day in the Life of a European Search Awards Event Manager!

Early flights are never usually my ideal, but I am so excited to be bringing the European Search Awards 2022, their 10^th Anniversary, to life that I was up and out of bed and raring to go when we hit Manchester on a cold, damp February morning!

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Arriving in Spain, the temperature was warmer, the skies bluer and the welcome perfect – I knew we were in for a successful day!

First job, and the most difficult task of the day was … Menu Tasting.

Dish upon gorgeous dish arrived for us to sample. Some descriptions were baffling (who knew apples could be ‘ostomized’) and there were combinations of flavours that were too tantalising for words. However, we are nothing but committed to our jobs, and after much indecision and retasting we settled on our dishes. For details of the menu click here. 

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Second visit, on our whistle stop tour, was the venue: La Llotja de Mar, Barcelona. 

Built in the medieval period, Gaudi and Picasso learnt their trade at La Llotja de Mar, so it seems fitting that the artists of the past give way to the creatives of Search in 2022.  The majestic Contracting Hall will play host to the event, and pre-dinner drinks will be served in the beautiful neo-classical courtyard, home to a fountain and figure of Neptune.  This could be the most glamorous of all the Search Awards to date! 

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And now to find a host!

Feeling jubilant because the main event details were all sorted, we went for our liaison with our Host for the live award announcements and evening. Who, you ask? 

I am delighted to tell you that hosting the European Search Awards 2022 is the multi-talented, charismatic and funny Ricky Merino. Ricky is a singer, actor, and TV Host. In Spain he became known for appearing in Operacion Triunfo (sort of like the X-Factor), but in the UK you will know him as the co-host of Channel 4’s, The Language of Love, alongside Davina McCall. Attendees are in for a treat!

And Finally…

Our final task of the day involved heading out into the beautiful city of Barcelona in search of the perfect place to party – a Search event would not be complete without the afterparty!

For the time being we are keeping the afterparty secret to ourselves, but keep an eye on the website and social for a reveal soon.

Visit the European Search Awards website here

Helping Don’t Panic Awards’ entrants from around the world, the Don’t Panic Account Executives are your go to for any help and advice. They answer your questions about categories, judge criteria, how to enter and more on a day to day basis.

You may have spoken to them by phone, communicated via email or met them at a live event! Now put their names to their faces, so you know who you need to, or are, talking to!

Stephanie Gianfriglia – Account Executive

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I have been working with DP for 6 months and have already come in contact with a great many of our amazingly talented award entrants across a multitude of our Awards!  I love being involved in the entry process and feeling the excitement and anticipation from new and existing clients from the outset. 

As a Mum of two youngsters, Charlie and Jessie, you can imagine I don’t get much spare time! I love spending time outdoors with the children and my fiancé, Andrew, so long walks spotting wildlife in the spring and summer and kicking leaves in the Autumn and Winter are high priority at the weekends.

Being of Italian heritage, I like nothing more than cooking up Italian inspired feasts for family and friends and, frankly speaking, I love food, so eating out is a must do for me too.

The Don’t Panic team are great to work with, and our award entrants are passionate and inspired, they make my job worthwhile and immensely fun!

Jordan Wilkinson – Account Executive

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I joined DP in January this year and have quickly become part of the team. I seem to have landed the role as the maker of the first cup of tea of the day. I’m not sure if this a ‘newby post,’ or whether we will start taking the most important task of the day in rotation! I do make a great cuppa though! ☕

The curiosity of a new industry is a challenge I am eager to take, and discovering and learning makes working fun and worthwhile. By nature, I am a very curious person; I like to venture into the ‘unknown’.

I have been working as an account executive for 7 years and love building and managing relationships with clients, overcoming hurdles and streamlining communication. Don’t Panic deliver awards across a multitude of digital industries and I look forward to learning about all the incredible campaigns, software, tech, PR and culture our clients are creating.

In my spare time I like to kick back and relax! By relax I mean play a little Fifa or Call of Duty, and when I say a little, those of you know, know that means longer than I should!

Alongside the occasional gaming, I have always had an interest in music, whether that be the writing and theory side, or the production and back-end mixing of a track. I can play a vast range of instruments, with guitar being my favourite and the trombone most difficult to transport! In contrast to all the chilled relaxing, I enjoy going to the Gym.

Boxing has played a big part of my life in the last 4 years for me and now we are heading back to normality, I am super excited to pick back up again!

I look forward to chatting to you on the phone, e-meeting you and partying with you at the events in 2022.

We are currently looking for a talented individual to join our Sales and Marketing Team as an Account Executive. Interested? Email your cv to sarah.power@dontpanicprojects.com