The is backed by the Interactive Advertising Bureau and supported by the IPA. It sets out to celebrate cutting-edge creativity and innovation within the online advertising sector.
The IAB believes that the UK produces world-class online creative that has not always got the recognition and acclaim it deserves. It hopes that the showcase will redress the balance and share the best work with a wider audience.
The Showcase is open to any in-house team as long as a campaign was targeted at a UK audience and ran within two months of each monthly closing date.
Sadly for digital creatives, there is no prize on offer, just the accolade of being judged by peers as creating the best campaign in a given month.
The work is judged by 10 senior industry creatives and the winners get their work published in Media Guardian. The winning campaign plus two runners up have their work displayed for posterity in the Creative Showcase Gallery.
Danny Meadows-Klue, chief executive of the IAB, said: "Internet marketing enjoys some of the most cutting-edge advertising the industry has ever seen. It's time to be proud of it."
The first Showcase awards are now open for entries via the site, which was created by digital agency Glue. The closing date for the first awards is Friday May 30. The winner will be published in Media Guardian and on the site on Monday June 9.
Entries can include up to five different executions for each campaign including: banners, buttons, skyscrapers, pop-ups, rich media, email, viral mpegs, text links and microsites. Each agency or in-house team can submit only one campaign each month.
This month, the judges include: Chris Clarke, Abel & Baker (part of Wheel Group); Alasdair Scott, Arnold; Flo Heiss, Dare Digital; Jon Sharpe, i-Traffic; Sue Sareen, Lateral; Oli Christie, Panlogic; Iain Tait, Poke; Dave Harrison, Profero; Dave Bedwood, Tribal DDB; and Andrew Brown, London Swamp.
Mark Cridge, managing director of Glue London and joint project leader, said: "What excites me about the Creative Showcase is how it will provide an up-to-the-minute record of the strongest online creative happening today. This unique resource will really help to build the credibility of online as a creative medium, which is essential if major advertisers are to commit more spend to their campaigns."
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