The Good Web Guide reveals the winner of the Website of the Year 2018

showcase excellence

Every year, themission GWG Awards are presented to websites that "showcase excellence" in their field. The announcement of the winners is always highly anticipated in digital circles, creating a stir on social media as the date approaches.

Commenting on themission partnership, Sarah Gardner, themission Marketing Manager, said, “themission is again delighted to be headline sponsor of The Good Web Guide Awards for the fourth consecutive year. It’s a privilege to be involved in celebrating the very best websites and apps out there. Our involvement with The Good Web Guide Awards is something of which we are very proud.”

With entries from well-established household brands to grass root startups, and a judging panel of seasoned digital experts, the decision-making was never going to be easy.

On Monday 12th November, shortlisted sites, friends of The GWG and themission, headline sponsor, gathered to hear Aron Gelbard, co-founder of Bloom & Wild, the world’s leading flower gifting brand, announce who had made the cut.

On agreeing to support this year’s Awards, Aron said: “I’m really honoured to have the chance to present The Good Web Guide Awards. It was an amazing moment for Bloom & Wild to be named Website of the Year a couple of years ago, and I’m very much looking forward to meeting this year’s group of entrants and presenting the trophy to the winners!”

On welcoming guests at the reception, held at The Royal Institution of Great Britain, Arabella Dymoke, GWG Managing Director, said: “Every year, we’re so inspired by the standard of entries, people doing great things online, helping us to streamline our lives, whether in business or at home.”



WEBSITE OF THE YEAR



The judging panel, including Holly Tucker, co-founder of gift site, Not On The High Street, Kelly Eastwood of The London Chatter and Jerry Horwood, serial entrepreneur, among others, assessed entries on the quality of design, usability, content and product or service evident within each site put forward.

After much deliberation, Great British Chefs was crowned Website of the Year 2018.

Great British Chefs is one of the fastest growing food websites in the UK, a go-to destination for foodies in search of recipe inspiration, technical expertise and the latest chef and restaurant news and reviews.

Sam Crocker, themission Digital Director, said: “themission judges were unanimous in their choice of recognising Great British Chefs as a remarkable achievement in website design, content and usability. It surfaces a volume of content in an intuitive and easy to use way, it works well across devices, uses impactful images and video while remaining fast and responsive throughout. Consistently presenting food in an interesting, aspirational and beautiful way is a hard task and Great British Chefs does it brilliantly.”

On presenting the award, Aron Gelbard commented: "Great British Chefs is a brilliant website - it combines a large volume of easy to find information, combining recipes and content thematically and delighting users through usability and careful use of video, with rapid load speeds, performance and mobile optimisation."



Head of Marketing & Social Media, Mecca Ibrahim responded by saying: "Winning the 2018 Website of the Year Award is an amazing experience! A few years ago, we won the GWG People's Choice Award which was great too. It is nice to be back in this beautiful room among other sites that we recognise and value. We are good friends with quite a few of the other sites such as Lizzie Loves Healthy and Sheerluxe and it's been a great evening to meet other people and network."

Judge, Whitney Bromberg Hawkings, CEO and co-founder of FLOWERBX, said: “Great British Chefs is a site I find myself getting lost in for hours. It is informative, with clever and engaging editorial content and insight on the food industry.”

Talking about Great British Chefs’ use of social media, Anna Hart, influencer and founder of One Roof Social, said: “I love how they’ve used Instagram to show that cooking, whilst special, doesn’t have to be specialist.”

APP OF THE YEAR

New for 2018, recognising mobile, Touchnote was declared App of the Year 2018. This multi-award-winning mobile and desktop app turns your pictures into gorgeous postcards and gifts, in very simple steps.

Arabella Dymoke said: “There is no excuse not to keep in touch when you’ve got this app on your phone. It’s definitely a favourite and one that makes a huge difference in helping us communicate with friends and family.”

PEOPLE’S CHOICE

This year, Lizzie Loves Healthy wins People's Choice, with Lizzie's fans reacting brilliantly to her call out on Instagram, when the number of votes rocketed up. The blog is full of deliciously easy, nutrient packed recipes that everyone can feast on, with tips and tricks on how to keep families happy and healthy. On winning the award, Lizzie King, founder, said: "Winning the People's Choice Awards means a lot to me as it shows that people care. My site is about keeping people healthy, fed and happy. Winning this means so much to me."

CATEGORY WINNERS



Other category winners included Gaest, Northern Europe’s largest online marketplace for listing, discovering and booking meeting spaces; Sheerluxe for your daily fashion and lifestyle fix; House & Garden for interiors inspiration; London Art Studies, the educational art site that helps you learn your Monets from your Manets.

To see the full list of category winners, click here.

For further information regarding The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Awards 2017, please contact Arabella Dymoke: 020 7402 6412 Email: a.dymoke@thegoodwebguide.com

EDITOR'S NOTES

• The winners were announced at an evening reception at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, Albemarle Street, London W1 on Monday 12 November 2018. Aron Gelbard, co-founder of Bloom & Wild, announced the winning sites.

• themission, headline sponsor, is a marketing communications and advertising group with twenty-four offices across the UK, San Francisco and Asia. the mission employs over 1000 staff and is listed on AIM (TMMG). The Group specialises in providing national and international clients with award winning marketing, advertising and business communications. Group members include April Six, bigdog, Bray Leino, Proof, RLA, Robson Brown, Solaris, Speed, Splash, Story and ThinkBDW. www.themission.co.uk

• Category sponsors and partners included Office Freedom, Streets ISA Chartered Accountants, The House Directory, re:Signal, Zest Digital.

• The winning site takes home a number of prizes to boost their online presence.


ABOUT THE GWG


The GWG offers its visitors a more taste driven and selective alternative to search engines whilst also championing small web-based businesses. Editorially driven with detailed reviews on websites and snappy web-related features, The GWG has grown its online presence with initiatives such as the extremely popular Guest Edited newsletters and the annual Website of the Year Awards, all enabling The GWG to become the definitive authority on everything that is good about the web.