The crowd-funding site, WeFund scooped Website of the Year 2011
WINNER - Website of the Year 2011
Founder of WeFund, Michael Troughton expressed delight and surprise at winning the award, commenting:
"We're so happy to win this award. Wefund only launched a year ago and so to be recognised in this way is a real boost for us. The site was designed and built by the extraordinarily talented team at thegreatweb.co, who have worked tirelessly on the site from the beginning. It owes its success, however, to the hundreds of artists, musicians, actors, film makers and designers who have got the word out there and used it to finance their projects. We're starting year 2 full of confidence! Thank you!"
RUNNERS-UP - Website of the Year 2011
This year's awards were opened up to include two runners-up, which were also announced by Jo Malone at last night's reception. Designer dress rental service, Girl Meets Dress came in second place while rare tea specialist, The Rare Tea Company was placed third in the awards.
Xavier de Lecaros-Aquise, one of the co-founders of Girl Meets Dress said, "With the appeal that The Good Web Guide has, being recognised by the site is a great way to celebrate the consistent hard work our team has been doing this year."
Henrietta Lovell (a.k.a The Rare Tea Lady) and founder of The Rare Tea Company commented, "If you put your personality and enthusiasm into your website, your customer will be as excited and passionate as you are about the products. We're delighted that this has been recognised by the GWG."
THE PRIZES
1st place - WeFund won:
* £1,000 cash, plus £500 of GWG advertising on the Website of the Year Award channel.
* A press release (£500) prepared by Kenyon Communications with full media distribution.
* An app development consultation (£500-600) with leading agency, Grapple Mobile.
* A photoshoot portrait session (worth £1,150) with CatmonPhotography
2nd place - Girl Meets Dress won:
* A digital marketing training course (£594), run by Emarketeers.
* A two hour cookery class (£800), followed by a sit-down meal for a group of eight people at Cookery School at Little Portland Street.
3rd place - The Rare Tea Company won:
* Two hours free singing for eight people (£180) at any Lucky Voice venue.
THE PEOPLE'S CHOICE
Each year, we open up the shortlist to our readers to let them choose the site that they think should win. Their choice in The People's Choice Award 2011 was none other than cheap parcel delivery service, Parcel Monkey, which won a magnum of award winning Ridgeview Merret Grosvenor Blanc de Blancs (worth £80) from Sparkling English Wine.
THE JUDGES
Winning site, WeFund and runners-up, Girl Meets Dress and The Rare Tea Company were picked after a long deliberation by a panel of four judges. These included: Alison Cork, homes expert, journalist and founder of HomesandBargains.co.uk; Craig Tregurtha, Editor of The Times Digital; Lynne Franks, founder of the SEED Network of empowerment programmes for women and B.Hive business lounges for women (in partnership with Regus); and Will King, founder of multi-award winning shaving brand The King of Shaves.
ABOUT THE WINNERS
WeFund: Launched in October 2010 by former lawyer and internet entrepreneur, Michael Troughton, WeFund was set up in response to public funding cuts to the arts sector. Its goal is to create lots of mini-patrons and, through their collective power, get new creative projects off the ground.
Girl Meets Dress: Entrepreneurial couple Anna Bance and Xavier de Lecaros-Aquise founded Girl Meets Dress in online dress rental service which allows you to hire designer dresses and accessories from over 150 of the best international designers for as little as 5% of their retail price.
The Rare Tea Company: A specialist in rare teas that are sourced in small quantities from the best tea gardens and plantations in the world, fans of The Rare Tea Company say its tea is unrivalled. Henrietta Lovell, the founder, is on a mission to de-bag Britain and get more people using loose tea.
Parcel Monkey: Gives users access to cheap courier services for parcel delivery in the UK, Europe and over 250 international destinations and works with key service providers including City Link, DHL, Parcelforce, Royal Mail and Nightfreight, offering cheaper deals.
ABOUT THE AWARD
The Good Web Guide Website of the Year Award is now in its third year and aims to champion small web-based businesses.
CONTACT
To find out more about this year's award: Arabella Dymoke: a.dymoke@thegoodwebguide.com
020 7402 6412
