Best Internet Application
Chartbeat
Greplin
Pandora (winner)
Rdio (runnerup)
Ujam

“There is no issue that Radio is strong and in a new form, evolved from the basics of Terrestrial broadcast.  Too bad Spotify was not here in the US to add to the competition, but surprised not to see some of the video apps like Netflix or Hulu make the stage.  2011 will probably be the year of video.  CBSradio has a killer cross-media platform for internet radio, but its Play.it service has been underground now for all too long. What happened Last.FM?

Best Social App
Cityville
Dailybooth (winner)
Foursquare
GroupMe
Twitter (runnerup)

“Wowed by this winner and I did think that Cityville would win hands down.  I guess it started too late in 2010, and Farmville a bit too early. What happened to mytown or scvngr.  We can say that location and gaming is getting hot.  Look at the latest acquisition by Zynga of Area/Code, and we can all predict the exciting things to come in 2011.  AR will make headway in 2011, but not yet ripe enough to take center stage I guess.”

Best Social Commerce App
Blippy
Groupon (winner)
Jetsetter
LivingSocial
One Kings Lane
ShopKick (runnerup)

“Obvious choice, Good news for the mobile guys over at ShopKick!  Congrats Cyriac, Jeff. I knew they were on to something when I saw how local it has become. It is really the talk around the retailers these days, and lets see how this integration goes for 2011:

Best Mobile App
Bump
Chomp
Google Mobile Maps for Android (winner)
Hashable
Instagram (runnerup)

” Can believe this won, but would have to say that Facebook cross-platform would have been my guess.  I guess there is strength in the Map, and until Facebook launches its own unique Maps, it is going to be hard to grab the wind out of  the air in Google’s map platform for mobile.  Shazam was not in there, that was a surprize…. I guess they need more with their Android strategy…”

Best Location Based Service
Facebook Places (runnerup)
Foursquare (winner)
Gowalla
SimpleGeo
Uber

“Curious what the user base of Facebook Places is these days. 4Sqr has 6M users, but it is beginning to lack its shine with nothing new. If there is a time for it to win it will be in 2010.  2011 will be a tough year for these guys, so looking forward to the new innovation.  I guess SXSW will be another showdown for the latest and greatest of this battleground.”

Best New Device
Boxee Box
Google Chrome Notebook
iPad (winner)
iPhone 4
Kno
Xbox Kinect (runnerup)

” Who can argue with 15M sold in the first year?  Many debate it is 4 iPhones pasted together with no camera, but this product transcended the screen revolution to grow the new category of 5~15inch screens.  I expect some real exciting things from V2 of the iPad in 2011, but if there was a year for them to win it over at Apple, 2010 was it.  This product truly hit the nerve center of the consumer in 2010….. a long time coming after the category was originally created by Apple with the Newton”

Best Technology Achievement
Blekko
Google Self-driving Cars (winner)
Hunch
Palantir
Qwiki (runnerup)
Word Lens

” Found this interesting, but expected as this is TechCrunch, would have liked to see BetterPlace in there, but I guess it is a bit too early. Surprising that battery innovation has not hit the stage yet or even robotics, but this is something for 2020. “

Best Design
1000memories
about.me (runnerup)
Airbnb
Flipboard
Gogobot (winner)
Qwiki

“Have not been following design as much as i like these days- Love to see what the Webby’s bring, but found GIST, and some of the innovation at Time Inc, Sports Illustrated, Wired with their iPad apps quite innovative in design with the inclusion of advertising.

Best Touch Interface
Flipboard (winner)
Fotopedia Heritage iPad app (runnerup)
Osmos
Pulse News Reader
Sencha Touch
Swype

“Yes- again the obvious choice.  They made some much media over the last year that it is hard why not to say they were not the number 1 choice.  Looking forward to 3D space becoming part of the touch and interface experience”

Best Bootstrapped Startup
Addmired (iMob) (winner)
Beluga
Easel
Fast Society
Instapaper (runnerup)
Techmeme

“Would have liked to see Intapaper win on this front if their was a choice, but you have to Admire the guys at Addmired. Maybe it really is all in a name?”

Best Enterprise
37 Signals
Buddy Media (winner)
CloudApp
inDinero
Millennial Media (runnerup)
Salesforce

” Can stop seeing the posters for Buddy Media in every Airport I fly into….. They did get the big bang for 2010 and with good reason. They have done an excellent job of bringing brands to Facebook in many unique ways. Happy for Paul and the team over tat Millennial for this runner-up! They certainly deserved it for some exciting things in 2010 to carve the mobile ad ecosystem in the face of iAds and Admob.  Where is Evernote these days?

Best International
Crivo
PCH International
Soluto (runnerup)
ViKi (winner)
VNL
Wonga

‘” Can not say more about this one, but ViKi was clearly exciting in 2010″

Best Clean Tech
Coolerado
Kopernik (runnerup)
MicroGreen
Puralytics
Smith Electric Vehicles
SolarCity (winner)

“Yes- here comes the Sun! we all need that power…”

Best Time Sink Application
Angry Birds (runnerup)
Cityville (winner)
Netflix streaming
Quora
StumbleUpon

“Ah…come on! We could see Cityville winning as the most viral, and but I would have expected to see Angry Birds on this one…… What did it for me and Angry Birds is that they really did grow organically from scratch.  I am addicted to Angry Birds, but I do have a problem with my social graph and time-sinks intertwined…”

Angel of the Year
Jeff Clavier, SoftTech VC
Ron Conway, SV Angel (runnerup)
Michael Dearing, Harrison Metal Capital
Chris Dixon, Founder Collective
Mike Maples, FLOODGATE
Paul Graham, Y Combinator (winner)

“Congrats Paul! What a great ride”

VC of the Year (individual)
Marc Andreessen & Ben Horowitz, Andreessen Horowitz
Roelof Botha, Sequoia Capital
Jim Breyer, Accel Partners
John Doerr, Kleiner Perkins
Yuri Milner, DST (winner)
Fred Wilson, Union Square Ventures (runnerup)

” Yuri has been part of an amazing influential ride that is for sure.”

Founder of the Year
Julian Assange, WikiLeaks
Dennis Crowley, Foursquare
Jack Dorsey, Square (runnerup)
Kevin and Julia Hartz, Eventbrite
David Karp, Tumblr
Mark Pincus, Zynga (winner)

” Yes- Mark clearly took us to new places with the meaning of social community and viral entertainment.  I beleive we will see more of Jack in 2011″

CEO of the Year
Dick Costolo, Twitter
Reed Hastings, Netflix
Drew Houston, Dropbox
Andrew Mason, Groupon (winner)
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook (runnerup)

” I think the way Andrew handled Japan was the icing on the cake for this one. Turning down 6B, and I am sure we will see a bit of that Chicago spirit come further into the location based advertising stage in 2010.  Steve Jobs was not there this time…was it the iPhone 4 Antenna issue?

Best New Startup or Product of 2010
Flipboard
GroupMe
Instagram
Quora (winner)
Square (runnerup)
Uber

” Found this hard to sink my teeth into, but it is the right trend for the next wave.”

Best Overall Startup or Product of 2010
Facebook
Groupon (runnerup)
Quora
Twitter (winner)
Zynga

” Still problems with downtime and again an obvious choice.  If they did not win this, what would they win.  Twitter has been a bit stagnant these days, and looking for the next big innovative twist by them”

We have entered 2011 and I have to say the first decade did fly by rather quickly for us in the mobile industry.   I am a big fan of JWT and their things to watch deck.  I thought I would share it and highlight the top 10 in my mind for those realigning and creating a  mobile strategy this year.

In a recent article by Geoff Ramsey, President of eMarketer ( See below), he definitely hit the nail on the head! In the wake of  the financial crisis, will we see a similar media crisis spurred on by the overflow of more and more content, while users still expecting to downloading it for free? We are in an age where everybody is creating, and the world has become  flat for media.  There is just so much out there and it is really becoming more and more available as we envisioned….the on-demand via multi-screens scenario.  I do believe in social recommendations of compelling content, but the market is there for the taking if you do something stimulating and original that really catches the eyes of the consumers. This then could potentially propel it with immense social velocity.

This is why it is critical to have all of your media ducks in a row.  As I say, your RIOTPM ( Radio, Interactive, OOH, TV, Print, Mobile) all working like a purring Ferrari ready to hit the road with your creative “eye-catching, ears-ring”, “Taste buds-swelling” “Fingers-itching” campaigns. The industry word has been coined “Earned-Media”, but I like to think of it as “Emotional-Earned Media”.

If as a marketer you can deliver on this kind of compelling promise to consumers, the last thing you want is for them to try to open that campaign on their mobile phone and the site does not work due to lack of preparation, or poor layout….. Mobile has to be there as well as Social media with the right strategy in place from the start, with its own creative twists….

2011 is the dawn of the new media creative that maps across all the different screens in that unique special contextual way… we are excited  to be part of this…

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2011 Trends: Content Marketing Is Critical

DECEMBER 1, 2010

Geoff Ramsey—CEO, Co-Founder

Next year, marketers will need to rethink their approach to advertising and marketing and intensify their focus on creating magnetic content that will naturally attract consumers, rather than relying solely on the interruption model of advertising, which consumers are responding to less and less. Think pull vs. push.

Magnetic content can include anything created on behalf of a brand—be it an ad, YouTube video, online game, Facebook page, Twitter promo or mobile app—that consumers genuinely want to engage with and pass along to others. This content entertains, amuses, informs, serves a function or satisfies a consumer need. It’s welcome instead of annoying or interruptive.

Marketers, especially those working in social media, have seen the proven value of branded content, sometimes also referred to as “earned media.” Nearly three-quarters of US companies with a social media strategy used such content in their campaigns, making it the most common type of content used, according to a June 2010 study by King Fish Media, HubSpot and Junta42.

Creating effective, breakthrough advertising has always been a challenge for marketers, as well as for the agencies charged with the task. But the classic interruption-disruption model of advertising is moribund. Marketers should ask themselves five questions about the magnetic content they are seeking to create to determine whether it will be truly attractive to their audience:

Is the content unique?
Is the content useful?
Is the content well executed?
Is the content fun?
Does the content make good use of the channel in which it appears (e.g., social, mobile, video)?
Marketers should base their magnetic content ideas on well-researched customer behaviors, attitudes and lifestyles. This entails altering your emphasis in marketing from “selling product” to identifying and solving a consumer need or want that transcends or complements the physical product or service you are selling. Ask yourself this critical question: Besides your product, what can you do for the consumer?