• by Steve McClellan  @mp_mcclellan, May 21, 2015

Increasingly work related to data is being recognized on the awards circuit. The Cannes Lions will bestow awards in the category for the first time this year. 

Earlier this month the trade organization I-Com issued a batch of data-related awards, including a new one, the Smart Data Agency of the Year Award. 

The new accolade went to Annalect, part of the Omnicom Media Group in recognition of the shop’s “overall ability in Marketing Data,” the group said. Contenders for the prize also included  WPP’s Xaxis, Publicis Groupe’s SMG and GroupM’s MediaCom. 

Annalect also won the Masters Award for Data Science, bestowed in recognition of its competitive effort during I-Com’s inaugural Data Science Hackathon during which participants had 24 hours to build a working piece of software. A team of young staffers from Xaxis took home the Young Millennial Award for its efforts in the same competition. 

French audience measurement firm Mediametrie was the overall winner and TV category winner in the I-Com Data Creativity Awards competition for its efforts at parsing data to provide more precise targeting and planning techniques for French TV channels. 

Other Data Creativity Awards winners included MediaCom and IKEA (Data Visualization); Accuen (Programmatic); Unilever UK (Social Media); VMob New Zealand and McDonald’s Netherlands (Mobile); and Marketdata & NET Brazil (Emerging Market and General Category Winner). 

VMob was also the overall winner in the I-Com Data Venture Challenge, which showcased startups that pitch the value of their data measurement capabilities as a major selling point for products and services. More on the awards can be found here.