BURLINGTON, Mass., March 29, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Bridgeline Digital, Inc. (Nasdaq:BLIN), developer of the award-winning iAPPS Web Experience Management platform and interactive technology solutions, today announced that the Web Marketing Association has honored three iAPPS driven websites with the prestigious Internet Advertising Competition (IAC) Award. The IAC Award recipients are the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD.org), CFO Magazine (CFO.com), and Hoveround (Hoveround.com). AAD.org won for Best Medical Website, while Hoveround.com won for Best Medical Equipment Website and CFO.com won in the category of Best Magazine Website. All three of these IAC Award recipients' mission critical websites were powered by the iAPPS Product Suite.
IAC judges represent all aspects of the online marketing industry, and all entries are judged on competitive criteria in a head-to-head format, facing other entries within their specific categories. These criteria include creativity, innovation, impact, design, copywriting, use of the medium, and memorability.
The website for the American Academy of Dermatology (AAD) at AAD.org was awarded the Best Medical Website, after a complete redesign and relaunch on iAPPS Content Manager and iAPPS Analyzer. The dramatically increased dependence on the internet to research medical conditions inspired AAD to take advantage of an opportunity to increase both credibility and reach through fresh, relevant and quality content, and to promote members through an easy-to-use dermatologist search. AAD's target audience - primarily dermatologist members – is a key segment of busy professionals that look to AAD to provide materials, event information, contact information for other members, and more to gain value from their membership. The general public and the Media are also provided with research and educational tools they need, generating increased exposure for AAD.
Hoveround's primary public website was awarded the prize for Best Medical Equipment Website. An essential goal of the new Hoveround.com is to drive conversions through completion of the "Get Started" form, which begins the customer process of acquiring a Hoveround Personal Mobility Vehicle. In the new design, this form has been moved to a large, front-and-center homepage position - a vast improvement over the simple link on the old site. The homepage also speaks directly to Hoveround's primary audience with product imagery and lifestyle shots, and is intended to augment Hoveround's frequent use of direct response television advertising while it delivers an engaging interactive experience that meets the demands of both customers and internal users. With iAPPS Content Manager, iAPPS Commerce, and iAPPS Analyzer as its backbone, Hoveround.com provides a smooth integration between ecommerce and content management. Results of the redesign show dramatically increased conversion rates, owing to sophisticated web funnel analysis, and an extremely easy-to-use user interface. Additionally, added user experience features include integration of high-resolution photographs, development of new 360-degree & 3D animation product views, delivery of dynamic online video, and inclusion of both Mobility and Physician resource sections.
The award for Best Magazine Website was taken by CFO Magazine's CFO.com, a clean, straightforward and highly interactive site that promotes all CFO Magazine content in an efficient and organized manner. The site was redesigned to leverage the iAPPS Product Suite – specifically iAPPS Content Manager, iAPPS Marketier, and iAPPS Analyzer - in order to better enable site management for users in various publishing, promotion, production and development roles. The new design allows for quick and easy site content updating, addition and removal many times per day, as well as the ability to manage a variety of third party content as part of the same schedule. At the centerpiece of CFO's Content Management System (CMS) is an iAPPS custom-developed publishing engine that allows for rapid, simple publishing, tagging and promotion of all articles. The Engine was developed on top of installed iAPPS platforms to align with internal publishing processes.
Bridgeline's iAPPS Product Suite is the industry's leading Web Experience Management (WEM) solution and only WEM platform available in either a SaaS or perpetual license that unifies Content Management, e-Commerce, e-Marketing, and analytics capabilities - enabling users to swiftly enhance and optimize the value of their web properties. The capabilities built into the iAPPS Product Suite enable marketers to develop and manage more effective site and email marketing content, and quickly adjust that content to the changing needs of their site visitors and overall market, including the delivery of real-time, dynamic content based on visitor actions and profile. With iAPPS' single, unified platform, driving more effective, measurable campaigns gives marketers a distinct edge that can propel optimization of their online marketing channels.
About the Web Marketing Association and the Internet Advertising Competition
Shortly after the WMA was founded in Boston in 1997 to help set a high standard for internet marketing and d corporate web development, the IAC Awards were developed in 1999 to recognize superiority in online advertising, and to acknowledge the many industry professionals and companies responsible for keeping that high standard of quality in online marketing.
Internet marketing continues to be a highly competitive environment, and forecasts show nothing but movement in that direction for years to come. Corporate marketing and Internet professionals constantly need to validate hard-won efforts, and to provide clients and senior management with independent feedback about the quality of the work being performed. Clients see quality in "award-winning" advertising and a list of awards can help to draw new clients to a firm seeking to establish or maintain its expertise in new media advertising on the Internet.
About Bridgeline Digital
Bridgeline Digital is developer of the award-winning iAPPS® Web Experience Management (WEM) product suite and interactive technology solutions that help organizations optimize business processes. Bridgeline's iAPPS product suite, combined with its interactive development capabilities, assists customers in maximizing revenue, improving customer service and loyalty, enhancing employee knowledge, and reducing operational costs by leveraging web-based technologies.
The iAPPS product suite provides solutions that deeply integrate Web Content Management, eCommerce, eMarketing, and web Analytics capabilities within the mission critical websites, on-line stores, intranets, extranets, or portals in which they reside, and enable business users to enhance and optimize the value of their web properties. Combined with award-winning interactive development capabilities, Bridgeline helps customers cost-effectively accommodate the changing needs of today's rapidly evolving web properties.
The iAPPS product suite is delivered through a Cloud-based SaaS business model, whose flexible architecture provides customers with state-of-the-art deployments that provide maintenance and daily technical operation and support; or via a traditional perpetual licensing business model, in which the iAPPS software resides on a dedicated server in either the customer's facility or Bridgeline's co-managed hosting facility.
Bridgeline Digital is headquartered near Boston with additional locations in Atlanta, Baltimore, Chicago, Denver, New York, Philadelphia, Tampa, and Bangalore, India. Bridgeline has hundreds of customers ranging from middle market organizations to divisions within Fortune 1,000 companies that include: L'Oreal, Sun Chemical, Honeywell, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Novartis, Shaw Flooring, Marriott International, Berkshire Life, Tosoh, Dover, ViaWest, PODS, Budget Rent-a-Car, AARP, Cadaret, Grant & Co., CFO Magazine, and the American Academy of Pediatrics. To learn more about Bridgeline Digital, please visit www.bridgelinedigital.com.
The iAPPS logo is available at http://www.globenewswire.com/newsroom/prs/?pkgid=9801
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