​CLIPPER RACE SCOOPS GOLD WEB AWARD

The Clipper Race has scooped Gold in a major industry award honouring online excellence at the 5^th Annual Lovie Awards, regarded as the most prestigious pan-European awards of its type.

Clipperroundtheworld.com received its gold award in the Best Sports Website category, beating the Michael Schumacher site and the new Eurosport website. A second gold in the same category went to the Google World Cup.

“This is a huge accolade to all the hard work of the cross-departmental team at the Clipper Race which worked on the many aspects of this project with our web agency, Salad Creative,” said Global Business and Communications Director Jonathan Levy.

It is not only a great looking site which reflects the evolution of the Clipper Race brand but also provides a high quality user experience for fans, crew, partners and media.

In addition to news, features and race information, the site incorporates special areas for crew recruitment, with a transactional interface; partnerships profiles and case studies, a media portal and multimedia galleries.

One of the most sophisticated and challenging pages is the hourly updated Race Viewer which tracks the positions of the twelve Clipper 70 ocean racing yachts for the eleven months of the 40,000 mile race, overlaid with weather data, wind, temperature, and a measuring tool. However, it is an area which continues to be refined and is earmarked for future enhancement with the potential for even more multimedia features.

Clipper Race Digital Media Manager Paul Hankey says: ““It was a very proud moment to find out that our work alongside Salad Creative has been recognised at the highest level by the Lovie Awards.

"The Clipper Race is one of the toughest conditions on the planet so it’s vitally important that our website brings this extraordinary adventure to life, not only to those who are already interested in sailing, but to appeal to all types of adventurers, adrenaline junkies and challenge seekers. We've worked hard to find the most engaging and efficient ways of displaying the amazing content captured by our crew and allow followers on any device the ability to keep up to date with life on board the yachts.

Arabella Lewis-Smith, Founder and Managing Director of the race's website developer Salad Creative said: The Clipper Round the World Yacht Race is an extraordinary event and we knew that if we were going to do it justice, we would need to create a spectacular website. We worked closely with the team at the Clipper Race to create an innovative site that has gone on to generate record numbers of crew enquiries and which is now being followed by the huge fan base.

“It’s always nice to get recognition of your work but to receive a gold award from an organisation that exists solely to award online excellence is particularly satisfying.”

The Lovie Award winners are chosen by a mix of public votes and selection by members of the International Academy of Digital Arts and Sciences (IADAS). The internet industry experts include Chester Chipperfield (Special Projects, Apple), Musician Imogen Heap, Dan Howell (danisnotonfire), Comedian and writer Stephen Fry, Vic Hayes (‘Father of Wi-Fi’), Robin Chase (Founder, Buzzcar), and Jonathan Benassaya (Co-Founder, Deezer and StreamNation).

The 5^th Annual Lovie Awards Ceremony will take place on 12 November at St Luke’s London Symphony Orchestra hall, in Old Street, London.