Parsippany, NJ (April 6, 2005) Interactive Media Associates, Inc. (IMA), a leading Internet marketing and development compnay, today announced that it is a Silver and Bronze winner in the 2005 Horizon Interactive Awards® competition. IMA was honored for its outstanding creative work for Capezio® DanceFactory Outlet, Morris Museum, and Rutgers University NCRC-TV Web sites. The Horizon Awards were created to recognize outstanding achievement in the field of Interactive Media. The awards focus on multimedia firms, advertising agencies, in-house communications and marketing departments and freelancers who strive to create innovative, interactive solutions for themselves and their clients.
Len Muscarella, President of IMA, said: "We are gratified by these awards because they combine our strength of visual design, technical implementation, and user interface. These three particular winners also show our ability to cater the solution to the need -- creating reliable, versatile, yet affordable eCommerce applications for Capezio® DanceFactory Outlet and the Morris Museum, incorporating audio and video for Morris Museum, and integrating database information creatively for NCRC-TV."
Capezio® DanceFactory Outlet Wins Silver
IMA received a Silver Award in the eCommerce category for Capezio® DanceFactory, a catalog shopping site that serves the demanding dance, skating, and exercise markets with discounted quality Capezio® items. The straight-forward user interface makes selecting and buying clothing and other products simple and easy to do, and highlights current sales promotions. The site can be viewed at www.dancefactoryoutlet.com.
"The IMA team delivered on everything they promised and more," said Mike Terlizzi, CEO of Capezio® DanceFactory Outlet. "We're not in the least surprised by this award, and are delighted by our new site, which is already proving to exceed expectations in both buyer satisfaction and in our own bottom line."
IMA Takes Two Bronze Awards
IMA also received two Bronze Awards. The first was in the Public Service category for Morris Museum ( www.morrismuseum.org ). Located in Morristown, New Jersey, this fine museum recently acquired The Murtogh D. Guinness Collection of 700 historic mechanical musical instruments and automata (mechanical figures). The extraordinary collection represents one of the most significant of its kind in the world. This acquisition inspired them to update their Web site. Working with IMA, the new site features audio and video clips of the new collection, various Flash animations to help highlight the museum's other offerings, comprehensive information about exhibitions, the collection, and special events, an online gift shop, an online ticket booth for the affiliated Bickford theatre, and a donation area for development purposes.
Emily Evans, Public Relations Manager of the Morris Museum, said: "As an institution that appreciates and encourages creativity in our community, the Morris Museum is thrilled to see IMA recognized for its innovative work on our Web site. We continue to receive complimentary feedback on the user-friendly navigation and attractive design of our site. From start to finish, it has been a delight working with IMA and we couldn't be more pleased with the end result."
The second Bronze Award was in the education/television category, won for the Rutgers NCRCTV.com Web site ( www.ncrctv.com ). The site sponsor, the Nontraditional Career Resource Center, is a program funded by the New Jersey Department of Education, and is housed at the Center for Women and Work at Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. The Center's mission is to bridge the education and workforce development communities to increase awareness and opportunities for 7th through 12th grade students interested in nontraditional careers. They achieve this objective through a three-pronged approach: building partnerships and collaborations amongst the New Jersey Education and workforce development communities, promoting nontraditional careers, and identifying and publicizing model programs.
The site, which features original animated illustrations created by IMA artist Alicia Punturieri, takes on the format of a television game show, entitled "Could This Be Your Life?" The program takes middle school and high school students through real-life choices in regards to career, romance, family, and residence in New Jersey, to demonstrate how these choices can have an impact on their ultimate buying power and satisfaction. This site incorporates real-life data into screens that are easy and fun for teens to interact with. The Self-Sufficiency Standard, from which the data is derived, was developed by Dr. Diana Pearce for Wider Opportunities for Women as part of the Family Economic Self-Sufficiency Project.
Dr. Terri Boyer, Director of Educational Equity & Career Development at the Center for Women and Work, remarked, "The challenge of creating a site that would be interesting and engaging to teens, as well as educational, was met with flying colors by "Could This Be Your Life?" Students all over the state have been discussing their career and life choices as a result of playing this game, which is exactly the conversation we wanted to start.”
More on the 2005 Horizon Interactive Awards
According to Mike Sauce, the President of the Horizon Interactive Awards, the 2005 competition was the most competitive to date and the judging process was extremely difficult. The winners of the 2005 competition represent the most creative and technically excellent solutions in a wide variety of applications and categories.
The Horizon Interactive Awards holds the annual competition in early spring of each year for works that were created the previous calendar year. For more information visit the Horizon Interactive Awards at www.horizoninteractiveawards.com.
More About Interactive Media Associates, Inc.
Interactive Media Associates, Inc. specializes in the planning, development and marketing of Internet services. The company provides expertise in areas including strategic consulting, business planning, service specifications, Web site design, applications development, database and eCommerce integration, and account management. And through its ReliaServe subsidiary, IMA also offers site hosting. IMA has client concentrations in the publishing, direct marketing, education, entertainment, and busines-to-business and business-to-consumer fields, including organizations such as New York City Ballet, Capezio DanceFactory Outlet, IATSE International, Rutgers University, the Yellow Pages Association, Editor & Publisher, American Safety Razor, Mennekes, Aquis Communications, the Morris Museum and PCMexchange.
For additional information, call (973) 539-5255.
