Darmstadt, February 20, 2006. - From the more than 160 online campaigns submitted, the prestigious jury of experts has nominated the 15 most creative and most innovative entries for the New Media Award 2006. At its meeting on February 15, the jury concerned itself for the first time with the new special Efficiency Prize in addition to making nominations for the "traditional" categories online, crossmedia, permission and young creation. The winners of the New Media Award 2006 are set to be announced at the awards ceremony and anniversary celebration being held in the Palais im Zoo, Frankfurt am Main, on March 30 this year.

In the "online" category, the jury selected the "E-to-3" campaign, undertaken by the Plan.Net agency for the BMW Group, and two campaigns created by the OgilvyInteractive Worldwide agency: "Fang mich" ("Catch me") for Axe/Unilever Germany and "PlayStation Portable Transformer" for Sony Computer Entertainment Europe. The nominations for the "crossmedia" New Media Award have gone to the "adidas Originals" campaign developed for adidas by the Neue Digitale agency; MediaCom's "Coke Fridge" for Coca-Cola; and YOC AG's "Need for Speed" for Electronic Arts. In the "permission" category, the jurors nominated the following submissions: the "4 Freunde treffen die Fantastischen 4" ("4 friends meet the fantastic 4") campaign created by the promio.net agency for O2 Germany; Proximity's "Join the race" for Ericsson; and the Plan.Net agency's "Mini Web Clip Contest" for MINI/BMW AG. The following campaigns are finalists in the "young creation" category for up-and-coming talent: "First play, then pay" by Cosima Höllt (Plan.Net), "Ich spiel meine Welt" ("I play my world") by Kevin Hansen (Plan.Net), and "YCA Gamesload" by John Anders Petersson (Interwall). The favorites for the "Special Efficiency Prize" are the "Celebrations" campaign created by the Pilot 1/0 agency for Masterfoods and the "Coca-Cola Soundwave" campaign for Coca-Cola by the argonauten360 agency and "Range Rover Sport" campaign for Land Rover Germany by the Gramm advertising agency.

As Paul Mudter, Managing Director of InteractiveMedia, explains: "This year again, the highly creative and imaginative entries have shown that online advertising can be not only fun but also very successful. We are also off to a good start with the Special Efficiency Prize. The large number of high-quality entries confirm how effective and efficient this sector of advertising has become."

Highly innovative and creative online advertising campaigns have been honored with the New Media Award for the past ten years. The award has established itself as one of the most coveted accolades in the new media industry.

Additional information is available at www.newmediaaward.de