Vets Oli Viner and Ian Lowery picked up the top prize for their VetText and wetxtyou innovations at the first IAB/NMA Mobile Innovators awards.
Mobile advertising agency 4th Screen took second place for its viral java application, while location-based mobile application specialist Rippll took third place for its innovative publishing platform.
The winning innovation was praised for providing a unique service by offering a medical reminder text service for any human or veterinary drug dosing regimen.
As part of the scheme, customers can sign up to be reminded when to take their own medication. Viner and Ian Lowery revealed that incorrect consumption of medication – and failure to take medication at all – costs the NHS £4bn per year.
Pet owners can also sign up to Viner and Lowery’s text message service to be reminded to dose their pets correctly. Research shows that currently over 50% of clients struggle to do this correctly.
The other three contenders who missed out on this year’s award were Blismobiles’ Passenger TV, Bango’s analytics version 4 and Ad2Txt from Rapid Mobile Media.
Commenting on the event, Jon Mew, head of mobile at the IAB, says: “Very few industries have seen as much rapid innovation as the mobile market, and the IAB was extremely proud to provide a platform for this innovation to be showcased. This event showed us exactly why we should all be excited about the rise of mobile advertising, and proved that the medium has a real - and unique - part to play in communicating with today's consumers.”
