Today we are excited to announce the finalists for the second annual Ad to Action Awards.  We received 91 entries, an over 50% increase compared to 2014, and the 20 finalists demonstrated the greatest potential for driving local consumer engagement and best addressed current market needs.

This week the judging panel – made up of 18 companies including Twitter, Foursquare, Yahoo, MapQuest, xAd and more – completed their evaluation of these products and solutions. Each judge reviewed a subset of entries and no judge reviewed any entries where there was a potential conflict of interest.

Entries were evaluated on ability to facilitate consumer actions (calls, clicks, store visits, etc.), innovation, ROI potential, ease of implementation and more. Scores were calculated on a 10-point scale and what follows are some scoring highlights from the competition:

• The aggregate score for the entire competition, or the average score per entry, was 6.5;
• Automation had the best overall category score at 7.5;
• The best individual score was a 9.

“I was very impressed by the breadth and quality of entries LSA received,” said Anne Mercogliano, head of SMB marketing at Twitter. “Being named a finalist in this competition means being part of a high caliber and innovative group.”

Around three-quarters of entering companies were new to the competition bringing forth 15 first time finalists. Winners will be announced at the 2015 LSA Conference in Los Angeles, April 20-22.

So without further ado, here are the finalists:

Presence Management

• Yext is the world’s leading digital presence management company, with a mission to help marketers perfect their location information in every hand, on every device.
• DevHub is a private labeled presence platform that includes responsive sites, landing pages, multi-location and business listing management.

Verticals & Marketplaces

• Urgent.ly provides consumers with on-demand, real-time roadside assistance.
• Rio SEO facilitates the discovery of global retailer and service providers’ local listings and optimized content by local searchers across multiple platforms.

Attribution & Analytics

• CallRail provides call tracking, a way for businesses to see what makes the phone ring.
• ReachLocal is an online marketing and advertising solution provider for small, medium, and large businesses advertising to consumers in local markets.

Platforms & Services

• MomentFeed connects national brands with local consumers in the communities they serve.
• Rise Interactive is a digital marketing agency which specializes in digital media and advanced analytics. Rise is a strategic partner helping marketing leaders make smarter investment decisions.

Automation

• MerchantAtlas provides products and services which allow companies to sell cheaper, scale faster and acquire more customers at a far lower customer acquisition cost.
• PaperG is an ad technology SaaS platform that provides creative scale by eliminating the high costs, slow turnaround time, and siloed production usually required to build ads for a multi-screen campaign.

Mobile

• Aisle411 provides indoor mapping and indoor location tracking solutions for retailers, developers and shoppers on iOS and Android.
• YILLIO™® is a social GPS helping everyone discover, save and share favorite places and deals along their routes.

Social

• SocialCentiv is a patented Twitter marketing application tool to help businesses find new customers.
• Closely helps small businesses sort through endless digital marketing options and discover best-of-breed solutions tailored for them.

Video

• Media Distribution Solutions delivers the only turnkey video platform that provides media companies and agencies the technology they need to meet the demands of small- to mid-sized business (SMB) owners.
• Sightly‘s local video advertising platform reaches target audiences on multiple screens through YouTube and other networks.

Print

• hibu is a multinational directories and internet services company headquartered in Reading, Berkshire, UK.
• SMG Local Spectrum specializes in helping clients understand how people connect with local directional marketing channels.

Best Local Ad Campaign

• Location3 Media is a digital marketing agency based in Denver, Colorado with expertise across paid, earned and owned channels.
• Search Influence is a national, full-service search engine marketing company based in New Orleans.