The 2016 Croydon Business Excellence Awards were hosted by broadcaster and journalist Julia Hartley-Brewer in a black tie event at the Grand Sapphire last Thursday, and two Sussex Innovation members walked away with the top prize in their respective categories. Promotional code specialists Uniqodo received the award for Tech Innovation of the Year, while table-top game manufacturers Hawk Wargames were named Best Creative and Media Business.

The Tech Innovation of the Year award, which is sponsored by Sussex Innovation – Croydon, celebrates the best application of novel technology to serve a defined market need. Winners Uniqodo were recognised for their groundbreaking platform, which enables e-commerce retailers to assign unique promotional codes to specific customers and campaigns, enabling customer rewards and special offer campaigns to be tracked and analysed more effectively.

“We are delighted to have won the Tech Innovation of the Year award,” said founder Chris Giddins. “It’s really great to receive recognition for the work we have done over the last year to create a market leading and innovative marketing technology platform. This success will definitely motivate us to keep innovating and to deliver even more for our clients.”

James Booker of the Croydon Advertiser and Louis Downs of Hawk Wargames, Ben Holt of Sussex Innovation and Chris Giddins of Uniqodo

For the second year running, Hawk Wargames received an award, following up 2015’s gong for Best Marketing and Social Media with the 2016 title of Best Creative and Media Business. Judges including the award’s sponsors, the Croydon Advertiser, commended the company’s “hugely impressive understanding of their industry and target market, great fundraising skills and fast-growing, innovative manufacturing operation.”

“Croydon is such an exciting place to be at the moment,” said partner Louis Downs, on receiving the award. “We are really keen to be a part of it, it’s great to have won this award for a second year.”

Ben Holt, Director of Sussex Innovation Croydon was among the judges, and presented the award for Tech Innovation of the Year. “We hugely enjoyed supporting the Croydon Business Excellence Awards this year,” he said. “Uniqodo and Hawk Wargames are true innovators, a real credit to Croydon, and we are proud of their success.”

Uniqodo is a Software-as-a-Service platform and website plugin that retailers use to add advanced promotional code features to their eCommerce store.