The website reporting on the Army’s recent assault on Mount Everest, designed to boost recruitment, won Innovative Project of the Year at the recent Computing Awards for Excellence, fighting off competition from commercial organisations, such as BP and Marks & Spencer.

ArmyOnEverest.mod.uk used high definition video, audio, stills and data from the expedition supplied by live marketing agency PCI Fitch to create an interactive virtual online experience that allowed viewers to monitor the Army’s progress. The footage and information was also used in TV, radio and press advertising, national and regional PR, together with an eight-week collaboration with Sky News, in-depth educational resource materials for schools, direct marketing and a five-episode TV documentary series.

“This was the most successful campaign we have run, resulting in a significant rise in enquiries at a challenging time for the Army,” said Mark Bainbridge, marketing director of Army Recruiting Group. “Under close direction, PCI Fitch and True Digital have been central to providing the Army’s national marketing network with the quality of material from the expedition and multimedia technology required to fuel Publicis’s ATL Campaign, the Biss Lancaster PR campaign, the Haymarket print element and a range of educational and regional products and resources which, as a whole, have made this a truly integrated campaign.”

Commenting on the award, Peter Cowie, PCI Fitch’s managing director, said: “This is the fourth award win in a month, and recognised the campaign’s excellence as Innovative Project of the Year by our peers from the IT and digital industry. With this project we were able to create a virtual event and take a million people on the Army’s journey up Mount Everest with www.armyoneverest.mod.uk. There are not many people out there that can say they’ve done that.”

Now in their 14th year, the Computing Awards for Excellence recognise and reward the best in IT.