In the end, the judges’ decision was unanimous…

At the end of last year, Cision was one of the sponsors of the CorpComms Awards 2009, a rather splendid event that brought together 400 in-house communications professionals in the elegant surroundings of London’s Park Lane Hotel.

Amid the good times being had by all (not least thanks to the evening’s host, Mancunian stand-up Jason Manford), Cision was hard at work in pursuit of communications insights. With a little help from former Independent managing editor Charlie Burgess (who now works with our partners at Editorial Intelligence), we cross-examined the judges to better understand just why the winners triumphed that night.

As you can see from the video below, the themes that emerged were remarkably consistent, with all the interviewees praising strong, passionate, creative work , risk-taking and innovation, especially in the current challenging environment, and noting the increasing prevalence of  – and occasional confusion surrounding – “digital” work.

But most crucial was the need to tie communications activity to pre-defined, measurable objectives, from web traffic to revenues – and all the judges said that such accountability could only become more important, both in 2010 and beyond.