They embody the passions of earnest inventors and the dreams of budding business builders. They are the products of industries both old and new, from organisations large and small.
They are the spoils of skunkworks and represent the rigours of R&D. Above all else…
They sure have a lot of friends!
The Readers’ Choice Index was created to provide an opportunity for Anthill readers to vote on SMART 100 applications, in one of three ways:
- Tweet it: Top left of each page (3 points)
- Trigger a Reaction: Facebook ‘Like’, etc (2 points)
- Leave a Comment: Anonymous comments excluded (1 points)
The rules also exclude any funny business, like paying for Likes and Tweets.
At the conclusion of the Readers’ Choice component, we promised to tally up the results and create an Index according to the votes of our readers. And here they are!
And the 2014 Readers’ Choice are…
| Rank | Innovation | Total |
| WINNER | B1G1: Business for Good | 985 |
| TOP10 | Track Your Impact | 922 |
| TOP10 | Unity | 767 |
| TOP10 | Mind Screen | 731 |
| TOP10 | Medic52 | 480 |
| TOP10 | Newsmodo | 420 |
| TOP10 | MindHive | 390 |
| TOP10 | Geddup | 373 |
| TOP10 | Ecoriginals Eco Nappies | 368 |
| TOP10 | Strictly Service | 354 |
| TOP50 | Cruiser – connected surfaces platform | 346 |
| TOP50 | Anecsys.Translate | 290 |
| TOP50 | The Protein Bread Co | 286 |
| TOP50 | AME Predictive Modelling Decision-Making Tool | 268 |
| TOP50 | ChekRite | 258 |
| TOP50 | PromiseLocker | 228 |
| TOP50 | Concept.vu | 216 |
| TOP50 | myEd App | 215 |
| TOP50 | Hydrowall | 208 |
| TOP50 | With One Voice choir program | 201 |
| TOP50 | AtomoRapid HIV | 174 |
| TOP50 | Atmail | 171 |
| TOP50 | Alsaker Executive Membership | 161 |
| TOP50 | Moon Mama’s Take-Off Tote, All-In-One Diaper Bag, Feeding Pillow & Play Mat | 158 |
| TOP50 | Marine Zones Apps | 140 |
| TOP50 | The Premium Wine Card | 139 |
| TOP50 | PeoplePRINT | 125 |
| TOP50 | GoStandBy | 121 |
| TOP50 | Cloakr | 117 |
| TOP50 | Shomi | 116 |
| TOP50 | CueZero | 110 |
| TOP50 | myWatt | 86 |
| TOP50 | CareMonkey | 81 |
| TOP50 | SOUNDSEZEE*TM “makes music easy” | 76 |
| TOP50 | Mini Melting Moments | 68 |
| TOP50 | Anna Cares | 68 |
| TOP50 | SATR 2.0 | 65 |
| TOP50 | CyberQuad | 62 |
| TOP50 | Geepers | 62 |
| TOP50 | mPole | 61 |
| TOP50 | Aduro LMS | 56 |
| TOP50 | Pump Defenda | 49 |
| TOP50 | OTTO | 39 |
| TOP50 | Rocksolver optimisation software for green building | 28 |
| TOP50 | Moneysoft | 17 |
| TOP50 | Architectural Heliostat & Daylighting System | 16 |
| TOP50 | Standalone car rental excess cover | 15 |
| TOP50 | Combo Design 3 in 1 Mattress | 12 |
| TOP50 | UniFORM by Evado | 9 |
| TOP50 | Pure Poppet Natural Play Makeup & Face Paint | 9 |
| TOP100 | Walkabout Your Business Pop-up Village | 7 |
| TOP100 | QuicklyPay.it | 6 |
| TOP100 | Maths Pathway | 5 |
| TOP100 | HARK | 4 |
| TOP100 | PeoplePledge | 3 |
| TOP100 | Online Exit Interview | 3 |
| TOP100 | Rozibaby | 3 |
| TOP100 | S2B Smart Shower | 2 |
How did we do it and why was it done this way?
Let’s be frank. Readers’ Choice Awards are usually conducted for two reasons.
The first is to provide readers with a voice. This is obviously a good thing. It takes the decision making process away from a few and gives it to many.
The second is to raise awareness. In our world, that could also be interpreted to mean, ‘get more traffic’.
As such, we acknowledge that many award programs often end up becoming (for want of a better description) media sanctioned popularity contests. And with acknowledgement comes acceptance.
So, rather than rail against this hard fact (Oh, the inequity!), we decided to ignore our internal cynics (the ones in our brains, not just the ones in our office) and reward voters according to the effort they put in to reach their own networks.
That’s right, we empowered our entrants to kick start the marketing for us.
And, to state the obvious, if success is built on marketing flair (even partially), our readers’ favourites are likely to have a bright future.
Why are some of the Top 100 missing?
Some innovations resorted to funny business, purchasing Likes and Tweets from crowdsourcing sites like Fiverr.com. And that’s against the rules!
If your innovation is not on the list and you think it should be (if you generated more than a few social reactions and did not get up to any funny business), let us know and plead your case, so that we can get you back on the list.
To see how they ranked according to our maven judges, click here.
