Northern Rock mortgage website shortlisted for second award

Northern Rock’s new interactive mortgage website has been shortlisted by the British Interactive Media Association (BIMA) for a prestigious annual award.

The site, northernrock.co.uk/mortgages/, which was launched in April this year, has been named as among the contenders for the Financial Services category of BIMA’s 2010 awards, and it will now compete against the likes of Barclaycard, comparethemarket.com, LloydsTSB, Handbags and NatWest for the accolade.

The site has already been commended for ‘best use of digital by sector’ by a leading magazine, and highly commended for best use of technology at the Mortgage Finance Gazette Awards.

Communicate Magazine’s Digital Impact Awards were held last month in London, and Northern Rock saw off competitors FT.com, Echo Research for the Liberal Democrats, Omobono for Ocean Sky, Echo Research for Syngenta and Citigate Dewe Rogerson for TalkTalk, which were also shortlisted for the prize.

The latest award presentation will be held at Heaven London next month to celebrate talent among practitioners of all things digital.

The site was created to make it easier for customers to find a Northern Rock mortgage and learn more about the purchase process. As well as containing lots of useful advice and information for different customer groups, it also includes a range of new tools such as a jargon buster, budget planner and overpayment calculator to take the complexity out of the mortgage-selection process.

The website has proved effective, with the average time customers spend on the site increasing since its launch, and a growing number of application enquiries.

Guy Herrington, Head of Customer Marketing at Northern Rock said: “We’re delighted the website has received further recognition with this nomination. It is wonderful news which is fully deserved by the team who worked really hard to deliver a cutting edge mortgage website which improved the journey for customers looking for a mortgage.“

Northern Rock will find out if they’ve been successful at the BIMA awards ceremony on November 25th.