Rocketmakers Wins Four Awards at the UK Dev Awards 2024

Rocketmakers was named winner in FOUR categories at last night’s 2024 UK Dev Awards:

• Our work developing the out-of-home advertising design analysis app Super Optimal for our client DotScore won the coveted Innovation Award
• Our work designing and developing the pet-health smartphone app Biscuit for our client Biscuit Pet Health won a “Silver” award in the App of the Year competition,
• Our Chief Innovation Officer Adam Walker was named Dev of the Year,
• And Rocketmakers was named Dev Agency of the Year!!

The awards took place at the Montcalm in central London, and the first sign that we were in for a good night was when Biscuit got the Silver Award in the App of the Year category. 

Biscuit is an app that rewards pet owners who support their pet’s physical and emotional health. With over 200,000 downloads and over 60,000 monthly active users, it became the #1 app on both Google Play & the Apple App Store in the Health & Fitness category in December 2022. 

The UK Dev Awards judges wrote: “We felt this was a fantastic app encouraging people to have a healthy pet with the rewards system. The app had incredible figures in downloads and active users. Phase One of this project was very successful and we hope the next phase of the project keeps up the success. Keep up the good work!”

Soon after this, the team got its first outright win with the much-sought-after Innovation Award, recognising our work building the Super Optimal application for our clients Dotscore.

Super Optimal validates out-of-home (OOH) advertising designs to facilitate campaign effectiveness, using a combination of machine learning and AI analysis. OOH advertising has always defied standardised assessment because of deliberately unusual designs and adverse observation conditions. While Super Optimal can’t determine whether a campaign will succeed commercially, it can quickly and cheaply determine if viewers are likely to take in the intended message.

The judges commented: “A great example of machine learning applicability in a commercial environment. It was a very ambitious project and it was great to see these types of developments taking shape in the market.”

Things then got personal when our very own Adam Walker was named Dev of the Year!

Recently appointed Chief Innovation Officer, Adam has been a valued part of the team for over a decade and a half, and has a wide-ranging set of responsibilities that spans everything from engaging with emerging technology, to helping delayed projects meet deadlines, to meeting with prospective clients. He has been instrumental in developing the AI system known as “Portrait” that has recently been wowing tech-heads everywhere from the Technology Festival in Bristol to the CES trade show in Las Vegas!

The judges also sang his praises, saying, “Adam comes across as someone who likes to take the lead in all aspects of technology, delivery, business, and problem solving. He seems a highly credible employee to have and a great asset to the company. He is very committed and always in search for solutions and innovations.”

The evening finished off with perhaps the most important win of the night: Dev Agency of the Year!

This was the second year in a row that we’ve won a company-level award at this prestigious national competition, after being named Dev Team of the Year in 2023. 

This year, the judges praised our development of Portrait in particular, saying: “This was a super-impressive agency! It was great to see the use of in-house investing to develop a brilliant in-house product and provide a new revenue stream through ingenuity. Well done!”

With four new trophies to find places for on the shelves of our office on Manvers Street, the 2024 UK Dev Awards have been our most successful national awards event in company history!

Improving on our performance for the 2025 UK Dev Awards will be a real challenge, but don’t worry - we’re already working on several new innovations that we are planning to enter!