Best in Show Communications Excellence Winners Named

Three chambers have been honored as Best in Show at the #ACCE22 Awards show in Indy.

ACCE’s Awards for Communications Excellence program, generously supported by Meta, is designed to showcase the top communications and marketing work of chambers of commerce and similar organizations. Several thousand award entries have been submitted since the competition's launch, which is now in its 37th year. These entries highlight some of the freshest and most innovative marketing and communications work coming from ACCE member organizations of all types and sizes.

“Effective communications and storytelling are crucial to supporting a chamber’s mission and showcasing its impact,” said ACCE President & CEO Sheree Anne Kelly. “These innovative efforts to help drive engagement and make a difference in the region it serves are inspiring and very deserving of this recognition.”

Chambers submitted entries in four categories - campaigns, digital content, websites and print and electronic publications. You can see all the ACE winners here.

Best in Show Winners

CATEGORY 1

Why Join a Chamber? Video | Zionsville Chamber of Commerce

The "Why Join A Chamber" video, posted on social media and emailed to the Zionsville Chamber's general membership and prospects, serves as a recruitment and retention tool to help people better understand the organization. The chamber's social media reach went from 250,000 in 2019 to over 2.8 million by the end of 2021. According to the chamber, "We know that our use of video and our social media reach plays an important role in our community as an economic engine. Our chamber is small (500 members [and no dedicated communications department!]) but our social media reach makes us mighty! Videos like this allow us to quickly explain our impact, 24/7, to audiences in our region, bringing visibility to our membership through the platforms we utilize." 

CATEGORY 2

Hello! South Shore – Get Out & Explore Campaign | South Shore Chamber of Commerce

Without much prior involvement or focus in the travel and tourism industry, the South Shore Chamber stretched outside of its comfort zone and applied for a state pilot grant to promote regional recovery from the economic impact of COVID-19. The goal was to help local businesses increase their volume of business during the summer and expand their long-term market regionally. The Hello! South Shore project encouraged 600,000+ residents to think of “local” as more than their own neighborhood or town and promote broader exploration. This one-of-a-kind marketing campaign spotlighted discovery excursions across 25 cities and towns the chamber represents. To encourage all South Shore residents to get out and explore, two versions of excursions were curated outlined, and downloadable for ease of reference. The chamber highlighted over 120 places of interest and developed an online database of 450+ attractions. The chamber's team achieved several “firsts” with this effort, including the first grant received by the chamber from the Massachusetts Office of Business Development, the first time the chamber launched a multi-media travel and tourism concept campaign (in less than 6 weeks, too) and first chamber project where they reached nearly one million impressions in just 13 weeks.

CATEGORY 3

Faces of Small Businesses Video Series | Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber of Commerce

The Hilton Head Island-Bluffton Chamber launched a video series entitled the “Faces of Small Businesses.” Each video is approximately a minute long and tells the story behind why an owner launched a business, what it means to them, what they do and why it matters. The videos are produced in-house in a documentary style. The video series is distributed through the chamber's YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and LinkedIn pages, and through email via Mail Chimp. It’s become a driver of business as well as content for members' websites, social media and other marketing efforts. In addition, it gives the chamber a way to upsell businesses to the Premium Member Level. The video content is also utilized for other chamber content purposes such as its video annual report. Each interview also includes questions on why they decided to become members of the chamber, which is used for testimonials throughout the year on the chamber's website and other content platforms.