Communications Excellence Best in Show Winners Announced

Three chambers have been honored as Best in Show at the #ACCE23 Awards show in Salt Lake City.

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 38th 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.”

A panel of communications and marketing professionals from 14 U.S.-based chambers of commerce evaluated entries submitted for this year’s competition. Entries were organized by category — based on the chamber’s annual revenue — and entry type: campaigns, websites and apps, videos and print and electronic publications. You can see all the ACE winners here.

Best in Show Winners

CATEGORY 1

Greeley Area Chamber Website | Greeley Area Chamber of Commerce (Colo.)

The Greeley Area Chamber's main goal in its website revamp was to provide a place that tells the chamber’s story. After creating a successful re-brand project, they wanted a user-friendly resource that represented the new brand and could point to the chamber's mission. According to the chamber, "We made it easy to find content that reinforces third party validation like testimonials and videos that establish trust and social proof for the work that we do." A complete renovation from the prior site included: dual navigation bar, live video header, new shares for investors in the news section, a revamped membership page, an advocacy highlight page, testimonials, sponsor showcase and more. Since the website's launch in February 2022, they've had 14,646 views of the homepage, 7,169 views of the events page and 4,880 views of the investor directory.

CATEGORY 2

Harrisburg Regional Chamber Members' Stories Video | Harrisburg Regional Chamber & CREDC (Pa.)

This one minute, 19 second video tells the story of one of the Harrisburg Regional Chamber's members: a military veteran and minority business owner starting his business and how the chamber has helped his business to grow and succeed. It was featured on the chamber's social media channels, chamber website, digital newsletters and print flyers with a QR code to watch and other locations. Among the outcomes achieved include several partnerships formed with local organizations focused on supporting minority entrepreneurs; helped increase the join rate of minority-owned businesses by 100%, outpacing the chamber's goal; added two minority business owners to the chamber's board of directors who joined the organization during the course of this video campaign. 

CATEGORY 3

2021-2022 Digital Annual Report | Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce (Tenn.)

With an innovative spin on the traditional annual report, the Nashville Area Chamber’s 2021-2022 annual report provided readers with an interactive digital experience. Produced in-house, it showcases the chamber’s accomplishments over the past year told through stories from members and investors. The report debuted at the chamber's October 2022 Annual Celebration via a QR code in the printed event program. To provide an enjoyable reader experience, they utilized a web-based platform and designed a streamlined navigation, using impactful storytelling to feature business leaders across the region. Quick-read highlights and infographics were presented on each page to share the successes of the past year for each department. To promote and thank partners, sponsors, investors and members, a navigation menu was created that allows for easy access to view each important list.