2023 Awards for Communications Excellence Winners Named

Today, the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives announced 12 winners of its annual Communications Excellence awards program. 

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. These entries highlight some of the freshest and most innovative marketing and communications work coming from ACCE member organizations of all types and sizes.

“Chambers of commerce play a critical role in driving success for their communities,” said ACCE President & CEO Sheree Anne Kelly. “Chambers are natural conveners, sharing stories that inspire and spur action. That creativity in communications, paired with catalytic leadership and visionary thinking, is what earned them this well-deserved recognition.”

ACCE extends its gratitude to the 14 judges—marketing and communications leaders from chambers of commerce in California, Colorado, Florida, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Washington, D.C. and Wisconsin—who carefully reviewed all the submissions. 

Entries were organized by category — based on the chamber’s annual revenue — and entry type: campaigns, print and electronic publications, videos and websites & apps. 

Three of these 12 winning entries will be revealed as Best in Show within their total annual revenue category at ACCE's annual convention in Salt Lake City during the Awards Show, sponsored by Comcast, on August 1.

Award of Excellence Winners

CATEGORY 1

Campaigns
Cynthiana Influencer Campaign | Cynthiana Harrison County Chamber of Commerce (Ky.)

January-March are notoriously slower months for Cynthiana's retail and restaurant industries. To help increase foot traffic and social presence, the chamber created the Cynthiana Influencer campaign. During these months, community members can earn points by posting photos, tagging businesses, leaving reviews and creating video content and posting online. At the end of the campaign, one community member with the highest point value receives the title of Cynthiana Influencer for the year. They receive over $800 of products or discounts to local businesses to use throughout the year, their own Instagram page and key invites to community events. The chamber developed this campaign at little to no cost and managed to not only increase its social media followers, but also increased page views, generated conversation about the chamber and helped businesses participating in the campaign get foot traffic during a traditionally slow time of year.

Print & Electronic Publications
2022-2023 Explore Opelika Magazine | Opelika Chamber of Commerce (Ala.)

The 2022-2023 Explore Opelika magazine is an annual publication, which serves as an overview of the city. Two thousand copies were distributed to local businesses, chamber members, centers for interest in relocation and others. The magazine features an introduction of the chamber and history of the city, a welcome from the mayor, a guide into all there is to explore within Opelika, resources for visitors thinking of relocating, a full directory of over 900 chamber member businesses and stories that dive into the heart of Opelika. It was designed and organized by the chamber, and it worked closely with a local printer. Local writers that have been a part of the community for many years were chosen to share their knowledge and tell the community stories featured in the magazine.

Videos
Good News Friday | Cambria Regional Chamber of Commerce (Pa.)

Good News Friday is a weekly video produced to share good news from throughout the region, particularly about the chamber's members. The video submitted in the competition was produced entirely by chamber staff. It was shot with cell phones, edited and then posted on the chamber's social media channels, shared in its email newsletter, as well as on their local newspaper's website and other locations. Upbeat narration and tight editing for an under three minute-long video encourages viewers to watch it to the end. With Good News Friday videos such as this one, the chamber reached 170,000 people in 2022. 

Websites & Apps
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

Campaigns
Bend Chamber Workforce Housing Social Media Campaign | Bend Chamber (Ore.)

In 2021, the Bend Chamber took on workforce housing as a key, long-term initiative. In 2022, a sustained social media campaign was implemented to help. The chamber developed four messaging streams: I Am Bend—shows faces and tells stories as examples of the types of positions that the workforce housing initiative focuses on; Information/Education—brings data, statistics and perspectives to help show the extent of the issue, shares community feedback and dispels misconceptions; Explainer Videos—showcases those involved in the initiative and quickly explains new concepts in solutions, why the situation is what it is and how processes work; Accessory Dwelling Units (ADUs)—educates public on the process and benefits of why building an ADU is important. The campaign generated over 600,000 impressions across LinkedIn, Facebook and Instagram and prompted over 40,000 engagements on those channels.

Print & Electronic Publications
Bounce Around BG | Bowling Green Area Chamber of Commerce (Ky.)

Bowling Green, a college town, lacked marketing to its younger demographic about the area's opportunities. With the workforce issue continuing to escalate, the chamber needed a means to make the area's young, up and coming professionals aware of the quality of life assets available to them in an effort to entice them to stay beyond college. Through informal surveys and focus groups, the chamber found that many college students assume all they have to do in the area is go to bars and many are not 21 or into drinking. So the chamber researched and found unique things that they can explore at low or no cost across a variety of scenes – music, arts, outdoor, etc. The chamber will ramp up its efforts this spring with beach balls with the Bounce Around BG logo and a QR code to the publication on their website.  

Videos
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. 

Websites & Apps
Hampton Roads Chamber Website | Hampton Roads Chamber (Va.)

The Hampton Roads Chamber worked with a member website design company to launch its new website. Citing its previously outdated and cluttered website, the new design is modern, functional, efficient and a go-to resource for the chamber's business community. They worked with their design company during every step of the process to ensure the new design was able to fit their members' needs and be a business resource for them. The website was designed with strong chamber branding in mind and a goal for it to tell their story. According to the chamber, "It is a collection of all that makes up our mission, vision and values and visually a representation that our Chamber Means Business." In addition to an increase in website visits, the chamber has witnessed a boost in membership leads. Those submitting membership inquiry forms mention the website as a referring source.

CATEGORY 3

Campaigns
Work In The Triangle National Talent Attraction Marketing Campaign | Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce (N.C.)

First launched in 2012, Work In The Triangle is a national talent attraction marketing campaign powered by Wake County Economic Development, a program of the Greater Raleigh Chamber of Commerce. Ten years later, the chamber relaunched the campaign in January 2022. The chamber explained that the rebrand and reboot was like starting from scratch. "While we could have put the initiative on the back burner due to the pandemic, we decided to dive headfirst into the changing landscape of talent attraction at a time when there was plenty of uncertainty on the part of both employers and job seekers," the chamber shared. The campaign features a talent website, videos, a marketing toolkit, social media and digital advertising. Highlights from the campaign's performance in 2022 includes 128,408 unique website users and 9,315 Indeed job views and 9,689 cost of living calculations. Digital ads produced 5,358 job views. Advertising accounted for 76% of all web traffic, including 52,069 visitors to the “find a job” page and the website saw a 407% increase in traffic since the relaunch.

Print & Electronic Publications
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.  

Videos
515 Day Video | Greater Des Moines Partnership (Iowa)

The 515 Day video was one of the marketing tactics for 515 Day, a community-wide effort created to uplift Greater Des Moines (DSM) and those living in the 515 area code. This campaign and video also encouraged people to invest back into the community on 5-15 or May 15, 2022. In under a minute, the video, which was produced in-house, highlighted the beauty of the region and encouraged others to share their favorite parts of DSM. The goal was to ensure that everyone who happened upon the video, from rural pockets of the area code to Des Moines’ city center, felt seen and recognized and were empowered to spread that message and claim the 515 area code and surrounding region for themselves. 

Websites & Apps
Workforce Ecosystem Hub | Greater Louisville Inc. (Ky.)

To tackle workforce participation challenges in Greater Louisville, the chamber and its talent attraction initiative, Live in Lou, launched the Workforce Ecosystem Hub—a one-of-a-kind platform that showcases over 270 regional organizations who provide a range of services and workforce resources to aid job seekers and employers. The hub is organized through several tabs that have specific resources for both job-seekers and employers such as upskilling and reskilling resources for staff, financial resources to help fund training, a place for individuals apply for jobs, identify training opportunities and more. GLI worked with partners throughout the community for over two years to create the site and curate content in an easily navigated format. Since its launch in November 2022, the site has had over 2,596 hits, 12 local media stories and 270 organizations verified and added to the site.