The winners of the inaugural Outstanding Awards program have been announced. Thank you to the cities who submitted entries for our peer-judged awards program – you are all doing fantastic work!
The winning projects and honorable mentions in each category are highlighted below. We can’t wait to see the innovative projects you are working on for next year’s program!
Congratulations to the following cities:
Municipal Marketing Campaign Outstanding Award
City of Tallahassee – Meet Me at the Market: Southside Farmer’s Market
The Southside Farmers Market is community-driven partnership that addresses the overall health and well-being of Southside Tallahassee residents. Market patrons enjoy fresh fruits, vegetables, eggs and seafood from local farmers, as well as live music, crafts, cooking demonstrations and free health and wellness screenings. “Meet Me at the Market” was the promotional campaign tagline. This call-to-action was placed on promo items including refrigerator magnets, T-shirts that featured the market dates, and yard signs. With more than 3,500 residents attending during the eight-month pilot program, the campaign exceeded its goals and the Southside Farmer’s Market will return for another season. Learn More
Municipal Marketing Campaign Honorable Mention
City of Fort Lauderdale – Flip the Switch Challenge
The Flip the Switch Challenge is an internal City of Fort Lauderdale energy-awareness campaign that was developed to encourage friendly competition among employees that focuses on energy conservation and efficiency. Utilizing volunteer employee champions, eye-catching materials and the Green Your Routine mascots – Wise Owl and Scowl Owl – the city created a visual, community-based social marketing approach to foster interaction, engagement, fun, and positive reinforcement. By the end of the challenge, 92% of light bulbs and 86% of monitors were being turned off when not in use. In addition, 50% of the personal space heaters were removed from offices, resulting in a savings of approximately $11,700 annually. Learn More
Engagement on Social Media Outstanding Award
City of Tallahassee – A Social Media Lifeline During Hurricane Michael
On Oct. 10, 2018, Hurricane Michael – a category five hurricane and the strongest to ever hit Florida – made landfall near Mexico Beach, just 75 miles of south of Tallahassee. Knowing that traditional media may be unavailable following the aftermath of the storm, the city consciously decided to keep its social media outlets active 24/7, never “going dark” during this time frame. With an expanded team of cross-trained employees and resident ambassadors, the city utilized a “create once, publish everywhere” strategy to disseminate video and images across all social platforms. Over the seven-day period leading up to, during and after the storm, a total of 2,284 posts were distributed, responses to comments on social media increased by 4,167% and the constant staffing model allowed for a 98-minute average response time. Learn More
Engagement on Social Media Honorable Mention
City of St. Petersburg – Overall Strategy
The City of St. Petersburg is consistently active on three major social media platforms:
Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. Their overall strategy is to tell the city’s story through engaging content using a friendly and inviting tone. Their team produces several social media “series” that are released throughout the year (Netflix style – six episodes at a time) to spotlight events, businesses, neighborhood spotlights, interesting city jobs, and more. Resident account takeovers of their Instagram platform are also used to showcase different pockets of the city through the eyes of a local. Using humor, trends and quality content to build trust, awareness, St. Petersburg is able to reach residents and break down stereotypes about city government. Learn More
Municipal Video Outstanding Award
City of Homestead – Inside Homestead News
Designed to ensure both current and future residents are engaged and informed, “Inside Homestead News” is a city-produced new show that focuses on the positive initiatives of the mayor and council, as well as community events and exciting city developments. It is hosted on Vimeo, broadcast on the city’s TV channel and shared on the web and social media outlets. Utilizing modern editing techniques, engaging hosting, and well-crafted writing, “Inside Homestead News” offers the appeal of a cable news show with the ease and accessibility of social media. As a news show and communication tool, “Inside Homestead News” is an overall success. Monthly episodes receive an average of 9,500 views on Facebook. Watch Video
Municipal Video Honorable Mention
City of Miami Beach – #PlasticFreeMB
In an effort to stop the largest culprits of plastic litter – bags, straws, stirrers, cups and lids – the City of Miami Beach launched the #PlasticFreeMB education and certification program to encourage the local business community to integrate sustainability into their business model. In the first nine months, more than 120 business joined the #PlasticFreeMB program. The #PlasticFreeMB video recognizes the first businesses that made the effort toward eliminating plastics. The video captured the spirit of the program through the voice of the local businesses themselves and served as both recognition and inspiration for other businesses to do their part in creating an economic culture that values environmental stewardship. Watch Video
Municipal Website Outstanding Award
City of Miami Beach – www.MBArtsandCulture.org
To keep up with the rapid growth of the cultural scene in the City of Miami Beach,
www.MBArtsandCulture.org was created to serve as a one-stop shop for everything arts and culture happening in the city. From showcasing cultural partners to biographies
on the artists behind the city’s public art program – one of the first public art programs in the country – the comprehensive site invites both residents and visitors to engage with the robust list of cultural offerings by better connecting them to the opportunities. WordPress Accessibility plug-ins help ensure the site is ADA compliant and the comprehensive calendar of events showcasing programs funded by the Cultural Arts Council allows users to search by date, keyword or location. Visit Website
Municipal Website Honorable Mentions
City of Boynton Beach – www.boynton-beach.org
The City of Boynton Beach launched their new website in March 2018 with a goal to create a dynamic website that is designed and organized in a manner that allows users to easily find and access information; acts as a marketing tool to highlight attractions to potential residents, visitors and businesses; and is easily modifiable, ADA compliant and mobile friendly. The new site boasts about 29% fewer pages than the old site, significantly less PDFs, and features translation capabilities and rotating modules for upcoming meetings and events. The city has a full time ADA coordinator on staff who is a vital part of the website development team and a vision-impaired ADA assistant who helps ensure the layout and design provides a good user experience for people of all abilities. Visit Website
City of Miami – www.miamigov.com
Two years ago, the City of Miami made a strategic decision to completely overhaul its
website in order to improve ease of use, accessibility and engagement for residents by making all city services readily available to online customers through a well-structured, intuitive digital portal. Essentially, to create a “24/7” City Hall. The city also re-designed the look and navigation of its website, and ensured that content was organized by topic, searchable, universally formatted, ADA compliant and discoverable. The website now features 150 step-by-step services, guiding users through city processes and procedures, as well as a cutting-edge electronic building plan review system. Visit Website
Graphic Design Outstanding Award
City of Tallahassee – #TallahasseeProud T-Shirt
As the capital of Florida, the City of Tallahassee is frequently linked to statewide and national news, and not always in a positive light. In order to combat the negativity and highlight the things that make people proud to call Tallahassee home, the city needed residents to tell their own story about the city. The city identified residents who had already demonstrated pride in the city through positive posts on their social media accounts and encouraged them to wear the custom-designed “Tallahassee Proud” T-shirt and share a picture of themselves with the hashtag #TallahasseeProud. During August 2018, the Communications Department engaged with 218 residents with an active social media presence and the hashtag generated 548,969 impressions across all of the city’s social media platforms. The demand for T-shirts has been so high, staff has ordered several more boxes and has further plans to continue distribution. Learn More
Graphic Design Honorable Mention
City of Miami Beach – MB Magazine
MB magazine is the City of Miami Beach’s official publication with a circulation of 65,000. The bilingual (English and Spanish) quarterly publication is mailed to every home to inform residents on city efforts and initiatives in an engaging way. The city promotes the magazine via social media and in its bi-weekly e-newsletter. Every issue is unique. While the columns remain the same, no image or topic is touched upon twice. The passing of all three ballot questions on the general obligation bond in November 2018 can be attributed to the detailed information featured in MB magazine. In a recent survey, nearly 60% of residents named MB magazine as the leading medium in which they preferred to obtain their information from. Learn More
