Recognizing Marketing’s Finest
Here we present all of this year’s winning submissions, highlighting a different category each week.
EVENT /
Atlantic Coast Electric Supply (ACES)
Don Hursey Training
To offer an educational opportunity to the North Carolina market that would enhance brand awareness, strengthen relationships with customers, and position ACES as a trusted leader in providing innovative solutions and education in the electrical industry, the marketing team set a goal of 20 attendees to its 2024 Don Hursey Training event.
After scheduling the event at the iconic Charlotte Motor Speedway, the marketing team promoted it through targeted emails, a post card mailer, social media paid ads, a landing page/ registration site, and in-branch flyers. On-site engagement included an interactive experience with sales reps, lunch overlooking the speedway, and a door prize drawing for one attendee to win a racetrack experience. The team also ensured ACES branding was prominent throughout the event to reinforce its role as host and industry leader, including giving attendees an ACES-branded light-up travel cup at check-in.
The judges appreciated how ACES “embedded helpful industrial content through the courses in a fun setting. The branding reinforces the ACES name and all of the components had a similar look and feel so that recipients would realize that it was all one effort.”
United Electric Supply
OnPoint Automation Summit
United Electric Supply used feedback from its 2022 event, common customer pain points, and emerging technological advancements to shape
the theme of its 2024 conference. Industry experts, the OnPoint Automation team, and event partner Schneider Electric were also invited
to share their insights.
Focusing on the southern region for the event, the Baltimore Museum of Industry emerged as the ideal venue, aligning with the “Automate to Accelerate” theme and serving as a fitting backdrop for discussions on digitalization and automation.
The summit featured two distinct tracks based on the attendees’ roles and areas of interest, enabling them to participate in sessions most relevant to their jobs. Session guidelines were developed for the presenters, and the content was reviewed in advance to ensure alignment with the objectives.
Additionally, the OnPoint Automation team played a key role in delivering sessions that demonstrated real-world applications of United Electric’s solutions and expertise.
Promotion of the event was executed through multiple channels, including United Electric’s sales and branch teams, email campaigns,
organic social media posts, and Google Search and LinkedIn ads.
“This is a great example of how events should work,” said the judges. “There is a strong industry focus that delivers helpful information and knowledge along with a social component—and it was all marketed clearly and reinforces the brand.”
OneSource Distributors
Trade Show Tours
OneSource wanted to have a way to interact with its customers at the Rockwell Automation Fair event while simplifying the trade show experience for them and helping them to maximize their productive time spent at the expo. The company also wanted to engage with key suppliers in a meaningful way and provide them with the chance to talk directly to key customers using their products. Finally, it wanted to help make the event more accessible for all customers, including those who speak Spanish.
Working with eight of its key suppliers to arrange the tour stops at each of their booths, OneSource held three Trade Show Tours on the Wednesday of the expo—the day that one-day passes were available and the day most of its customers planned to attend the trade show. Two of the tours were in English; the third was in Spanish.
OneSource promoted the tours to customers via email and social media and with invitations directly from the sales team and a link to sign up for the tours on the company’s Automation Fair info page. A landing page and sign-up form dedicated to the tours was also created, and the activity and images from the tours were posted on social media, including Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, and X.
The judges loved that OneSource offered a Spanish-language option and noted, “All of the content is clear, easy to read, and appealing.”
Robroy Industries
Coffee & Concepts
Coffee & Concepts was created as an interactive, educational event series designed to increase engagement with Robroy Industries’s customer base while providing valuable product insights and increasing sales.
The 30-minute sessions were structured to include background on Robroy and its sub-brands, education on how the products help achieve
important jobs, and real-time Q&A and customer discussions, allowing attendees to directly interact with Robroy’s engineering, product marketing, and development teams.
The series followed a structured event marketing approach with a multichannel engagement strategy: pre-event promotion included a two-week social media campaign on LinkedIn and Facebook, and e-blast invitations, while post-event engagement included follow-up surveys offering a chance to win a Robroy-branded Ember Digital Temperature Control Mug as a thank you for providing feedback.
“This is a great example of creating an entire digital ecosystem around a digital effort,” said the judges, who appreciated how the
event was promoted through social media and email marketing. “We especially like that they didn’t stop with the event but followed up with a post-event engagement.”
nVent
Automation Fair
nVent sought to show its complete, end-to-end panel build process in a new immersive journey highlighting how customers can leverage technology and automation at each stage of the panel-building process to increase productivity and save money.
To support these goals, the nVent team built an engaging and educational experience for attendees at Automation Fair by replicating the
complete panel build process within the exhibition space. The installation was supported with presentations, product demonstrations, and thought leadership seminars sharing evolving industry trends and best practices. Additionally, personalized booth tours were given, including Spanish-language tours for 300-plus customers.
Marketing included promotion via LinkedIn, with the opportunity for customers to sign up for booth tours or schedule a meeting with a
product expert and five media interviews that included conversations on how to address manufacturing challenges, such as reducing waste, capturing cost savings, and the shortage of engineers and skilled labor.
“Another great example of an event in a marketing competition,” noted the judges, who liked the LinkedIn promotion and the fact that Spanish-language booth tours were provided.
DIGITAL/SOCIAL MEDIA CAMPAIGN – Honorable Mention
Scott Electric
Electrify the Ice — PPG Paints Arena
Tagged with awards, Best of the Best, marketing