Recognizing Marketing’s Finest
Here we present all of this year’s winning submissions, highlighting a different category each week.
INTEGRATED PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN /
Atlantic Coast Electric Supply (ACES)
Mike Holt Seminar
Recognizing a need to provide industry professionals with actionable insights and real-life applications to help them achieve compliance, improve safety, and enhance efficiency, ACES hosted a high-impact educational seminar featuring Mike Holt, the nation’s leading NEC expert, to address one of the most misunderstood topics in electrical work: bonding and grounding.
To further maximize attendee value, the seminar was followed by a networking trade show, where participants could engage with more than 30 manufacturers and rep agencies and explore various electrical solutions.
ACES implemented a targeted, multichannel marketing campaign that focused on the real-life impact of bonding and grounding compliance on industry professionals, the exclusive opportunity to gain knowledge with Mike Holt in person, and the opportunity to earn required CEUs.
Included in the campaign were paid digital advertising, social media and video content, email marketing, direct mail and print ads, and a website presence.
“It’s a great example of an integrated promotional campaign,” said the judges, who noted that “the multichannel approach is very strategic” and “the benefits to the target audience were well communicated and the branding reinforces the ACES name.”
Schaedler Yesco Distribution
100th Anniversary Sweepstakes
In 2024 Schaedler Yesco celebrated its 100th anniversary. To engage customers in the celebration, the company held a sweepstakes to give away 100 prizes (12 individual, monthly sweepstakes and one grand-prize sweepstakes) over the course of the year. Key vendor partners supported the initiative.
All customers were able to participate in the sweepstakes provided they had a Schaedler Yesco account (which allowed the company to track purchases to award chances and improve its contact information for smaller cash/COD accounts). The overall program was managed by both Schaedler Yesco marketing and an outside sweepstakes firm that was hired to ensure the program was prepared and executed legally and fairly.
Elements of the campaign included a web banner and landing page, social media posts, geofence advertising, email blasts and templates for rep use, flyers, posters, and physical advertising at two expo events.
The judges appreciated how the “Schaedler Yesco brand name is supported throughout” and that “they put some time in to understand what their targets want, the campaign was truly integrated across many different channels, and the geofencing advertising is sophisticated and smart.”
Van Meter Inc.
Exchange
From a desire to help manufacturers use technology to optimize their business and to drive continued growth and success for all parties, Van Meter Inc.’s sales and marketing teams partnered to create and host a series of executive roundtable events called Exchange.
To execute the events, Van Meter met with key stakeholders; curated a comprehensive target list; researched key markets to host events; identified event structure and discussion topics; found an external expert to facilitate the conversation; and developed a detailed marketing communications plan that included a website landing page, email campaign, and paid social media ads.
During the events, Van Meter logged important conversations and recorded sales opportunities; debriefed with key stakeholders, Smart Manufacturing experts, and sales team members regarding discoveries and expected follow-up; and measured results and determined next steps (repeating the event in additional markets and ongoing communication strategies).
“I’m particularly impressed that the target audience is very nuanced within the industry and specifies the level,” said the judges. “The subtlety included in the design of the Exchange logo will no doubt subliminally be remembered. All of the communications work together to reinforce the brand.”
Robroy Industries
PVC-Coated Contractor-Focused Messaging
Robroy Industries launched a yearlong, integrated promotional campaign in 2024 to highlight Plasti-Bond’s innovations that improve installation while maintaining the completely sealed, high-performing, corrosion-resistant system it is known for. It was a strategic move to speak directly to contractors across every available channel while continuing to reinforce brand value with end-users.
The campaign was planned in Q4 of 2023 and executed from January through December 2024. Messaging was tailored to highlight “jobs-to-bedone” innovation (solutions that solve specific installation problems while maintaining system performance) and included print ads, social media content, email marketing campaigns, white papers, and digital advertising.
“The language—‘Making Installation Easier,’ ‘One Innovation at a Time’—is simple and yet works well,” noted the judges, who also appreciated how the campaign really focused on the benefits to the audience.
Eaton—Channel Marketing
Home in Time Distributor Enablement Campaign
Eaton—Channel Marketing’s campaign was developed strategically as part of its Marketing Distributor Advisory Council. With distributors noting that they were in need of marketing messaging that would truly resonate with the “trunk slammer” customers who frequent their branches, follow them on social media, and attend their events, the Eaton team set out to create a persona for this demographic. Based on hundreds of contractor interviews, they were able to better understand the interests, family lives, and preferences of the demographic.
The campaign’s product-centric content focused on features and benefits contractors care about, while calls to action focused on driving business through the distributor. Each quarter, Eaton’s distributors gained access to a new Home in Time “theme” focused on a seasonally relevant message, allowing them to implement the same overarching campaign for a full calendar year but change imagery/themes to keep audiences engaged.
Assets included in-branch and promotional merchandising, videos, a microsite, counter signage, and marketing packages that contained web and e-newsletter banners, onhold messaging scripts, social media samples, and imagery.
The judges appreciated how the campaign was “empathetic with their customers’ desires to balance work and life” and noted that “the video does an excellent job of showing something very relatable.”
INTEGRATED PROMOTIONAL CAMPAIGN – Honorable Mention
Electrical Wholesalers New England
Get It Done
OneSource Distributors
OneSource and Independent California Migration
Intermatic
Black Low-Profile Weatherproof Cover
Tagged with awards, Best of the Best, marketing