Pensacola Times

Escambia County issued the following announcement on September 22.

Escambia County Wins Silver Circle National Award for COVID-19 Public Relations Campaign

Escambia County is pleased to announce it won the second-place Silver Circle Award in the digital interactive COVID-19 Public Relations campaign for population 251,000 and up category by 3CMA . The City-County Communications & Marketing Association announced the 2021 winners of its national Savvy Awards Competition during a ceremony at the Hyatt Regency St. Louis, St. Louis, MO on Thursday, Sept. 9.

More than 800 entries in 40 categories were received, which is the one of the largest entries to date. 3CMA utilized volunteer judges from across the United States to review every entry and provide constructive comments on the winning entries. Seventy-six first-place Savvy Awards were presented. Seventy-seven second-place Silver Circle Awards and 79 third-place Awards of Excellence were also presented. The list of all award winners is available online at 3cma.org. The award entry can be viewed here.

Judging comments about Escambia County's campaign included, "A hurricane during COVID-19... wow! Terrific job getting the word out with incredibly important messages during some incredibly trying times. Very impressive that this was done primarily in-house! Nice job of maximizing the intern as a spokesperson to reach the intended audience of young people. The judges liked the vibrant colors across the content. Good looking video, well done, and very engaging."

The Escambia County Communications and Public Information Division (also known as Community and Media Relations) is led by Director for Communications and Public Information Laura Coale. This award included work by Multimedia Graphic Designer Daniel Spanier, Video Production Specialist David Heroux, and David Myers, web coordinator in IT. Former employees who contributed to COVID-19 communications include Intern Mischel Johnson, Senior Community and Media Relations Specialist Hana Frenette and Library Community and Media Relations Specialist Jamie Gillespie-Turner as well as temporary Community and Media Relations Specialist Blain Fowler and Intern Grayson Sheets. EW Bullock assisted with the quick turn media buy. All content was created in-house.

"I am extremely proud of the Communications and Public Information team who have continued to provide streamlined communications about COVID-19," said Director for Communications and Public Information Laura Coale. "The work we do is 100% to serve the community, and it feels amazing to be recognized by our peers for our COVID-19 PR campaign while communicating about Hurricane Sally. Although it has been a challenging couple of years for the community, this team has been dedicated around the clock to provide health and safety information to the residents of Escambia County."

 

The Savvy Awards, held in conjunction with 3CMA’s Annual Conference, recognize outstanding local government achievements in communications, public-sector marketing and citizen-government relationships. The Savvies salute skilled and effective city, county, agency or district professionals who have creatively planned and carried out successful innovations in communications and marketing. 3CMA accommodates local government organizations of all sizes and budget classes by judging entries in several different population groups.

"The Communications and Public Information Office works 24/7 to provide accurate and timely information to the media and the public," said Interim County Administrator Wes Moreno. "Most recently, from the direction of the Board they worked with Emergency Management and IT employees to ensure the latest data from the CDC was on our county dashboard as soon as it was available. I am extremely proud of this team and the work they have done to serve Escambia County residents, especially during a global pandemic and a natural disaster."

Read more about Escambia County's campaign Public Health Campaign: Mask up, Escambia and hand sanitizer distribution from last summer. 

Original source can be found here.