The greater Cincinnati marketing community united on Dec. 14 at The Spot on West Fifth to announce the winners of the 15th annual Pinnacle Awards. The Pinnacle Awards are the highlight of AMA Cincinnati’s chapter year and offer the opportunity to celebrate regional excellence in marketing. In addition to naming winners in eight different categories, AMA Cincinnati also inducted the new class of Cincinnati Marketing Legends: Sanjiv Karani, Connie Rankin, and Michael Stich.

Please join us in congratulating the 2022 Pinnacle Award winners!

Best “Non-Marketing” Marketing Program

Marketers wear many hats. This category celebrates marketers who successfully implemented marketing practices within the areas of internal communications, employee relations or recruitment, or community involvement.

Finalists 

  • Cincinnati Insurance Companies: Summer Intern Content Experience
  • InfoTrust: This Is Who We Are and What We Do: A Video Campaign
  • VonLehman CPA & Advisory Firm: Collaborating on Career Progression to Develop & Retain Future Leaders

Winner: Cincinnati Insurance Companies – Summer Intern Content Experience

Best Collegiate/Student Marketing Plan, Campaign, and/or Program

This category celebrates students who have term papers, projects or capstone courses that require the creation of a marketing plan, campaign, and an extent of execution.

Finalists

  • The Underground Agency at NKU: Success By Design – Invest or Not to Invest?
  • The Underground Agency at NKU: Trillion Dollar Question Answered
  • The Underground Agency at NKU: Brewing with People Since 1995

Winner: The Underground Agency at Haile College of Business, Northern Kentucky University – Success by Design, Invest or Not to Invest?

Best Content Marketing Campaign

Valuable. Relevant. Consistent. Content marketing has become the foundation of successful marketing programs. This category celebrates content marketing done well to drive audience engagement.

Finalists

  • Dewey’s Pizza: Dewey’s Pizza Takes April Fools’ Day to New Horizons with Pizza Fortune Website
  • Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival: Making Math a Festival: Rebranding the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival
  • TigersEye Creative Strategies: #BeTheOne w/Adriel

Winner: Dewey’s Pizza – Dewey’s Pizza Takes April Fool’s Day to New Horizons with Pizza Fortune Website

Best Digital Strategy & Execution

We live in a world of constant digital innovation and transformation. From a website that attracts the right kind of traffic and inspires action with its user experience to the variety of campaigns (paid or unpaid, on established or emerging channels), this category celebrates digital excellence and the metrics that back it up.

Finalists

  • Dewey’s Pizza: Dewey’s Pizza Takes April Fools’ Day to New Horizons with Pizza Fortune Website
  • TigersEye Creative Strategies: Cincinnati NAACP

Winner: Tiger’s Eye Creative Strategies – Cincinnati NAACP

Best Sales Enablement

When marketing and sales are aligned, everyone wins, but that journey can have hurdles of the organizational, technological or philosophical kind. This category recognizes the strategic use of people, processes, and technology to improve sales productivity and increase revenue. 

Finalists

  • Health Carousel: Health Carousel Sales Enablement – GTM Training & Content Accessibility
  • InfoTrust: 1.2 Million Reasons to Take Privacy Laws Seriously

Winner: Health Carousel – GTM Training & Content Accessibility

Best Customer Experience Execution

Customer experience has been revered as the ultimate marketing tool. This category recognizes organizations that facilitate the pathways (channels, experiences, you name it) that anticipate wants, needs, and problems and addresses them in a way that makes a difference.

Finalists

  • CourtAvenue: CourtAvenue Work Moves Kia to #1 in Mass Market Automotive Best Websites
  • Paycor: Paycor Best Customer Experience Execution

Winner: Paycor – Best Customer Experience Execution

Best Brand Launch or Rebranding Effort

Cincinnati is Brand Capital, USA. Whether a startup or a decades-old company going through a turnaround or rebirth, this category celebrates the brand or rebrand process.

Finalists

  • Health Carousel: Health Carousel Brand Consolidation & Rebrand
  • Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival: Making Math a Festival: Rebranding the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival
  • Paycor: Paycor Stadium Naming Rights Launch

Winner: Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival – Making Math a Festival: Rebranding the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival

Best Scrappy Marketing Campaign

No budget, no problem! This category is for marketers who fearlessly tackled the creative challenge of getting the most bang for your frugal buck, and how far it went in the end.

Finalists

  • Dewey’s Pizza – Dewey’s Pizza Takes April Fool’s Day to New Horizons with Pizza Fortune Website
  • Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival – Making Math a Festival: Rebranding of the Julia Robinson Mathematics Festival
  • TigersEye Creative Strategies – #BeTheOne w/Adriel

Winner: Dewey’s Pizza – Dewey’s Pizza Takes April Fool’s Day to New Horizons with Pizza Fortune Website

2022 Pinnacle Moment Honoree

The Cincinnati Zoo received the 2022 Pinnacle Moment award for the naming and promotional campaign for Fiona’s little brother, Fritz the Hippo.

2022 Cincinnati Marketing Legends

Please join us in congratulating our 2022 class of Cincinnati Marketing Legends: Sanjiv Karani, Connie Rankin, and Michael Stich.

Thank you to all of the finalists who submitted entries for the 2022 Pinnacle Awards! We are grateful to our friends at AMA Omaha for judging this year’s entries. Click here to learn more about the Pinnacle Awards and here to learn more about the Cincinnati Marketing Legends.