We’re excited to announce the return of our Marketing Pinnacle Awards in the fall of 2021!
The Pinnacle Awards are the premier marketing awards program in the Greater Cincinnati area and an opportunity to focus on the important work you do every day to elevate the role of marketing within your organization and across our community.
What’s New with the 2021 Marketing Pinnacle Awards?
As with most things these days, there will be some changes. Read on for all the details!
When, Where, and How
Further information on awards ceremony details to come!
Dates to Know
- September 22-October 15: Nomination period. *Deadline Extended!*
- October: Submissions are distributed to AMA chapters for judging and scoring.
- October: Category finalists revealed.
- TBD, November 2021: Pinnacle Awards ceremony is held; category winners revealed.
Award Eligibility Window
For the 2021 Pinnacle Awards, work submitted must have been created/managed from July 1, 2020, up until June 30, 2021.
The Submission Process: Introducing a streamlined portal & process!
This year, we’ve streamlined the submission process, shortened the requirements for nominations, and structured the fee system to allow you to nominate not just one, but many of your incredible efforts within your organization, for your clients, or any combination of the two.
After a simple account creation in our new online portal, you can build multiple submission forms, save them for later completion, add them to your cart, and check out all in the same system. Get started now!
Frequently Asked Questions
What are the categories of Pinnacle Awards this year?
For 2021, we’re accepting nominations across eight award categories:
- Best Collegiate/Student Marketing Plan, Campaign, and/or Program
- Best Brand Launch or Rebranding Effort
- Best Content Marketing
- Best Customer Experience Execution
- Best Digital Strategy & Execution
- Best “Non-Marketing” Marketing Program
- Best Sales Enablement
- Best Scrappy Marketing Campaign
View all categories and descriptions here.
We are also accepting nominations for our 2021 class of Cincinnati Marketing Legends.
Who is eligible to submit for an award?
If you are a marketing professional in the Greater Cincinnati region, you and/or your company can submit work to be considered for an award for any of the categories. In-house marketers, agencies, solopreneurs, students…we want to see what you’ve been working on!
Can I submit for more than one category?
You can submit for as many categories as you’d like. In fact, we encourage multiple submissions — each submission after the first one is reduced in price!
What are the rules?
View all official rules here (under General Rules & Information).
What does a submission entail?
A submission constitutes of the following:
- Summary the following areas of your marketing initiative up for submission: Opportunity/Problem; Objectives; Planning & Execution; Results
- “Proof” — This can be anything relevant to the submission — PDFs of creative, videos, audio files, screenshots or dashboards of metrics, etc.
View all instructions and how-to here (under How to Prepare & Submit).
Who judges the submissions?
Another AMA chapter outside of Cincinnati will judge the submissions. This keeps things as objective as possible.
What does that mean for your submission? We recommend that you write your submission for someone who is “out of market,” as if they’ve never been to Cincinnati and you are telling them about your work for the first time.
What is a Cincinnati Marketing Legend?
The prestigious Cincinnati Marketing Legend award is like a “lifetime achievement” award; it is not time-bound. Who has made a lasting impact and brought acclaim to the city or the profession of marketing?
Our 2020 class of Cincinnati Marketing Legends were: Matt Fischer, Jason Hauer, and Carol Shea. Read more about them. #CincyMarketingLegend
What will the 2021 Pinnacle Awards ceremony be like?
Good question. In years past, we’ve always been thrilled to bring you Marketing’s Big Night with a sparkling MC, networking, dinner, drinks, and lots of celebrating with teammates and friends old and new. See it for yourself here.
Then, in 2020, the #AMAPinnacleAwards went virtual—along with the rest of the world.
Our pivot to virtual (yes, we said it) paid off. We were able to tap into our network and reach out to our partners to help produce a quality, professional, yet truly fun and authentic “run of show.” (Shoutout to 2020 Pinnacle Awards host Alex Schutte and strategic partners Event Enterprises, Klocke Design, SWAGBOX and Hotel Covington!) Check out the full 2020 recap here!
For 2021, we’re working behind the scenes to ensure we provide you with a safe and fun opportunity to celebrate with your peers. Stay tuned for more information!
How can I get more involved?
As we determine how we’ll bring the 2021 Pinnacle Awards to life, we’d love to have you as part of the team. Have a skill to contribute? Want to get your company’s name out there in a meaningful way? We have lots of roles and opportunities for volunteering, in-kind partnerships, and cash partnerships. Contact us at Pinnacle@AMACincinnati.org to get started.
See the highlights from the 2019 Pinnacle Awards, courtesy of Valere Studios!
