The Alamo City’s leading digital creative agency, esd & associates, is the recipient of the MarCom Awards 2013 Gold Award for its integrated marketing campaign to promote the San Antonio Sports 2013 Fit Family Challenge.
Chosen from among 6,500 entries from the United States, Canada and other countries, esd & associates distinguished itself with a campaign that integrated public relations, social media, bi-weekly newsletters and video. This helped drive attendance to weekly workouts, free 5K runs, San Antonio River kayaking tours, and other fitness events, while motivating participants to stay healthy with inspirational stories and wellness tips.
“This was a team effort that led to extraordinary results thanks to our public relations, social media, creative and web programming teams,” said Erik Simpson, esd founding partner. “As a fully integrated digital marketing firm, our team has done an excellent job of bringing campaigns to life across various media platforms.”
Founded by San Antonio Sports in 2010 with a grant from the Kronkosky Charitable Foundation and support from key corporate and civic partners, the Fit Family Challenge is a 12-week summer program designed to motivate San Antonio families to get active, eat better and learn about health and fitness. The program encourages goals through free weekly workouts at local school districts and Big Events held every three weeks.
“esd & associates has helped Fit Family Challenge become an integral part of the fitness movement inspiring San Antonians to live healthier lifestyles,” said Mary Ullmann Japhet, San Antonio Sports’ senior vice president for communications and community engagement.
Determined to keep the program cutting-edge for 2013, esd developed a strategy that fully integrated public relations and social media with a newsletter and embedded video, resulting in a tripling of engagement online and a 127 percent increase in Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and YouTube video views. Overall participation more than doubled in 2013 from the previous year as well as participation at citywide events.
The MarCom Awards is an international creative competition that recognizes outstanding achievement by marketing and communications professionals. Entries come from
corporate marketing and communications departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers.
Additionally, MarCom Awards is administered and judged by the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, or AMCP. The international organization consists of several thousand creative professionals.
The AMCP fosters and supports the efforts of creative professionals who contribute their unique talents to public service and charitable organizations. Judges are industry professionals who look for companies and individuals whose talents exceed a high standard of excellence and whose work serves as a benchmark for the industry.
