L-R: Chamber CEO, Wil Pineau, CCE with ACCE President & CEO, Mick Fleming.
The Cayman Islands Chamber of Commerce has been named one of three Communications Excellence Best in Show winners by the Association of Chamber of Commerce Executives (ACCE) at the organisation’s annual awards ceremony in Nashvillle, Tennessee last week.
The ACCE represents more than 7,500 chamber of commerce professionals, and 1,300 chambers of commerce, around the world.
ACCE’s Awards for Communications Excellence programme is designed to showcase the top communications and marketing work of chambers of commerce and similar organisations, and several thousand award entries have been submitted since the launch of the awards programme which is now in its 33rd year.
The Cayman Chamber was named Best in Show for the Growth Matters campaign. The campaign is a series of 10 animated, educational videos which explain economic growth in the Cayman Islands and its importance for the Islands’ future. Other categories included Advertising & Marketing, Digital and Publications.
“This is an absolute honour,” said Chamber CEO, Wil Pineau, CCE. “We worked tirelessly to perfect this campaign and ensure that its message would resonate with viewers, and to have our efforts lauded in this manner is amazing. We’d like to thank ACCE for recognising our hard work and hopefully we can continue to provide outstanding campaigns moving forward.”
Mr. Pineau travelled to Nashville to attend the awards ceremony which took place on Tuesday, July 18.
50 applicants from the United States, Canada and the Caribbean applied in the various categories. The Cayman Chamber, Northern Virginia Chamber of Commerce and the Portland Business Alliance were selected as Grand Award winners for the Campaign category, with Cayman Chamber taking the Best in Show award. Other organisations who applied in this category included the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce, the Orleans Chamber of Commerce, and the Georgia Chamber of Commerce.
Organisations submitting entries were required to explain how and why their campaign was important and, more importantly, show it was successful. All entrants were required to assess the goals & objectives of their campaign, the outcomes & results of the campaign, the tools used to develop and market the campaign, and, perhaps most importantly, why the campaign deserved to be rewarded by the ACCE.
“A chamber communicates not only to its business community, but also to the entire town, city or region it serves,” said ACCE President and CEO, Mick Fleming. “These annual awards recognise the varied communication excellence of chambers going about their work coordinating efforts that benefit their communities.”
A panel of communications and marketing executives from six North American chambers of commerce evaluated entries, which were organised by category (based on the chamber’s annual budget) and entry type.
The final three were all recognised in Nashville for their outstanding campaigns, and all collected a smaller trophy as acknowledgement of their efforts. It was at this time when we were announced as the overall winner, and Mr. Pineau took to the stage to collect the ‘Best in Show’ trophy.
“All of the campaigns on show were excellent, which makes the win even more amazing,” added Mr. Pineau. “Compared to other Chambers in the ACCE we are tiny, so to walk away with the ‘Best in Show’ award is testament to our efforts and influence as a business organisation.”
The Growth Matters initiative was first launched in April 2017, with all 10 videos being streamed online through Facebook, YouTube and the www.growthmatters.ky website. The videos were also shown at the local cinema during the adverts preceding the feature film.
We would like to thank all of those involved with the creation of this campaign, especially our numerous corporate sponsors who helped make our video series a reality.
Visit our YouTube channel or www.growthmatters.ky to see the award-winning campaign for yourself.