Sometimes the sweetest taste of victory is when you don’t have to eat your words.

First, I said Team Lightspeed can go toe-to-toe with the best event, creative, marketing and communications professionals out there.

Next, I said I would put our creative team up against the best in the business any day of the week.

Then, this happened:

Lightspeed Marketing walked away with five honors in the 2017 MarCom Awards, one of the largest, most-respected creative competitions in the world.

Booyah. No humblebrag here. This is me totally singing the praises of our team, while some of the toughest judges in our industry are harmonizing right along with me.

Better than the Oscars

MarCom Awards are like the Oscars for marketing and communication professionals, but without the backstage bumbling and onstage chaos. Entries come from corporate marketing and communication departments, advertising agencies, PR firms, design shops, production companies and freelancers.

The Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals (AMCP), an international group of several thousand creative professionals, oversees the awards program, provides judges and sets standards for excellence.

This year the program received over 6,500 entries from throughout the U.S., Canada and 17 other countries, competing in categories of Print, Web, Video and Strategic Communications.

2 Platinum Awards, 2 Golds plus an Honorable Mention

The AMCP judges selected Team Lightspeed for the following:

Platinum Awards, presented to those entries judged to be among the most outstanding for their excellence in terms of quality, creativity and resourcefulness.

• CYBERFORCE Program – A partner recognition program for Palo Alto Networks that played to the cyber security prowess and the individual cyber warrior personas embodied within each of the company’s partner system engineers.
  Category: Strategic Communications | Marketing/Promotion Campaign | 150c. Promotion/Marketing Materials
• Go Beyond Program – An engagement and incentive program for CDW employees selling Cisco products. Using the Cisco brand as a foundation, the Go Beyond campaign went beyond (pun intended) the traditional Cisco brand to engage with the key constituents through their collective passions: being active, being healthy and being outdoors.
  Category: Strategic Communications | Marketing/Promotion Campaign | 150c. Promotion/Marketing Materials

Gold Awards, presented to those entries judged to exceed the high standards of the industry norm.

• Triangle Go Red For Women – Survivor Video 2017 – This video did more than promote the good work done by the American Heart Association. The video became a call-to-action for women everywhere – with one woman’s inspirational story of hope, perseverance and awareness.
  Category: Video/Audio | Video/Film | 300. Nonprofit
• CYBERFORCE Program – A program so nice, it won twice.
  Category: Strategic Communications | Marketing/Promotion Campaign | 148c. Integrated Marketing

Honorable Mention, granted to those entries that meet the high expectations of the judges.

• Travel Like A Legend – Promotional Poster Series, part of the Go Beyond program.
  Category: Print Media | Print Creativity | 114. Poster

Check out the list of Platinum and Gold winners on the MarCom Awards website. You’ll see we are in great company, ranging from huge international creative agencies and Fortune 500 companies to individual creative professionals.

Adding to the judges’ recognition, I’d like to give a huge shout out to Erin Huckaba, Lightspeed’s creative director. In Erin’s own words:

Evoking the right feelings and personality to connect with customers starts with being original and authentic.”

Kudos to our creative team for connecting with our customers, keeping it real and giving me yet another reason to love working with Team Lightspeed.

To see how your business can benefit from award-winning creativity, contact us at [email protected].