WEST HOLLYWOOD—The city of West Hollywood received five awards on September 8 recognizing the city’s excellence in communications, according to a press release from the city of West Hollywood. The awards were given by the City-County Communications and Marketing Association at their 3CMA Savvy Awards Event held in conjunction with the 3CMA national Annual Conference in San Antonio Texas. The city of West Hollywood entered eight awards into the 3CMA and the Savvy Awards were attended by the city of West Hollywood’s Digital Media Coordinator, Brett White, Joshua Schare, Public Information Officer, told Canyon News in an email.

“It’s my pleasure to congratulate the City of West Hollywood’s Communications Department on these well-deserved national awards,” said City of West Hollywood Mayor Lauren Meister. “Our community is brimming with exceptionally creative people, so our communications team is always raising the bar to meet a higher level of sophistication. These awards demonstrate that we’re leading the way for other cities across the nation and we’re helping to define whole new models for local governmental community engagement.”

The awards recognize the communications and outreach efforts of local governments across the nation. This year the 3CMA received 708 award entries across 38 categories. The entries are judged by volunteers from across the U.S. The five awards and the city of West Hollywood campaigns that won them are:

  • The City’s “Keep it Dirty”water-conservation print campaign won a Savvy Award, 1st-place honor, in the category of Printed Publications/Advertising. The Keep it Dirty campaign featured provocative imagery with an accompanying suggestive water conservation message that 3CMA judges proclaimed as “…a serious case of knowing your audience…very imaginative and right on target.”  Images from the campaign, which featured four distinct ads to encourage community members to use less water, can be seen here:http://bit.ly/2cmu9Xh.
  • “Pretty Boys — Get Out the Vote”, the City’s public service announcement (PSA) that encourages people to go to the polls and vote, won a Silver Circle Award, 2nd-place honor, in the category of Most Innovative. The video, which can be viewed at http://bit.ly/2cyXcIx, was developed to encourage voter turnout in a 2015 Special Municipal Election, and features YouTube star Todrick Hall and dozens of local dancers who reference Wizard of Ozcharacters, set to a parody tune of the hit song Pretty Girls by Britney Spears and Iggy Azalea. The video, to date, has received more than 1.65-million views.
  • The City’s Emmy Award-winning drought PSA, “Winter is Here! But the Drought is Far from Over”won a Silver Circle Award, 2nd-place honor, in the TV and Video Public Service Announcement category. The video, which was designed to resemble a mock preview trailer based on the HBO hit series Game of Thrones, offers a glimpse of what West Hollywood might look like if the drought continues and we don’t collectively make efforts to conserve water. View this PSA at http://bit.ly/2cjiGFR.
  • The City of West Hollywood’s newly implemented“Communications and Community Engagement Strategic Plan” was recognized with two unique Savvy Awards, 1st-place honors, in the categories of Communication or Marketing Plans, and of Printed Publications/Other. The Strategic Plan was hailed by 3CMA judges for being “Extremely creative and well executed. A model for other cities.” The plan is packaged in a sleek, easy-to-use and visually appealing boxed set with informational “flash cards,” booklets, and posters — it provides a comprehensive set of tools that help facilitate engagement and effectiveness in communications. As noted by the 3CMA judges, the plan “Communicates a consistent message to all (City) employees, across all departments… in an attractive and easy-to-use way that will have employees reaching for their strategic plan rather than letting it sit on a shelf.”

The “Communications and Community Engagement Strategic Plan” had been developed by the city of West Hollywood’s communications department over a two year period. The purpose was to prove the City Hall staff and the City Council with a wide-ranging roadmap to help increase the effectiveness of communications with the public and engagement with the community. Some of the 3CMA awards are divided into categories with specific population ranges, and West Hollywood won in the smaller population categories with its 35,000 residents.

“There are no current campaigns that the City is considering entering at this time,” Schare told Canyon News about possible entries for next year’s Savvy Awards. “But, we’re always developing new campaigns at the City of West Hollywood and if there’s something we feel has had strong engagement with the community, then we’re consider entering it in 2017.”

Anyone wanting more information can contact Lisa Marie Belsanti, the city of West Hollywood’s Director of Communications, at (323) 848-6378 or through email at lbelsanti@weho.org. Anyone who is deaf or hearing impaired can contact TTY at (323) 848-6496.