About

The Pinnacle Awards is an annual celebration of marketing excellence. For almost a decade, the American Marketing Association of Rochester has recognized local marketers for their program strategy, tactics, creative, and most importantly results!

We receive impressive submissions that represent a broad range of marketing professionals in different industries and disciplines vying for their submission to be best in show. And each year, one non-profit and one for-profit submitter with an outstanding overall strategy and results to match, are honored as Marketer of the Year.

Judging

Though creativity plays a role, Pinnacle Award submissions are judged primarily on RESULTS!  Your objectives should be clear and measurable. Your results section must indicate how you evaluated your success and met or exceeded your objectives. For the tactic-only entries, the narrative should indicate how the entry contributed to the overall results of a marketing strategy or campaign.

In order to provide our submitters with a non-bias and exceptional panel of judges, the AMA Rochester Board carefully selects a panel of judges and strategically assigns submissions for their review.

Pinnacle Awards Categories

Campaign Categories

  • Business-to-Business Integrated Marketing Campaign - Best in show for the campaign with the best results that uses multiple channels such as but not limited to: content, email, social, SEM and direct mailers. Business-to-business targeting only.
  • Business-to-Consumer Integrated Marketing Campaign - Best in show for the campaign with the best results that uses multiple channels such as but not limited to: content, email, social, SEM and direct mailers. Targets consumers only.
  • Small Budget Campaign (Less than $5k out-of-pocket expense)
  • Small Business/Organization Campaign (Fewer than 50 employees) - The top performing marketing campaign for a privately owned company with less than 50 employees.
  • Best Campaign Rejected By Client - This category pays homage to the brilliant ideas that never saw the light of day. If you had a client who didn’t recognize the brilliance of your work and decided to go with a different concept.

Individual Marketing Tactics

  • Paid Search and/or Display Campaign - Tell us about your top-performing digital advertising tactics from the past year.
  • Print Advertising - The highest performing print advertisement.
  • Annual Report - Did your annual report WOW internal or external stakeholders? Share it with the judges!
  • Best in Branding - A brand refresh or a completely new brand! This tactic looks into the design or redesign of a brand and the success that goes with it.
  • Collateral - Did your sales collateral drive results this year? Can include print or digital tactics.
  • Direct Mail/Direct Response - Promotional printed piece delivered to a target audience.
  • Influencer Marketing - This award goes to a collaboration between brand and influencer that drove results.
  • Internal Communications Initiative - This category dives into internal campaigns and initiatives to engage employees.
  • Market Research - This category looks at primary, quantitative, or qualitative research strategy & execution that delivered results.
  • Most Improved Tactic - Tell us about a revised tactic that achieved year-over-year improvement.
  • Packaging - The strongest performance for the design and packaging of a product.
  • Print Piece - Share your strongest print collateral - including brochures, invitations, letterhead, business cards.
  • Product Launch - Best launch campaign for a new or redesigned product or service.
  • Paid Social Campaign - This category looks closely at the results-driven by a Paid Social Campaign. (Includes All Social Mediums.)
  • Organic Social Media Campaign (B2B) - The top performing social campaign targeting other businesses with only organic content, no media spend.
  • Organic Social Media Campaign (B2C) - The top performing social campaign targeting consumers with only organic content, no media spend.
  • Trade Show Marketing - Best in show for the most results-driven booth from a tradeshow.
  • TV Commercial - Highest performing TV spot. Max 1 minute in length.
  • Radio Commercial - Highest performing radio spot.
  • Video - Share your most awe-inspiring video!
  • Website - Best in show for a new website or the refresh of a website.
  • Blog (B2B) - Top performing blog promoting a business, brand, or service targeting other businesses.
  • Blog (B2C) - Top performing blog promoting a business, brand or service targeting consumers.
  • Digital Marketing - Tell us about your best performing gamification program, app, or interactive content.
  • Special Event - Best in show for the event that took a village to pull off!
  • Most Improved Tactic - A revised tactic that achieved year-over-year improvement
Submit Entry

How to Enter

Submissions are typically accepted starting in Q1 of the calendar year for work from January through December of the previous year. To enter, complete the form on the AMA Submittable site before the deadline. You can save your entries as a draft on the submission platform until you are ready to submit just be sure to upload before the deadline. For more information, review our entry guidelines, here.

For important information like when we are accepting entries, deadlines, extensions, finalists, and so forth, subscribe to our mailing list.

Pinnacle Awards Winner

Pinnacle Hall of Fame

Video Marketing Ideas for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey

Video Marketing Ideas for Each Stage of the Buyer's Journey

Posted: March 29, 2023

Video marketing has become a critically important marketing tool in recent years. It's an effective way to engage with your audience and share your message in, if done correctly, a memorable way.  We know that customers and prospects go through various stages of the buyer's journey, so why not use this powerful tool to reach your audience no matter where they're at? The buyer's journey consists Read More…

 

 

“Year-over-year numbers are always powerful.”

For more tips on how to write a winning entry, download our entry guidelines.