Fairfax City Wins 2 Awards In National Communications Competition

Press release from the City of Fairfax :

05/11/2023 9:22 AM

The city’s Communications and Marketing Office won two awards in the National Association of Government Communicators’ annual Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Awards program. Winners were announced during a ceremony on April 19, in Portland, OR. The city won first place in the Audio - Commercial/PSA category and placed second in the Video - Television programs/Entertainment category.

The Blue Pencil & Gold Screen Awards are an annual international awards program that recognizes superior government communication products and those who produce them in more than 40 categories. Submissions for the 2023 awards were produced between July 1, 2021, and December 31, 2022.

Winning Entries

First Place: Find Memorable Dining Experiences in Fairfax City

The goal of the streaming radio ad was to drive hungry people to the city to "find memorable dining experiences." The spot was created in-house and ran on streaming radio and podcast platforms – a first for the city – for three weeks in June 2022. The ad answered the question, “Where should we eat tonight?”

One of the judges commented, “The sound effects, such as sizzling and pouring, were appropriate, appealing and tasteful (pun intended), adding to the voiceover messaging. The combination of sound effects with information like free parking and outdoor seating made me visualize the dining district in a positive way as I listened. I appreciate that you branched into streaming platforms. I'm going to wrap up these comments now because I want to go to Fairfax City for dinner! Thanks for submitting.”

Fairfax City Economic Development Office Director Christopher Bruno said, “The spot, produced by our talented communications and marketing and team, introduced Fairfax City as the premier dining destination in Northern Virginia during our annual Fairfax City Restaurant Week program. Every year Fairfax City Restaurant week grows, and this year, that growth was amplified across all of Fairfax County. We learned that this medium is one of the best ways to connect with our visitors and we look forward to doing this again.”

Second Place: Public Works Adopts New Technology for Asset Management

The goal of this short video was to educate city residents and business owners about how Public Works uses new technologies to manage stormwater and wastewater assets, including improving water quality and reducing flooding threats. The brief educational video narrated by utilities analyst Patrick Remson highlights how the men and women of the Public Works Department are embracing new technology to do their jobs more efficiently.

A judge commented, “The video looked professionally done, audio was good, script was easy to understand!”

Watch the award-winning video.

Watch more Fairfax City videos on YouTube.

This press release was produced by the City of Fairfax. The views expressed here are the author’s own.