Society for Marketing Professional Services (SMPS) named Schaefer a finalist in its Marketing Communication Awards in two categories: Holiday Piece (Mixed Media) + Crisis Management and Communications.

The team’s 2020 holiday campaign focused on community, taking into account neighbors hit the hardest during the COVID-19 pandemic. Supporting local, we partnered with some of our hometown favorites, and each of our client contacts received $20 to the restaurant partner nearest them with a choice of two options. The first, pay it forward, was to use the gift card to feed their families or someone within their networks. The second, pay it back, used the $20 to purchase + deliver restaurant meals to local charitable organizations who got them to those in need. In total, we put $10,000 into our communities.

Missing the personal touch of hand-delivered gifts + personal cards, our team recorded personal messages using none other than Zoom (with festive Schaefer backgrounds) to be sent to their personal client lists. The theme of the holiday card sent to our entire database was that while our circumstances may keep us apart, we’ve found new experiences to share together, and featured our people in heartwarming at-home clips.

The team’s crisis communication submittal was for a new weekly e-newsletter that was a way to continue our culture as we moved remote in March 2020. Our culture is a top reason individuals join + stay at Schaefer. Donut celebrations for new Schaefer babies, impromptu hallway conversations and grill days in the summer were gone. We needed to connect our people, and Remotely Speaking was our answer. We curated resources + ways to connect, including staff picks + pictures. It became 100% employee content.

SMPS calls its Marketing Communication Awards “the longest-standing, most prestigious awards competition that recognizes excellence in marketing communications produced by professional services firms in the design and building industry.” The competition, open to members and non-members, requires submissions to include projects completed between January 2018 and January 2020. The awards feature a variety of submittal categories that cover most promotional activity initiatives A/E/C marketers pursue.

Overall winners will be announced August 5 at SMPS Build Business. Just last year, the Schaefer team accepted a first place award for Holiday Piece (Mixed Media). The team has been recognized with five first place awards in the past three years.

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