OV SafeSteps Program wins National Award in Marketing

Published on September 20, 2022

ORO VALLEY, Ariz. (Sept. 19, 2022) – The Town of Oro Valley is pleased to announce that the OV SafeSteps program won first place in the 2022 City-County Communications & Marketing Association’s (3CMA) Savvy Award category of Communications and Marketing Tools: Printed Publications – COVID PR. The award was presented on September 7 at the 3CMA Annual Conference in Portland, Oregon.

OV SafeSteps was launched during the height of the pandemic to help publicize financial aid available to struggling small businesses and persuade residents that it was safe to shop locally. The program included a complex multi-channel communications campaign that included a comprehensive website, a dual-track digital advertising campaign targeting businesses and residents, social media and print collateral. Website analytics tracked over a million impressions, benchmarks for social media were exceeded, residents returned to stores and over $800,000 was distributed to more than 200 businesses.

3CMA is a national network of local government communicators, founded on the philosophy that communications and marketing are essential to helping governments engage and build stronger relationships with people. The Savvy Awards recognize outstanding local government achievements in communications, public-sector marketing and resident-government relationships. Savvy Award entries are “judged on overall accomplishments, with measurable outcomes being heavily weighed.”

Planning and implementing OVSafeSteps was a complex collaboration between The Town of Oro Valley, marketing agency Gordley Group, the Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce and individual businesses. Gordley Group, who developed and implemented a comprehensive communications and marketing campaign for OV SafeSteps, nominated the program for the 3CMA Savvy award.

“Oro Valley took a very innovative approach to supporting our businesses during the pandemic,” said Town Manager Mary Jacobs. “In addition to financial assistance, OVSafeSteps had a robust communications and outreach effort designed to engage our community and businesses, and our collaboration with the Oro Valley Chamber of Commerce and Gordley Group provided the extra spark needed to have a truly exceptional program.”

“We really appreciated the opportunity to collaborate with the Town on this critically important first step for the Town’s businesses and residents to safely resume their connections,” said Jan Gordley, president of Gordley Group. “We witnessed first-hand the Town of Oro Valley’s commitment and are thrilled other communications professionals recognized it as well.”