‘Twas a few months after Christmas, when … the City of Milton’s creative campaign spreading cheer about its holiday events officially became an award-winning effort.

 

The Southeast Festivals and Events Association this week awarded Milton bronze honors in its Best Marketing Campaign category. This is a significant achievement considering the vast amount of territory (from West Virginia to Florida to Arkansas, and everything in between) covered by this organization, which gives its members insights, ideas, and a professional community of people who run events of all types. Thousands of these happenings occur annually in this region, and every one of them must be marketed. And Milton’s holiday marketing push evidently stood out.

 

The now officially celebrated campaign included a video featuring Sprinkles, a spunky North Pole elf (also known as Emily Salerno, the City’s Community Outreach Manager), and Mrs. Claus (who also goes by the name of City Clerk Tammy Lowit) hyping the most recently passed Christmas with Crabapple, Pancakes with Santa, and the debut Tea Party with Mrs. Claus events. When the registration process for Pancakes was tweaked, a spirited Sprinkles returned for a “press conference” explaining the changes.

 

In addition to these videos, the City got the word out through over a dozen engaging social media posts, community emails, text notifications, website updates, and other outreach big and small.

 

While there could be many reasons to explain why, all three of these holiday events were huge successes. Hundreds packed the Broadwell Pavilion area for Christmas in Crabapple, while Pancakes with Santa was a huge hit and the Tea Party with Mrs. Claus quickly “sold out." The public reviews were overwhelmingly positive as well.

 

Thanks to our awesome community for showing up and showing out over the recent holidays! And congrats to Emily, Tammy, and Oksana Solovei (our ace videographer and then some) for their award-winning efforts.