The winners of the 2025 Outstanding Awards program have been announced.
Thank you to the cities who submitted entries for our peer-judged awards program – you are all doing fantastic work!
The winning projects and honorable mentions in each category are highlighted below. We can’t wait to see the innovative projects you are working on for next year’s program!
For a complete view of all award-winning videos, you can visit the 2025 FMCA Outstanding Awards YouTube Playlist.
Congratulations to the following cities:
Brand Guide – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Stanford
The branding guide for the City of Sanford serves as a strategic tool to define and promote the city’s unique identity, values, and offerings. The guide details how the city brand, inspired by a beloved clock in its magnolia square, contains visual cues that represent the Sanford community. The guide outlines key elements such as the city’s mission, tone, logo usage, color schemes, and typography. By unifying the city’s branding, the guide aims to foster community pride, attract tourism, support economic development, and enhance Sanford’s reputation as a dynamic and vibrant place to live, work, and explore.
Brand Guide – Honorable Mention
Broward Sheriff’s Office
Podcast – Outstanding Award Winner
City of St. Cloud
Launched in October 2024, “Cloud Cast” is the city’s first government podcast, created to connect with residents, especially commuters, through engaging audio content. Hosted by the communications team, the podcast covers topics from city planning and grants to signature events like the New Year’s Eve celebration. Despite limited resources, the team produced informative and entertaining episodes that broadened their outreach across demographics. With growing listenership and strong internal support, “cloud cast” has become a vital part of the team’s communications strategy, reflecting st. Cloud’s innovative spirit and commitment to connecting with residents in new, meaningful ways.
Podcast – Honorable Mention
City of North Port
Website – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Sunny Isles Beach
The redesigned website for Sunny Isles Beach aimed to provide a streamlined, mobile-friendly, and accessible digital experience for residents, businesses, and visitors. Developed in collaboration with Granicus, the site features intuitive navigation, improved search, and responsive design. Extensive user research, including multilingual surveys and heat mapping, informed content updates. Key goals included enhancing access to city services, promoting transparency, and improving user satisfaction. Despite being a small city, the site reflects the city’s commitment to excellence, integrating a citizen request tool and spotlighting high-demand services like beach conditions and building permits.
Website – Honorable Mention
City of Winter Haven
Magazine – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Fort Lauderdale
“FTL Connect” is the City of Fort Lauderdale’s premier magazine designed to bridge the communication gap between the city and residents. The team aims to ensure that every resident, business owner, and visitor stays informed about critical infrastructure projects, public safety initiatives, upcoming events, and community resources. Targeted to all Fort Lauderdale residents, “FTL Connect” provides clear, engaging, and accessible information both in print, delivered directly to about 100,000 homes, and digitally. This dual approach ensures that residents who prefer physical copies and those who rely on digital platforms can easily access vital city updates.
Magazine – Honorable Mention
City of Palm beach Gardens
Communications Plan – Outstanding Award Winner
Town of Jupiter
The Town of Jupiter planned to host a year-long celebration of its 100th birthday. To develop a plan that engaged the entire community, committees were created to explore and recommend programs, events and promotions throughout the year. Committees were made up of town employees, residents, board members, nonprofits, and business representatives. The committees’ plans were coordinated, budgeted, and rolled into one comprehensive communications plan that included specific centennial branding and brand guidelines.
Communications Plan – Honorable Mention
Broward Sheriff’s Office
Newsletter – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Palm Beach Gardens
The revamped “Pinnacle” newsletter reflects the city’s commitment to clear, engaging communication with a modern, reader-friendly design. In 2024, the team transitioned to Constant Contact for improved analytics and outreach, achieving a standout 64% open rate in December, far exceeding industry benchmarks. With interactive surveys, personalized safety updates, and visually appealing content, the newsletter connects residents to key city updates. Produced by a lean three-person team on a modest budget, it’s a great example of creative, impactful government communication.
Newsletter – Honorable Mention
City of Winter Springs
Best Use of Promotional Item – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Winter Haven
The City of Winter Haven used yo-yos as a creative, fun, and interactive way to introduce residents, especially children and families, to the city. The yo-yos were distributed at local community events and schools and aimed at fostering natural engagement with city staff and residents. More than two hundred and fifty yoyos were distributed, and a second order had to be placed due to demand. The item reinforced positive brand recognition, encouraged conversation, and created a fun and memorable experience for users.
Best Use of Promotional Item – Honorable Mentions
City of Tallahassee
Collaborative Marketing Campaign – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Oldsmar
The City of Oldsmar’s “pledge to evacuate” campaign encouraged hurricane preparedness through a multi-channel approach that included social media, print, video, and community events. Targeting all residents — especially those in evacuation zones A & B — the campaign promoted personal commitment to evacuation plans. Key elements included a website pop-up, a custom video with a local weather expert, social media badges, and strategic print placements. Launched at the annual hurricane expo, the initiative achieved high engagement despite a small budget and team.
Collaborative Marketing Campaign – Honorable Mention
City of Miramar
Marketing Campaign Produced In-House – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Palm Beach Gardens
The Palm Beach Gardens Public Communications Department created “gliding through gardens” to address a growing issue with e-bikes and e-scooters in their community. In a psa published in Signature City magazine, an e-bike safety ad shared “high five: the path to bike safety,” which included five things to know about staying safe while using an e-bike or e-scooter. Those graphics were also posted in city parks. Each poster had a QR code linking to the campaign website. Additionally, a series of short videos was created for social media and shared on the city’s YouTube channel.
Marketing Campaign Produced In-House – Honorable Mentions
City of North Port
Social Media Campaign – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Jacksonville Beach
“Take 2 Tuesdays” is a creative, two-minute weekly video series by Jacksonville Beach’s one-person communications department that delivers city updates in a fun, engaging, and accessible format. Posted every Tuesday at 2 pm across Instagram, Facebook, and LinkedIn, the videos foster civic engagement, government transparency, and community connection. Despite a minimal budget, the campaign achieved nearly 47,000 views, strong engagement rates, and sustained audience growth. Its bite-sized videos, community collaborations, and mobile-first strategy set it apart, proving that small teams can make a big impact through strategic, innovative content.
Social Media Campaign – Honorable Mentions
City of Cocoa and City of Palm Beach Gardens
Marketing Campaign for Special Event or Commemoration – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Boca Raton
For the first time, the City of Boca Raton planned an enhanced Fourth of July experience for its residents, including a 5K and a pickleball tournament. The team designed new marketing materials to showcase four events in one day. By offering a mix of entertainment, food, and a spectacular fireworks display, the fabulous fourth successfully showcased the city as a vibrant and welcoming place to celebrate Independence Day. The new event elements and the marketing and graphics attracted and drew the community. The tournament and 5k were completely sold out, and the fireworks display drew a 10-thousand-person crowd.
Marketing Campaign for Special Event or Commemoration – Honorable Mention
City of Cocoa
Social Media Post – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Palm Beach Gardens
Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue created a humorous, Gen-Z-inspired video to educate seniors and their families about fall prevention during Fall Prevention Week. The video uses slang and humor to boost engagement and memory retention while sharing safety tips. Produced in-house with an iPhone, it reached over 5,400 views and was widely shared, with 89.4% of viewers being non-followers. The campaign’s low-budget, innovative approach helped raise awareness for a leading emergency call issue, showing how creative communication can effectively reach and educate diverse audiences, even on serious topics.
Social Media Post – Honorable Mention
City of Miramar
Video Produced In-House for Education, Training, or Recruitment – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Fort Lauderdale
“We Are FTL” is a community-driven branding video launched during Fort Lauderdale’s state of the city address to inspire pride and unity among residents, businesses, and city employees. Produced entirely in-house with no extra budget, the video features real community members, authentically showcasing the city’s identity. The video sparked widespread engagement across social media and internal platforms, embedding “We Are FTL” into daily life through events, signage, and communications.
Video Produced In-House for Education, Training, or Recruitment – Honorable Mention
City of Palm Beach Gardens
Video Produced In-House for Promotional Purposes or Special Event – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Tallahassee
The City of Tallahassee produced a 12-part video series to celebrate its 200th anniversary in 2024. The goal was to educate and engage residents, visitors, and the broader community by highlighting the city’s historical legacy, significant milestones, and cultural evolution. Targeting a wide audience—including citizens, students, and history enthusiasts — the series aimed to foster civic pride and deepen understanding of Tallahassee’s journey since becoming Florida’s capital in 1824. By combining storytelling, archival research, and thoughtful visuals, the videos offered a compelling, accessible way to connect past and present throughout the bicentennial year.
Video Produced In-House for Promotional Purposes or Special Event – Honorable Mention
City of Palm Beach Gardens
Collaborative Video for Education, Training, or Recruitment – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Winter Haven
The Winter Haven public safety recruitment video was created to attract top talent to the city’s police, fire, and safe neighborhoods departments. Partnering with a locally owned small business, the video showcases real Winter Haven public safety professionals in action. Designed for long-term impact, the video was created not just for one-time use but as a sustainable recruitment tool that will serve Winter Haven for years to come. It also helped to strengthen the public perception of Winter Haven’s public safety departments as innovative, professional, and welcoming.
Collaborative Video for Education, Training, or Recruitment – Honorable Mentions
City of Dania Beach and City of Miramar
Collaborative Video for Promotional Purposes or Special Event – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Miami Beach
The “Find Your Play” Miami Beach promotional video was a light-hearted and fun campaign speaking to parents but with a childlike feel, ultimately directing viewers to miamibeachparks.com. The website was recently redesigned to improve the user experience. The campaign garnered more than 43 million impressions and increased new users to the Miami Beach parks website by 800%. With staff referring to the video as a love letter to their incredible parks & recreation offerings, they underscored that they wanted everyone to feel seen and felt this video accomplished just that.
Collaborative Video for Promotional Purposes or Special Event – Honorable Mentions
City of Dunedin and City of Jacksonville Beach
Annual Report – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Naples
The City of Naples produced an informative and engaging resource for residents and businesses, highlighting key projects, initiatives, and financial updates. It was produced by the communications & public outreach manager in a particularly challenging year due to the landfall of Hurricane Milton, which stretched staff resources for recovery efforts. The report paid homage to the city’s 100-year history and featured comprehensive coverage of the city’s centennial, community events, and the contributions of the city historian. The updated, clean layout made information easier to navigate, enhancing the user experience.
Annual Report – Honorable Mention
City of Boca Raton
Crisis Response – Outstanding Award Winner
City of Tallahassee
When three tornadoes touched down in Florida’s capital city, the communications team had to spring into action quickly. Emails and text alerts were drafted and shared with residents to keep them up to date about damages and power outages. Media relations efforts resulted in more than 70 news stories, reaching an online audience of nearly two million. The 200 social media posts shared within the week following resulted in 4.3 million impressions.