GREENVILLE, N.C. – The City of Kannapolis was among 29 North Carolina governments to earn recognition in the North Carolina City & County Communicators (NC3C) 2022 Excellence in Communications Awards. Kannapolis won a total of five awards in the categories of social media, print and digital technology. This is the 7^th consecutive year that the Communications staff for the City has won state honors.

The awards were announced during NC3C’s 2022 annual conference in Greenville, North Carolina. All 111 award program entries were judged by professional communications peers from the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators. Work is judged, independent of the municipality’s size, and ranked on a strict scale for its quality and documentation of achievement.

“The Excellence in Communications Awards are my favorite part of our annual conference, right behind seeing all my friends and colleagues from across the state,” said outgoing NC3C President Joshua Harris, City of Lenoir, NC. “It’s the time when our members really get to shine for creating content that rose to the top, which is not so easy a feat in our state full of amazing local government communicators.”

Kannapolis placed first in the category of social media campaign with their Economic Development Campaign which focused on promoting the City as a place to do business. The three-month campaign featured six local businesses/industries that are success stories – Gordon Food Company, Stewart-Haas Racing, Nostalgia Hollow, ITC, Linder, and Kontek. Each of the six Kannapolis companies covered a different sector of the business world. The social media campaign told the story of the highlighted business and why Kannapolis is their place of business. The social media campaign was a success and brought attention to the City from a national standpoint.

A promotional video featuring the Gordon Food Company earned second place honors. The video was also used as part of the Economic Development Campaign social media campaign. The video featured top executives from the company touted the reasons why they find Kannapolis a great place to do business.

Kannapolis also placed first in the category of best single social media post with a post featuring police officers and the launch of their new electric bicycle program. The City placed second in the print category for a new brochure on the City’s greenway system and Loop the Loop Program.

Kannapolis, along with Cabarrus County and the City of Concord won second place in the category of digital technology for the CARTology app. The CARTology app was launched to help residents with any questions or information they need regarding their garbage, recycling, bulky waste or yard waste collection. Thousands of people are using the free app and it has reduced the number of calls into the various municipality call centers.

The purpose of North Carolina City & County Communicators is to encourage professional development and networking among local governmental communications professionals. The organization consists of professional government communicators from around the state. For more information about NC3C, visit www.nc3c.com.