Universal Lighting Technologies was recently recognized by tED Magazine in its “Best of the Best” Marketing Awards for 2015. The Nashville-based lighting company’s marketing efforts won in five categories: Best Product Launch, Best Integrated Campaign, Best Creative Display Program, Best Literature and Selling Tool, and Best Public Relations.
The winners were announced during the NAED 2015 AdVenture Marketing Conference in Chicago on Monday, August 10. The nominations were judged by Hank Bergson, former president of NEMRA; Jan Niehaus, president of Communications by Design; Katrina Olson, who taught public relations, advertising, and writing for ten years at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign; and Shad Thomas, president of Glass Box Research.
Universal has undergone a dramatic shift in product offerings over the past several years. The winning initiatives were all developed to support the rapid growth of the comprehensive product line, including LED replacements.
Among Universal’s winning initiatives were the marketing campaigns around the launch of new lighting products in 2014.
The True Blue Merchandising Program received top honors for providing custom point-of-purchase items to loyal distributors.
The JumpSTART Lighting Fixtures Marketing Kit was selected best of class for an invaluable packet of information provided to their sales team on the new LED Fixtures (Retrofit Kits, Wall Packs and Vapor Tight Luminaires).
The Best Corporate Public Relations award was for the internal efforts around Universal’s headquarters relocation, called Project51. It featured, among other tactics, a virtual tour of the new space to showcase their lighting solutions.
“Five awards are just, ‘Wow!’ We are truly humbled by NAED’s recognition of our evolving brand, and this speaks volumes to our proactive marketing programs,” said Chris Holstein, Universal’s vice president of marketing. “The recognition of our work by tED further solidifies the phenomenal effort our team has put forth over the last year, and we’re thrilled to be considered among the best by one of the lighting industry’s most trusted sources.
“I’d like to congratulate the team members involved. They are the driving force behind these cross-functional and multi-department programs.”
The annual marketing awards competition hosted by tED honors marketing excellence and recognizes creativity within the electrical industry in companies of all sizes across several marketing and communications categories. Entries are judged on their overall effectiveness and creative impact by an independent panel of marketing and industry experts chosen by tED.
tED is a leading publication for the lighting industry, serving as the voice for the top electrical distributors in North America. A complete list of all the winning entries in the 2015 “Best of the Best” Awards is included in the August issue of tED, and is now available through an interactive showcase on www.tedmag.com/BOB.
To learn more about Universal Lighting Technologies, visit www.unvlt.com.
