The City of Concord earned statewide honors for exceptional communication and marketing at the North Carolina City & County Communicators (NC3C) 2022 Excellence in Communications Awards. Concord’s website redesign earned top honors in the website category and the city won second place in graphic design for its work highlighting the value of public power and the people who make it possible.
A total of 111 award program entries were judged by professional communication peers from the Minnesota Association of Government Communicators. Concord was one of 21 municipalities from across North Carolina to earn recognition.
“These awards are the result of collaboration spearheaded by our Public Affairs Team and all of Team Concord,” said City Manager Lloyd Payne. “We strive daily to keep our employees and the public informed about the great work going on in our community. I am proud of our team, their incredible work, and their continual pursuit of innovative ways to communicate with our city.”
Concord won first-place in the website category for the redesign of the city’s official website, www.concordnc.gov. The city’s website needed a fresh facelift and redesign to better meet the demands of its growing and diverse population. The new website launched in March 2021 and is now mobile-friendly and includes Google Translate. The new, simplified design is visually more appealing and better showcases Concord’s quality of life.
Importantly, the new website is also leaner with fewer overall pages, making it easier for the public to navigate. In fact, when comparing data with the previous website, in the first 10 months after the new site launched, the average session duration dropped from 3 minutes and 21 seconds to 1 minute and 41 seconds, a 49.75% decrease in the amount of time spent on the website to find needed information. Furthermore, the average page sessions dropped from 2.92 pages to 2.21 pages, a 24.32% decrease in pages or clicks that were taken to find the information citizens were seeking.
Concord also won second-place in the graphic design category. The city won for its People Behind Public Power campaign, which used graphics designed in-house to highlight employees with various years of service across multiple specialties within the Electric Systems Department during Public Power Week. The dedicated men and women of Concord Electric Systems work rain or shine, 24/7, 365 days a year to provide safe, reliable, and affordable power to the community. Electricity is such a ubiquitous part of our lives, we often take it for granted and rarely take time to appreciate where it comes from and the people who make it possible. The city sought to change that and created what judges called a “compelling campaign” with graphics that were “on brand” and “eye-catching” with clear messaging to celebrate the people powering homes and businesses across Concord.
In the digital resource category, Concord also shared second place honors with local partners Cabarrus County, the City of Kannapolis, and the Town of Harrisburg for CARTology. The CARTology web and app-based tool allows residents to stay up to date with their garbage and recycling collection schedule, set reminders, receive service notifications, and learn which common household items can and cannot be recycled.
To view the full list of 2022 Excellence in Communications Award winners, visit www.nc3c.com.
