The City of Welland’s effort to connect, engage, and inform the community has been recognized by the Association of Marketing and Communications Professionals (AMCP) with two AVA Digital Awards.

What’s Up, Welland?, the City’s municipal podcast, received a Gold, while a series of election education videos during last year’s municipal election received a Platinum standing.

The podcast’s mandate is to simplify municipal processes and procedures while mixing in stories from and of the community. In its inaugural season, this led to 52 episodes, thousands of downloads and streams, and reached listeners in 18 countries and 179 cities. Season 2 debuted on January 19.

“What’s unique about these projects is that they featured so many City of Welland staff; overall, close to 30 staff members were either guests on the podcast or provided content and worked on the videos,” said Marc MacDonald, corporate communications manager. “The recognition of these projects is deeply humbling, but it also highlights success through collaboration.”

The municipal election videos were engaging, informative digital vignettes designed to educate the electorate, providing clarity on municipal jurisdiction. The six videos – featuring parks, winter operations, development, waste collection, fire and emergency services, and recreation – were viewed more than 3,000 times in the six weeks leading up to the election.

AVA Digital Awards is an international competition that recognizes outstanding work by creative professionals involved in the concept, direction, design, and production of media that is part of the evolution of digital communication. Work ranges from audio and video productions, social media sites, animation, blogs, podcasts, and other forms of user-generated digital communication.

To listen to the podcast, visit www.engagewelland.ca/podcast. To view the election videos, visit www.engagewelland.ca/election.