Behind the Success: Insights from AAM’s Marketing Achievement Award Winners | AAM High Webinar Recap

In a profession where differentiating your firm requires both creativity and strategic thinking, the Association for Accounting Marketing’s (AAM) Marketing Achievement Awards (MAAs) showcase the industry’s most innovative and effective marketing initiatives.

At a recent AAM High webinar, three 2024 MAA winners shared the strategies, challenges, and results behind their award-winning projects. These behind-the-scenes insights not only celebrated excellence but also offered valuable lessons for firms of all sizes preparing their own 2025 MAA submissions.

Building a Cultural Foundation: Forvis Mazars’ Content Marketing Campaign

Anne Creasy, Senior Manager on the Strategic Communications team at Forvis Mazars, presented their winning internal content marketing campaign centered on the firm’s cultural DNA and “unmatched client experience” framework.

Following the firm’s debut as a top 10 public accounting firm through mergers, Forvis Mazars faced the challenge of codifying its cultural framework across a rapidly expanding organization. The campaign had clear objectives: educate team members about the firm’s values, motivate them to embody these principles, and help them deliver an exceptional client experience.

“Whether you’re a small firm, a midsize firm, or a large firm, you need to have strong leadership buy-in,” Creasy emphasized. “Even with a small but mighty marketing team, a comprehensive communication plan with goals, objectives, strategies, tactics, and timeline is essential.”

The multi-faceted campaign included a 100-page “Unmatched Client Experience” book (in both physical and digital formats), computer lock screens featuring key messages, an employee recognition program tied to the firm’s values, and consistent reinforcement from leadership.

The results? An impressive 84% agreement rating on employee engagement surveys indicating team members understood and embraced the firm’s DNA, along with 88% open rates on firm-wide emails related to the campaign.

Making Websites Work: Kernutt Stokes’ Strategic Redesign

Amy Delaney, Director of Marketing and BD at Kernutt Stokes, shared how her firm transformed their website from a “car without wheels” into a strategic business development tool—winning in the website redesign category (under $50,000 budget).

“I wanted it to look good to satisfy the creative person in me, while also driving business results,” Delaney explained.

The redesign focused on creating a more modern, visually appealing site with intuitive navigation that required minimal scrolling. Beyond aesthetics, the team built strategic functionality into every page:

• Service pages now include related industry information visitors might not realize they need
• Industry pages highlight relevant services for that sector
• Every page features targeted contact forms directed to specific team members, eliminating generic submissions
• Content and thought leadership pieces relevant to each service are embedded directly on service pages

This user-centric approach delivered remarkable results: a 50% increase in visitors year-over-year, a 350% increase in conversions through contact forms, email clicks, or phone calls, and 13% of new client growth directly attributed to website contact forms.

The redesigned site also enabled more effective digital advertising. “We restructured our Google ad campaigns and LinkedIn ads to drive better qualified traffic to our new landing pages,” Delaney noted. “Suddenly, specialized pages like employee benefit plan audits became top-visited content—something that would never happen without targeted campaigns.”

Authentic Employer Branding: Freed Maxick’s Recruitment Revolution

Mac Hartman, Chief Marketing Officer at Freed Maxick, detailed how his firm developed an authentic employer brand to address recruitment challenges in the post-pandemic environment.

“Historically, we used the firm brand to help with recruiting, but it lacks authenticity because it’s focused on clients, not employees,” Hartman explained. With increased competition from remote work opportunities, the firm needed a dedicated employer branding strategy.

The project began with extensive research—surveying 68 employees across different levels, collecting over 700 data points, and identifying seven key pillars for their employer brand. The result was “Free2Thrive,” a flexible concept that spawned variations like “Free2Grow,” “Free2Learn,” and “Free2Balance” for different aspects of employee experience.

This authentic approach included featuring real employees whose survey responses helped shape the brand pillars. “The people you’re seeing in our videos are saying exactly what they said in the survey,” Hartman noted. “When people show up after being recruited through this messaging, they actually experience what was promised.”

The collaboration between marketing and HR was critical but challenging. “Everybody has their lane, and people tend to get defensive when you start creeping into it,” Hartman advised. “Approach it collaboratively and non-threateningly, bringing them along with examples of how this could make things easier.”

The initiative succeeded in stabilizing recruitment, reducing turnover, and helping Freed Maxick finally earn a spot on Accounting Today’s Top 100 Best Places to Work firms.

Lessons for Future Marketing Achievement Award Submissions

For the 60% of webinar attendees still undecided about submitting a 2025 MAA, the panelists offered encouraging advice:

“The MAAs are a great way to benchmark your work against what other firms are doing,” Hartman said. “It is a project to put together, but it’s absolutely worth the effort if you’re proud of something your firm has accomplished.”

Delaney added that the awards also recognize the external partners who contribute to success: “When I received the award, I told our external partners it was as much their award as it was mine.”

Creasy emphasized the importance of clearly presenting goals, objectives, strategies, tactics, and—most importantly—results. “If you can show how your campaign helped your firm, your people, and your clients, that will help you win.”

Submit Your Own Marketing Success Story

The 2025 MAAs are now accepting submissions, giving your marketing team the opportunity to showcase your innovative work and join the ranks of these successful firms.

Key Dates to Remember:

• Early bird entry deadline: March 11, 2025
• Standard entry deadline: March 25, 2025

Now is the perfect time to review your marketing initiatives from the past year and prepare a submission that highlights both your creativity and measurable business impact. As our panelists demonstrated, firms of all sizes can achieve recognition for their marketing excellence.

 

For complete details, submission instructions, and to learn more about the Marketing Achievement Awards, visit the official AAM awards page: https://accountingmarketing.org/engagement/awards/marketing-achievement-awards/