The staff of the Excelsior Springs Standard/Town & Country Leader brought home seven awards from this year’s Missouri Press Missouri Ad Manager’s Awards (MAMA) contest, including the highest award, Best in Show. Pictured above, back row from left: Writer/Reporter Jae Juarez, Art Department Manager Sheila Woods, Sales Manager Wanda Row. Front row Designer Skyla Sullivan, Publisher Brian Rice and jack of all trades, Mikayla Gatlin. (Photo by David Knopf)
The sales and design staff of The Excelsior Springs Standard, Town & Country Leader recently brought home seven awards from the Missouri Press Association’s 2015 Best Ad Contest and won Best In Show in their newspaper class.
The creative staff composed of Skyla Sullivan, Sheila Woods, Brian Rice, Wanda Rowe, Jae Juarez and Mikayla Gatlin swept the special sections category for Class C Weeklies winning first place with the 2015 Excelsior Springs Visitor Guide, second place with the October 2015 issue of Living Well In The Northland magazine, and third place with their 2015 Medical Directory.
Rice and Sullivan took first place in best full-page design, Woods took third place in best full-page design, Sullivan took home third place best ad designer and the team took first place in the best signature page category with its Mother’s Day promotion.
The 2015 Excelsior Springs Visitor Guide took Best in Show, a first for The Standard staff.
The Best Ad Contest winners were announced Thursday, March 10, 2016, during the Missouri Ad Managers’ Association’s annual convention in Lake Ozark. Each year, the association judges the creative work submitted by Missouri Press Association newspapers large and small, breaking down the categories between weekly and daily newspapers and by circulation size. Judging is handled by a neighboring state’s press association and the winners are announced every year during MAMA’s annual convention.
“The creativity and quality of work these women produce gets better with each passing year,” said Publisher Brian Rice. “With Skyla’s lead, our Visitor Guide continues to place every year and I’m so proud of the fact we swept that category and earned Best in Show with our newspaper’s crown jewel of special sections. This isn’t just a win for our staff, it’s a win for all of Excelsior Springs. It’s one thing to create fun and effective advertisements for our customers, but to be recognized annually by our peers in the newspaper industry makes me especially proud.”