AMTA Wins Top 2019 Awards for Excellence in Communications

Award-Winning AMTA Communications

The American Massage Therapy Association has had an exciting year of growth and success! We are pleased to announce that the association has won the following top 2019 awards for excellence in communications: 

  • Hermes Creative Gold Award in Overall Print Publication Design for the Massage Therapy Journal
  • Communicator Award of Distinction for AMTA’s 75th Anniversary Promotional Campaign
  • ASAE Gold Circle Award for AMTA’s Advocacy Campaign: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic with Massage Therapy

“We are thrilled that AMTA has been recognized for excellence in communications. These awards demonstrate how the association continues to raise the floor for the massage therapy profession, and give back to our members,” said AMTA President, Christopher Deery.

Massage Therapy Journal Wins Hermes Creative Gold Award in Overall Print Publication Design 

Hermes Creative Awards is an international competition for creative professionals involved in the concept, writing and design of traditional materials and programs, and emerging technologies. The competition is one of the largest of its kind in the world. Winners reflect a diversity of project work, representing a range in size from individual communicators to media conglomerates and Fortune 500 companies.  Among the 2019 winners are other healthcare associations, non-profits, and companies such as IBM, Fidelity Investments, Honda and Hilton Hotels. 

The Massage Therapy Journal is AMTA’s quarterly publication which provides members with information they need to stay competitive in the massage therapy profession. From research-based techniques to self-care practices to work environments, Massage Therapy Journal is the go-to publication for massage therapists. 

AMTA’s 75th Anniversary Promotional Campaign Wins Communicator Award of Distinction

The 25th Annual Communicator Awards is the largest and most competitive awards program honoring creative excellence for communications professionals, with over 6,000 entries received from across the US and around the world. AMTA joins Ford Motor Company, Bank of America, and Whirlpool as winners in the same category.  

The Communicator Awards are judged and overseen by the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts (AIVA), a 600+ member organization of leading professionals from various disciplines of the visual arts dedicated to embracing progress and the evolving nature of traditional and interactive media. “We are extremely proud to recognize the work received in the 25th Annual Communicator Awards. The class of entries we received this season embodies the ever-evolving marketing and communications industry,” noted Derek Howard, director of AVIA. 

AMTA’s promotional anniversary campaign focused on celebrating our members as leaders in health and wellness over the past 75 years. This integrated effort included a custom logo and tagline “75 Years Strong”, a commemorative issue of Massage Therapy Journal, a web site feature, a nationwide advertising campaign, and a montage video highlighting members. Thank you to everyone who joined us this past summer to celebrate our 75th Anniversary at our annual convention in Washington, D.C.! 

ASAE Gold Circle Award-Winning Advocacy Campaign: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic with Massage Therapy

The American Massage Therapy Association has been recognized by ASAE with a 2019 Gold Circle Award for the Advocacy Campaign: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic with Massage Therapy. The Gold Circle Awards competition is the premier association marketing, membership and communications award that recognizes excellence, innovation, and achievement in association/nonprofit marketing, membership and communications programs. This year’s competition received a record-breaking number of entries across 15 categories. 

“The Gold Circle Awards is an opportunity for the community to recognize the important role marketing, membership and communications play in associations,” said ASAE President and CEO John H. Graham IV, FASAE, CAE. “Congratulations to the winning organizations. You have shown that combining creativity, design, technology and metrics leads to campaigns with lasting impact.” 

AMTA’s Advocacy Campaign: Addressing the Opioid Epidemic with Massage Therapy focused on reaching out to legislators, insurance companies and collaborators in the health care profession to discuss the current science behind massage as an alternative to opioids to manage pain.

This integrated campaign included an economic modeling analysis which indicated that as many as 5 million people in the U.S. could potentially benefit from massage therapy, while reducing the number of people with opioid addiction disorder by over 111,000 per year.  The following elements were part of this successful campaign:

  • AMTA published a 45-page report and educational tool “Massage Therapy in Integrative Care & Pain Management”
  • An opioids web landing page (serving as a central location for housing updates on campaign initiatives). 
  • AMTA talked with key pain organizations and participated in national healthcare panels.
  • AMTA wrote to 700 Medicare Advantage programs encouraging them to work toward including massage therapy for pain management. 
  • Multiple press releases were issued to national consumer, business and healthcare media on research showing massage therapy as an alternative to opioids, reaching 80 million people and over 240 media outlets.