Portfolio Awards Reception for Employee Communications

Recap

The FCS hosted our inaugural Portfolio Employee Communications Awards Reception on May 19 at the New York Yacht Club. The excited guests numbered over 50 and represented 10 of the 13 companies that were up for trophies.
The audience included senior marketing executives Kimberlee Mertz, Managing Director, Head of Brand & Marketing at Barclays, and Bob O’Leary, SVP, Enterprise Integrated Marketing at Travelers, among others.
In addition to coming from around the New York tri-state, many guests traveled from out of state, including Charlotte, Nashville, Detroit, and Ft. Lauderdale.

The 16 awards were presented by FCS CEO Kevin Windorf who commented: “Whether you’re delivering a cohesive message, building a brand, or protecting a reputation, you have to begin with your employees. In this year’s Portfolio competition, a record 142 companies competed. Tonight, we honor and celebrate the 13 companies that truly understand the value of  employee communications — companies that recognize the importance of building a foundation, and even a launchpad, for all their branding and communications work.”

The Gold winner in the Recruiting Campaign category – Bank of America’s campaign “Grow at Bank of America,” developed with GroupeConnect – was named Best in Show. Following a viewing of the campaign, Jennifer Bodner, Strategic Marketing   Executive, Bank of America, accepted the two trophies. All Gold winners were invited to provide a brief acceptance speech; in addition to Jennifer, they included:

• Adam Greiss, Vice President, Global Head of Design/Creative Director, Morgan Stanley
• Carolyn Capshaw, Senior Director, Associate Creative Director, Travelers
• Max Alex, Managing Director, Head of Brand & Creative Services, Mizuho Americas
• Sarah Comstock, Executive Director, Employee Experience & Communications, Ally

Here’s the full list of winners:

EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS 

Internal Visual Identity

GOLD
Morgan Stanley
The Creative Studio
Global Volunteer Month

SILVER
Mizuho Americas
In-House
Connected Learning: Reimagining the Learning & Development Brand

BRONZE
BNY
Fantasy
Eliza 2.0 Design

Employee Video

GOLD
Travelers
In-House
Power of Travelers is Us: Save My Ride

SILVER
BNY
Informa TechTarget
End of Year Celebration Video “Like Only We Could”

BRONZE
BlackRock
In-House
BlackRock Quarterly Wins, Reimagined: AI@Work

Employee Event

GOLD
Mizuho Americas
In-House
Dine ‘n Drive with Pros

SILVER
Prudential
In-House
“Here Then. Here Now. Here Tomorrow.” — Prudential’s 150th Anniversary Celebration

BRONZE
Barclays
Iris, Naked City, In-House
Intern Event

Integrated Internal Campaign

GOLD
Ally
In-House
Delivering the Possible: Customer Service Week 2025

SILVER
AllianceBernstein
In-House
Reimagining Content Distribution to Sellers – Connecting Sales & Marketing

BRONZE
CME Group
Substance Collective
Lydia Ko Internal Brand Activation

Recruiting Campaign

GOLD
Bank of America
GroupeConnect
Grow at Bank of America

SILVER
Citadel and Citadel Securities
Code and Theory
Citadel and Citadel Securities’ Boundless

BRONZE
Janney
Substance Strategy & Creative
Janney Integrated Marketing

PHOTO GALLERY