Trust & Will scores top prize for “Make It Count” TV Campaign
Bank of America dominates the competition with 3 Best in Show Awards for work on its 2024 Boston Marathon Sponsorship
American Express, Invesco QQQ, and PNC Bank each take home a Best in Show
NEW YORK (May 2, 2025) – Last night, an audience of nearly 600 financial marketing, communications and media professionals from 130 companies gathered at the Ziegfeld Ballroom for the 31st Annual Financial Communications Society (FCS) Portfolio Awards. At the black tie gala, the FCS also celebrated the six newest graduates of its new Marketing Scholars program, and announced total charitable donations to 20+ children’s charities over the past 12 months of $150,000.
From among the 285 award winning entries, the top prize, the Judges’ Choice Award, was won by Trust & Will for its “Make It Count” television campaign, created with agency partner Marketing Architects. The campaign was selected by consensus from among the judging panel of 51 industry experts who each nominated their favorite from nearly 700 entries – a new record for the 31-year old competition.
The “Best in Show” trophies* were won by:
BEST IN SHOW CONSUMER
- Invesco QQQ
- Crossmedia and Episode Four
- Investopedia and Food & Wine
- Branded Content with Media Partner: Partnered Events
- “Celebrating Innovation in Food and Wine in partnership with Invesco QQQ”
BEST IN SHOW BUSINESS TO BUSINESS
- American Express
- Taylor Made Agency and OnBrand
- Integrated Marketing
- “15 Stories”
BEST IN SHOW CORPORATE IMAGE
- Bank of America
- GroupeConnect
- Organic Social
- “2024 Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America”
BEST IN SHOW CORPORATE SOCIAL RESPONSIBILITY
- Bank of America
- GroupeConnect
- Organic Social
- “2024 Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America”
BEST IN SHOW DIVERSITY, EQUITY & INCLUSION
- Bank of America
- GroupeConnect and SpringHill
- Branded Content with Media Partner: Partnered Video
- “2024 Boston Marathon presented by Bank of America”
BEST IN SHOW EMPLOYEE COMMUNICATIONS
- PNC Bank
- Arnold Worldwide
- Internal Presentation
- “Brilliantly Boring”
Bank of America also won an additional 15 Gold trophies among a total haul of 57 (a new record). Other big winners were Prudential (13 trophies, 7 Gold), as well as Invesco QQQ, Mizuho, and UBS, who scored 9 trophies each. Notably, BNY Wealth had 5 wins – all Gold. Another 39 firms were winners of multiple trophies, while 50 others received one each.
Winners are welcome to order additional copies of their trophies. Download the order form.
The awards were presented by six financial marketing executives:
- Pinki Mehta, SVP/MD, Head of Global Marketing and Digital Experience, AllianceBernstein
- Branden Jones, Chief Marketing Officer, BlackRock Aladdin
- Toni Clayton-Hine, Chief Marketing Officer, EY Americas
- Dara Marshall, MD, Head of Brand Management, JPMorganChase
- Andrea Saporito, MD, Wealth Management Digital Marketing, Morgan Stanley
- Tara Giuliano, Chief Marketing Officer, Nuveen
FCS CEO Kevin Windorf of 2112 Communications hosted the event. FCS Board Director Patty Sachs served as the Awards program emcee. The FCS 2025 Race for Kids donation of $120,000 was announced by FCS Board Chair Tim Hart of Ptarmigan Media. The FCS has donated an additional $30,000 to 20 children’s charities over the past 12 months, bringing the organization’s total donations since 2000 to over $3,175,000, benefiting more than 85 children’s charities.
FCS Board Vice Chair Tom Jago of The Ward Group introduced the six graduates of the FCS Marketing Scholars program: Olivia Accardi, Snehsrishti Assie, Benaelle Benoit, Kyla JeanJules, Renee Majekford, and Matthew Molina, each a senior at Fordham University’s Gabelli School of Business. They were mentored by Katy Brady of Invesco; Chris Konowitz of Hearst; Dara Marshall of JPMorganChase; Jennifer Grazel recently of RBC Capital Markets; Pasy Govindarajan of Citi; and Melissa Scauri of Morgan Stanley.
Bringing the “Jazz Age” theme of this year’s Gala to life, guests were invited to participate in an AI experience called “Art Deco Me!” which was powered by COFFEE Labs, and sponsored by Goldcast. The custom-made AI-driven app turned guests’ selfies into illustrated portraits reminiscent of the Roaring Twenties!
The headline sponsors of the FCS Portfolio Gala were Goldcast (Gold), Mizuho (Silver) and three Bronze sponsors: Invesco QQQ, State Street Global Advisors, and Reuters. Dotdash Meredith was the Judges’ Choice Award sponsor. Best in Show Awards were sponsored by The Trade Desk. The event was also sponsored by Fundamental Media (dinner), Arbor Realty Trust (flowers), and Financial Times (coat check).
Water & Wall served as Communications Agency of Record, and 2112 Communications was the Creative Agency of Record.
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About the FCS Portfolio Awards
The Portfolio Awards competition recognizes creative excellence in marketing communications work from financial companies, with Gold, Silver and Bronze trophies awarded for Public Relations; Print & Digital Collateral; Annual Reports; Advertising in print, audio, television, out-of-home, direct mail, and multimedia; Digital Media including display/rich media, email, websites, web video, apps, and mobile; Social Media and Influencer Marketing; Branded Content with a Media Partner; External & Employee Communications; Events; and Visual Identity. Entries were received from financial services providers, including investment firms, credit card companies, investment banks, brokerages and exchanges, insurance companies, mutual funds, ETFs, hedge funds, accounting firms, clearing corporations and commercial banks. Competing separately for Portfolio Awards are “Financial Industry” participants, including agencies, media companies, and resource partners dedicated to financial services.
* Best in Show trophies are awarded based on the highest average scores of the FCS Portfolio Awards judging panel, which also awards the gold, silver and bronze awards in each category. This year’s panel comprised 51 senior executives from financial firms and communications agencies.
