October 8 was a night to remember as some of the most exceptional marketers from around the region gathered at The Winslow in Baltimore for the 40th AMA MX Awards Gala presented by AMA Baltimore. The event recognized a variety of campaigns that showcase “marketing at its most creative, impactful, and unforgettable” levels—and celebrated the ideas of organizations and agencies that make people stop and say, “Oh wow, I wish I had thought of that!”
Members of Team D&A were excited to be present for the festivities and even more grateful to accept three Gold AMA MX Awards for our work with Silver Bridges Consulting, Maryland Dental Action Coalition (MDAC), and Maryland School for the Blind’s See Beyond Festival.
Let’s take a look at our award-winning campaigns!
Gold Brand Awareness Campaign: Silver Bridges Consulting “Best Interest—Always”
At D&A, we pride ourselves on solving our clients’ business challenges with passion, integrity, and partnership in the pursuit of being the most trusted brand-building agency. We fight for our clients’ brands because we believe in what they are building—and that’s exactly why we partnered with the senior living experts at Silver Bridges.
After meeting with their team, it was clear that the work they do is unlike others in the senior living industry—but their name didn’t tell the full story to potential clients. Instead of presenting a campaign using Silver Bridges, we took time to explain how adding “Consulting” to their name would make a big difference for brand awareness and recognition. After they agreed, we helped them update their branding on their website, social media, and current collateral—leaving no stone unturned before we started to plan and implement their new campaign. The added descriptor might not seem like a huge change, but in the long run, it was the right move to make for the well-being of the brand.
The chosen campaign concept, Your Best Interest—Always, focused on their commitment to helping families find the ultimate senior living community by continuously doing right by them, and highlighted their expansive industry knowledge, personal experiences with loved ones, customized approach, and long-term commitment.
Let’s Talk Results: From March 2024 through January 2025, the entire campaign has achieved 3,497,108 impressions and 94,305 clicks for SEM, pre-roll, display, and social ads. Other notable results include:
- An overall search CTR of 7.10% (benchmark 3 – 4%)
- An overall CTR of 8.21% for the pre-roll video (benchmark 5 – 10%)
- An overall CTR of 0.10% for the display ads (benchmark 0.05 – 0.10%)
- An overall CTR of 0.79% for the social ads, which led to 422 new page likes, 2,336 landing page views, and 9,014 link clicks (2,346 of these were to the registration page for Silver Bridges Consulting’s seminars and webinars)
Gold Non-Profit Campaign Gold: MDAC “My Reason to Smile
At D&A, we provide our clients with three key things that most agencies tend to overlook: brains, hustle, and heart. With MDAC’s My Reason to Smile campaign, we didn’t let challenges, such as not being able to access lists of Medicaid patients due to privacy issues or not having custom photography, keep us from confidently forging forward. We used our quick, creative thinking to solve the issues at hand and our love for truly understanding our target audiences (both emotionally and analytically) to create a beautiful, highly effective campaign that informs eligible Marylanders about the comprehensive dental benefits available to them through the Maryland Healthy Smiles Dental Program (MHSDP).
The finalized campaign, My Reason to Smile, highlights all of the reasons why the benefit brings smiles to people’s faces—from improved health and confidence to no-cost care delivered by compassionate dental providers. Imagery was strategically chosen to be diverse and authentic (no toothpaste-ad smiles) to make the campaign feel human-centered and the dentist more approachable.
Let’s Talk Results: Combined (Phase 1 and 2) Campaign Results (as of February 2025)
Social Media
- Impressions: 3,282,696
- Clicks: 38,411
- CTR: 1.17% (The Facebook CTR benchmark for healthcare is 0.83%.)
- Engagement Rate: 2.81% (The Facebook engagement rate benchmark for healthcare is 0.30%.)
YouTube:
- Impressions: 4,730,309
- Completed Views: 868,819
- Engagement Rate: 23.00% (For YouTube, the engagement rate for advertising is, on average, around 7 – 12%.)
Not only were we—and MDAC—extremely impressed by the My Reason to Smile campaign results, but we were thrilled to see over 270,000 adult Maryland Medicaid members have received dental care through MHSDP since January 2023. Plus, knowing more Marylanders are continuing to be connected to resources and services that can improve their well-being is a huge reason to smile!
Gold Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Campaign: Maryland School for the Blind See Beyond Festival
Maryland School for the Blind’s See Beyond Festival is an annual family event that began in 2022 and invites the public to visit the campus for a day of fun, food, music, and the opportunity to experience the power of accessibility through a variety of sports and activities without vision.
The D&A PR team executed a well-planned integrated campaign that blended paid ads, earned media coverage, and grassroots support while highlighting the inclusive fun and welcoming environment the See Beyond Festival offers for Baltimore families of all ages and abilities. Our team not only succeeded in bringing in record-level attendance, but we also achieved something far more meaningful—we proved DEI can be a joyful, community-building experience.
Because of our ability to fine-tune the See Beyond Festival’s key messages, generate consistent media coverage and support, and identify new vehicles to reach our target through paid advertising, we have helped the school raise event attendance year over year since our involvement began in 2023. This means more members of the greater community have gained an appreciation for the accessibility needs of the Blind Community than ever before. The See Beyond Festival makes the entire community stronger by demonstrating how proper adaptations can create a world where everyone has equitable opportunities to succeed.
Let’s Talk Results:
- Even with poor weather, the 2024 See Beyond Festival drew nearly 2,000 attendees.
- D&A’s media outreach efforts landed 11 media placements from a variety of mediums, including print, online, television, and radio broadcast. D&A successfully secured placements in 34.2% of the media it pitched, exceeding industry benchmarks.
- D&A’s paid advertising strategies in collaboration with Baltimore Fishbowl resulted in 735,116 impressions, with emails attracting an 5.25% Click-through rate (CTR) and an overall CTR of 0.32%.
- D&A’s partnership with the Baltimore Banner brought in 308,683 impressions and 242 clicks.
- D&A ran social campaign ads resulting in 461,313 impressions and 4,420 clicks, with user engagement emerging from shares, reactions, and working links.
Want to explore the other prize-winning marketing campaigns? Visit AMA Baltimore’s MX Awards site to view the full list of 2025 honorees.