Whether selling lipgloss with a side of board diversity, promoting robots through fortune cookies, or putting Will Ferrell “Everywhere,” Bay Area marketers did not disappoint in last week’s Excellence in Marketing Awards from the American Marketing Association San Francisco.

After a 15 year hiatus, the awards kicked off again with an outdoor party on July 24 at Spark Social SF and honors to e.l.f Beauty, Netflix, PayPal, Waymo and more local brands, startups, and marketers.

Judges included CMOs Kristy LoRusso of Kaiser Permanente and Rachel Heit of the SF Giants along with local and national marketing experts across, B2C, B2B, VC and non-profit sectors. 

Co-chaired by Kristin Young and Melissa Grimshaw-Vargas, this year’s awards focused on community over exclusivity, allowing the industry members to nominate any of their favorite campaigns and work across the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties. And winners included work from all over the Bay Area, with South Bay winners including Netflix and PayPal, San Francisco winners including Waymo and Gold Bar Whiskey, and East Bay winners including e.l.f. Beauty, Dialpad, and Taelor (see Anya Cheng’s powerful acceptance speech here).

“San Francisco and Silicon Valley are known for our innovation both technically and culturally, and that’s exactly the caliber of work we are seeing this year,” Eric Weidner, President, American Marketing Association San Francisco.

Oakland-based e.l.f. Beauty was the only brand to take home two awards this year, Next Big Thing and Best Cause Marketing, both from community nominations. Panel judge and 3x CMO Jakki Geiger said, “e.l.f. isn’t just a fast-growing brand—it’s a cultural force redefining what innovation looks like in marketing. They’ve pushed boundaries in every direction: creative courage, technological adoption, channel experimentation, and brand purpose.”

e.l.f. Beauty’s Senior Director, Channel Marketing Marguerite Moran shared when accepting Best Cause Marketing, “We are honored to be nominated amongst our peers. This cause and campaign are near and dear to our hearts to change the board game. There are So Many Dicks on boards. That’s Richard, Rich, and Dick…in fact, there are more Richards and Dicks on boards than entire groups of underrepresented people, so we are working and will continue to work to change the board game, in a what the e.l.f. Way.”

As for Marketer of the Year Netflix, judge Rachel Heit noted, “Netflix tapped into a key consumer insight as it relates to FOMO and the social impact of trending entertainment. They created campaign creative and partner integrations that were global in scale and differentiated based on Netflix’s core brand values.”

Based on entries received, AMA SF also added two new categories: Best Performance Campaign and Best Local Campaign. In accepting the award for Best Performance Campaign, Ryan Ramos of Dialpad captured the mix of humor and practical peer tips present at the event. “We want to congratulate our competitors, sorry we won. And if you’re on the demand gen team, push your leadership to invest in CTV would be my one suggestion. It’s rough, it’s a lot of budget, but it pays off in the end.”

This year’s honorees join previous winners including Apple, Google, Levi’s, YouTube, Wells Fargo, Old Navy, Williams-Sonoma, and many other iconic San Francisco Bay Area and Silicon Valley brands.

Full list of winners:

• Next Big Thing
  • e.l.f. Beauty
• Marketer of the Year
  • Netflix
• Best in Show
  • PayPal: “Everywhere” with GSTV
• Most Innovative Marketing Campaign
  • Waymo: Waymo fortune cookies
• Bootstrapped Campaign of the Year
  • Taelor AI: AI Intelligence Meets Human Intuition: How Startup Taelor Wins ChatGPT Searches w/ Zero-budget
• Cause Marketing/Community Enrichment
  • e.l.f. Beauty: Change The Board Game
• Best Performance Campaign           
  • Dialpad: LinkedIn CTV Brand to Sequential Demand Campaign
• Best Local Campaign
  • Gold Bar Spirits Company: Gold Bar Whiskey’s Cocktail Class: Skyline Views and City History
• President’s Awards
  • Irene Sanchez and Sukriti Khosla

Event sponsors include Workbox, Lyft Media, Nativo, Media Now Interactive, StackAdapt, Seedtag, Kargo, GSTV, Justin Chu, Peakbound Studio, Ad Venture Promotions, One Way Media Solutions, Taelor, Spark Social SF, Content Marketing Institute.

Official Rideshare Partner: Lyft Media

Photo Credit Justin Chu 

See the full list of finalists and judging panel at https://www.amasf.org/eima/

Inquiries can be made to awards@amasf.org

About American Marketing Association:

Since 1938, the American Marketing Association, San Francisco (AMA SF) has fostered and promoted professional learning and career advancement opportunities for members and the community. The non-profit organization serves the nine San Francisco Bay Area counties with monthly programs, events, workshops, and discussions that introduce the latest industry trends and developments, along with networking events that bring together the best marketing minds in the region.

Kristy LoRusso of Kaiser Permanente presents the EIMA Next Big Thing award to e.l.f. Beauty, accepted by Marguerite Moran

Joshua Wong of PayPal and Anya Harris of GSTV accept EIMA award for Best in Show

  EIMA President’s Award honorees Irene Sanchez and Sukriti Khosla with 2023-2025 AMA SF President Eric Weidner

Katie Hegarty of Lyft Media presents the EIMA Best Local Campaign award to Gold Bar Whiskey, accepted by Weston Davis

Sarah Ikemoto and Ryan Ramos of Dialpad accept the EIMA award for Best Performance Campaign

Anya Cheng of Taelor AI accepts the EIMA award for Best Bootstrapped Campaign

Marguerite Moran of e.l.f. Beauty accepts the EIMA award for Best Cause Marketing from judge Jakki Geiger

EIMA Co-Chairs Kristin Young and Melissa Grimshaw Vargas emceed the event

EIMA Winners Anya Harris, Eric Cheung, Joshua Wong, Sukriti Khosla, Irene Sanchez, Marguerite Moran, Weston Davis, Sarah Ikemoto, Jussara Oliveira, Ryan Ramos, Wendy Guan, AMA SF President Thomas Moyer